Kajaani is an energetic sports city with a wide range of different types of exercise, sport and opportunities to move your body, available to everyone, whatever their age, from beginners to enthusiasts to athletes.
Hobbies bring new vitality to your life, as well as social contacts and the joy of movement, while increasing your knowledge of yourself. Engaging in a recreational activity together with a parent or guardian is the best kind of quality time. Hobbies don’t always have to be structured and guided activities; what’s important is spending time together. The City of Kajaani and its partners provide a wide variety of exercise, sports and recreational activities for children, young people and families, following the principle “Every child has the opportunity to take up a hobby.”
The Finnish Model for Leisure Activities
The Finnish model for leisure activities organizes hobbies and leisure activities free of charge for children all around Kainuu region. The main objective of the Finnish Model is to increase the well-being of children and young people. The aim is to enable every child and young person to have a leisure activity in connection with the school day that they enjoy and one that is free of charge and organised at the school. The Finnish Model is based on a child-centered approach: the leisure activities offered must be those children themselves have expressed a wish for and they must be provided at a time that best suits children. The activities provided are based on a nationwide survey of schoolchildren in which children and teenagers were asked what leisure activities they would like to participate in. The most popular leisure activities in Kainuu were, for example, parkour, fine arts, snowboarding, downhill skiing, cooking, gym, game design, coding and hunting.
Read more about the Finnish Model and the results of the surveys and see the Kajaani hobbies schedule (in Finnish).