Homeschooling in New Sweden

I discovered recently that my home town is twinned with – amongst other towns – Wilmington, Delaware in the USA. My immediate thought was to wonder whether it would be possible to get into contact with homeschoolers there (everybody homeschools in America, right?)

Imagine my surprise then, when I discovered this week that the town of Wilmington was founded by Swedish pilgrims! The town is so deeply influenced by its Scandinavian foundations (its architecture, for instance, is recognizably ‘Nordisk’, known particularly as well for a Finnish style of building) that it really is known as ‘New Sweden’. I was astounded to learn that over a million Swedes emigrated, suggesting that there are probably more descendants of Swedes in Wilmington than in the whole of Sweden itself!

My attempts to contact homeschoolers in Wilmington has fallen flat on its face so far, but I was so thrilled to discover the connection that I thought it would be worthwhile to try and encourage some interest in our twin towns (or ‘sister cities’ as they are apparently known in the US).

If you would like to know more about Wilmington, and Swedish migration to the US, take a look at these links:

http://colonialswedes.net/History/History.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington%2C_Delaware

When I was doing my year abroad in Stockholm as part of my Scandinavian Studies degree, I met lots of American students, but never thought to enquire where they originated.

For anybody who might be interested, here is 2015’s list of the best universities / colleges offering Scandinavian Studies degrees. http://colleges.startclass.com/d/o/Scandinavian-Studies

Hopefully more on this to follow!
Hej, Hej!

Originally posted on the Svengelska Hemskolan blog on blog.co.uk