This study aims to contribute to an in-depth understanding of children’s plant blindness. Plant blindness is explored through close study of how children perceive and use a forest garden. The theoretical framework is based on social studies of childhood and the assumption that children are active, social and competent. The study includes 28 children, the majority of whom were 9 years old, who participated in walk-and-talk conversations during which they took photos. Gibson’s concept of affordances has been used as the analysis tool. The analysis centered on those elements of the forest garden, which the children had photographed most frequently and considered to be important, memorable, and/or special. The results show that plants, including trees and shrubs, are a markedly dominant feature for children and are linked to sensory, emotional and aesthetic affordances that the children describe. This study suggests that the environment of the forest garden, in conjunction with the forest garden educators’ pedagogical approach including various mini projects with plants can contribute to preventing children’s “plant blindness”. The study concludes that it is important to plan for plant exploration in children’s immediate outdoor environments.

Since 1998, preschool provision in Sweden has been supervised through the Ministry of Edu-cation. Since then, concepts from compulsory schooling have been formally incorporated in this provision. Teaching, is a particularly striking example, as it is currently applied to pre-school based on the definition in the Swedish school law: “teacher-led, goal-oriented pro-cesses.” This paper contributes knowledge concerning how teaching in preschool can be un-derstood. Drawing on the concepts of staging, and goal-relational versus goal-rational pro-cesses, we present analyses of preschool activities documented as part of a year-long project focused on children’s socio-dramatic play and exploration. We argue for a goal-relational ap-proach to thinking about and arranging for goal-directed processes in preschool.

Barn i Sverige deltar i många olika produktiva aktiviteter. Många vuxna och barn är dock tveksamma till om barn verkligen utför ”riktigt” arbete. Artikeln visar att arbete är ett mångtydigt begrepp ur barnens synvinkel. I artikeln visas att barn i Sverige arbetar, men barnen är osäkra på om deras aktiviteter verkligen är ”riktigt” arbete. Riktigt arbete är sådant vuxna gör på den formella arbetsmarknaden. Barn hjälper till. Barnen vidgar dock betydelsen av arbete och använder två olika definitioner av arbete. En definition jämställer arbete med formellt, betalt förvärvs och yrkesarbete. Den andra är mer inkluderande. Den rymmer även obetalt och informellt arbete. Här inkluderar barnen utbildande aktiviteter som skola och fritidsaktiviteter. Arbetsbegreppet inkluderar således även former av identitetsarbete. Den dubbla innebörd barnen lägger i termen arbete understryker att arbete inte bara är en del av barndomen här och nu, utan en framåtriktad aktivitet som leder dem till det framtida vuxenlivet.

In a general comment on article 31 UN warns against an increasing pressure for learning. A consequence of this is that children`s free spontaneous play is marginalized and that children’s spontaneous play is under pressure. With this as our backdrop we will do a close reading of how play is presented in the official documents regarding children`s institutionalized leisure in after-school programs in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Our reading show that there is room for interpretation and that the official documents are open to an understanding of play as something instrumental. This is in line with what we interpret as a dominating perspective on play. Our reading also shows that the documents are open up to a change of perspective where play is regarded for its own value.