Let's Go For A Walk

For a nice stroll in the fresh air, how about this hike up to Norway's "Preacher's Pulpit"?

Click on the link below and enjoy the view.

http://www.businessinsider.com/preikestolen-photos-2011-08#-1

It's a Girl! AND A Boy!

In a very few days, parents will be readying their children for school. Here in the U.S., we take this activity for granted. However, in Norway, this becomes a time of vital concern. In Norway, children born before September 1st are legally guaranteed a place at a local kindergarten for the next year. Those born after this date may have to wait two years before finding a place for their youngster..

Evidence increasingly suggests that Norwegian parents are planning pregnancies in order to qualify their children's school career. Officials from a number of urban hospitals confirm this pattern to Aftenposten.

Several large hospitals in Oslo and Bergen have had to send patients away to smaller hospitals in order to cope with maternity service demands. Bergen's Haukeland University Hostpital recorded 550 births in August 2010 compared to 436 on average during August over the last seven years..

------------------- Bergen's Haukeland University Hospital --------------------

The head of the women's clinic at Trondheim, Runa Heimstad stated that "We get the impression that parents try to plan when they will have children with a view to the kindergarten year."

Full coverage of kindergartens not only reassures working parents that their children will be receiving adequate care during the work day, it provides children under the compulsory school age with good opportunities for developement and activity.

Norway is striving to achieve full coverage of kindergartens. Such coverage is essential to the participation of parents of small children in working life, and helps to explain why Norway has one of the highest birth rates in Europe.