One Steamy Sauna

May 5, 2014

When it comes to school, Jack is all about the extra stuff. Not the boring math and spelling homework--those he feels no urgency about whatsoever. But when it comes to big projects he starts begging and pleading for help well ahead of time. It's got to be BIG!! 

I remember the first day of the European Green Initiative Fair. Jake came home from school sobbing, "They gave Finland to Finn just because of his name and I had a friend from Finland living in my home!" Remember this guy? Samuel Nutinen? Yes, he left a big impression on the boys.

 I managed to console Jack, telling him that Sweden was the pinnacle of cool at the moment because that's where Ylvis and "What Does the Fox Say?" come from. But the next day Jack came home with the news that his kind teacher said that he could do Finland too. 

So then began the nightly begging/avoiding of his other homework. "Mom we HAVE to research Finland now!" In our research we learned so much about the luxurious Finnish sauna that that ended up being the bulk of his report. So we decided to make a walk-in sauna experience for the kids using a donated couch box from RC Willey and brown butcher paper from the school. It was free, but it wasn't easy!

The front of Jack's sauna has his report, a map and an explanation of the Finnish flag.

Inside the sauna there is some seating :), a "heating unit" with heated rocks (which Dad Hale brought up from the Kinderfarm. He joked that it was a sacrifice as they have a shortage of rocks there--not! The entire 30 acres is an old riverbed. By contrast most of the rocks in the city are purchased), a bucket of imaginary water to throw on the rocks to make lots of steam. And finally, some birch branches (also from the Kinderfarm, Dad called me a "City Slicker") or vihta, with which the Finns beat themselves to open their pores for better cleansing in the sauna.

 It was a huge hit. Jack even had a rotation of friends standing guard at his exhibit during the fair, to keep it from being vandalized.

 A map Jack drew of Scandinavia

 These are illuminated glass and steel igloos which are actually individual hotel rooms, just big enough for a bed, at the Katlauttanen Arctic Resort in Lapland, Finland.