The Duchess of Cambridge got into the spirit of learning about children’s play by taking a slide instead of stairs between floors at the Lego Foundation in Denmark.
She rediscovered her inner child on a visit to the foundation’s Play Lab in Copenhagen to meet a team leading a national programme training students to help children use play to develop skills for life.
When her hosts told her that some staff used the slide instead of the stairs to get down a floor, Kate gave her handbag to an aide and said she ought to do the same.
Whizzing down the slide and emerging giggling at the bottom, the duchess, still wearing her high heels, told one reporter: “You stood far enough away!
“In the spirit of where I am, I had to do it.”
The duchess, who is on a two-day visit to Denmark to learn how the country has pioneered efforts to give infants a better start in life, confessed her own children, Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, six, and Prince Louis, three, were jealous she was visiting Lego.
“My children are very jealous they weren’t coming to see the Lego Foundation. They were like, ‘hang on, there’s Lego and we’re not coming?’” she said.
Shown a bit of Lego by Mikkel Hogsbo, an ambassador for the foundation, Kate revealed she had spent part of last week, her children’s half-term, building Lego with them. “I spent this weekend trying to build a water-filled construction and trying to find all the green bits. I was like, ‘this is good training’,” she said.
Sofie Norgard Jensen, 23, one of the students who is half-way through her three-and-a-half years training, spent time with Kate in the Play Lab showing her their work. She said: “It was overwhelming to meet her, she was very kind to be so interested and it was very cool to get to show off what we are doing here.”
Kate travelled by a scheduled flight to the capital Copenhagen on Tuesday afternoon to begin the visit.
Kate, 40, who is representing the Queen abroad,during the trip will meet Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II, who is celebrating her golden jubilee in the same year of Her Majesty’s Platinum jubilee.
The duchess will also spend time in the company of Crown Princess Mary, wife of the heir to the throne and a woman who bears an uncanny similarity to Kate in many aspects.
During the visit Kate will learn about the country’s approach to the early years development of children that has made it a world leader.
The duchess first visited the University of Copenhagen to meet researchers from the Copenhagen Infant Mental Health Project which aims to promote the mental wellbeing of, and relationships between, infants and their parents.
Academics have developed an innovative screening tool, the Alarm Distress Baby Scale, used to help health visitors identify infants at risk of adverse social and emotional development.
The duchess will meet leading researchers running the initiative and will hear from health visitors who are implementing these tools in their work.
Looking forward to learning from experts, parents & practitioners about Denmark’s approach to early childhood later this month. Denmark is a beacon of best practice in its approach to the early years, with a culture which prioritises the best start in life.
— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) February 4, 2022
På snarligt gensyn. C pic.twitter.com/4rwZjA61mj
Alongside the screening tool, academics have launched the Understanding Your Baby research project which provides further training for health visitors so they can help new parents as they begin to notice and interpret their babies' behavioural cues.
At Copenhagen's Children's Museum the duchess met a few of the 1,300 first-time parents benefiting from the project, begun in 2019 and ending in July, that involves more than 200 health workers.
Kate's final event of the day was the trip to the Lego Foundation PlayLab at University College Copenhagen where she joined students training to be early years professionals, taking part in activities.
Kate announced the trip in a personal tweet posted earlier this month on the Kensington Royal’s Twitter account.
She shared a video of her hands, with her large sapphire and diamond engagement ring on show, making the word Denmark and the country’s flag out of Lego.
In a personal message, the duchess wrote: “Looking forward to learning from experts, parents & practitioners about Denmark’s approach to early childhood later this month.
“Denmark is a beacon of best practice in its approach to the early years, with a culture which prioritises the best start in life.”
She ended the message with the Danish words “Pa snarligt gensyn”, which translate as “See you soon”, and the letter “C” to denote a personal tweet.
A Kensington Palace spokeswoman, speaking when the trip was first announced, said: “The duchess is looking forward to visiting the country, learning from the Danish people, and continuing to build on the already close friendship between the two countries.”
Denmark is considered a beacon of best practice with its approach to early childhood, as well as consistently ranking near the top of countries with the happiest people in the world.
In 2011, Prince William and Kate travelled to the Danish capital, just a few months after their wedding.
