Imagine sending your 4-year-old to preschool knowing they will spend nearly all day happily traipsing through the woods, climbing trees and resting in hammocks. Imagine that they also take part in what most of us would view as risky activities for a preschooler, like building fires and using knives to whittle figures out of sticks. For children growing up in Norway, this is a daily reality in the country’s “barnehagen”: child care programs designed for children ages 1 through 6.

In Norway, childhood is seen as a time of innate value that must be joyful and respected. Early learning — especially involving outdoor play — is part of that. The country has enshrined the right to child care into law and demands that early learning programs be rooted in “tolerance and respect” and teach values like empathy, charity and “a belief in human worth.”

The country is so committed to early childhood education, it covers the vast majority of operating costs and subsidizes care for parents, who pay the equivalent of about $190 per month for the first child in care, and less for additional children in care. Children are guaranteed a spot in child care at age 1.

Sounds idyllic, right? In April, as a Spencer Education Journalism Fellow at Columbia University, I traveled to Oslo to see it for myself. Over the course of a week, I spent time in nine different kindergartens to learn more about how Norwegians view the early years, how the country’s approach to early learning contends with a changing social demographic, and what the rest of us can learn from Norway. I returned hopeful and rejuvenated, but also with a greater sense of urgency about America’s need to address our own approach to child care. You can read the story, which was published in partnership with The Christian Science Monitor, by clicking the link below.

This story about Norwegian children was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.