At Kindiedays, we are committed to supporting the growth and prosperity of your preschool business.

We are thrilled to introduce our latest offering, Kindiedays Pro Program created to help you empower teachers, provide joyful learning, engage families, and increase admissions.  The program is developed based on best practices from Finland to address the challenges and opportunities in renewing early childhood education. 

Here is how...

Charting Your Path to Success with a Step-by-step program

1. Develop and Cultivate Teacher Professionalism, Dedication, and Retention

Early childhood is the period from birth to compulsory primary school age. It is a time of remarkable growth and important milestones in brain development. During this stage, children are highly influenced by the environment and the people around them. (Unesco 2020)

In early childhood, children are highly influenced by the environment and the people that surround them.

That being said, it is good to assess how the whole learning environment is set up to support children's playful learning such as:

• Educator's pedagogical skills and competencies when working with the children
• Curriculum and learning objectives for playful learning
• Action plans, syllabus, weekly and daily plans
• Lesson plans and activities
• Learning materials such as toys, building blocks, painting and writing materials, etc.
• Observations, documentation, and formative assessment of learning
• The activity areas

These should encourage and support the children to play, interact, and practice cognitive processes such as problem-solving and controlling feelings. Play motivates children, brings joy, and supports the children's well-being. It allows them to learn new skills while enjoying the learning.

Kindiedays CEO Milla van der Burgh visiting Globetrotter Kids in Bangalore

Kindiedays provides an innovative approach to creating a high-quality learning environment:

• Digital Tools to support children's learning
• Theme-based Lesson Plans based on playful learning
• Interactive Online Workshops for teachers

Benefit from world-leading research and practices from Finland, to create the best learning environment for your children's development and holistic growth.

In this blog post, we focus on the physical activity areas.

Physical activity areas

Circle time is often a time when children as well as educators come together and have a joined start for the day. Circle time is much more than a shared moment with the group. Circle time is full of educational aspects as well as the promotion of social development.

According to the Little Book of Circle Time all the learning areas can be covered through circle time activities. Circle time can be used for anything: promoting speaking and listening skills, mathematical thinking, a sense of teamwork, and sharing/taking turns.

How to prepare circle time?

First of all, children will need a comfortable seat or rather floor space to sit on. It is nice if you have a specific circle time area (for example a round carpet) that you gather on each time. When the circle time area is familiar to children, it is easier for them to concentrate and they also know what is ahead when they gather for circle time.

Same, repeated routines are recommendable. For example, start circle time always at the same time (for example after breakfast). Have the same starting and ending songs for circle time, but other activities during circle time can vary depending on your current learning theme or season. Also keep track of time, make sure circle time is no more than 20-30 minutes long.

Seasons and Weather Lesson Plan Sample

How to involve toddlers in circle time?

Last but not least! After this, fifth learning area, we have gone through all five learning areas that Finnish early childhood education follows in their curriculum. Yay!

The learning area of I grow, move, and develop includes learning goals that include physical activity, food education, health, and safety. The purpose is to create a stable foundation for children so that they learn to value health and overall well-being. Another aim of this learning area connect to children's physical activity. Improving children’s physical activity, body awareness as well as control over their bodies. Also, the development of gross and fine motor skills is important.

Get a free lesson plan connected to I grow, move, and develop learning area!

Children are naturally curious to move in different ways and try different things. The level of courage, self-confidence, and speed varies according to the child's temperament and character. Some children are fearless; they ride a bicycle at 100km/h even though they fall every other minute! Other children take it easy; they observe, test a little, practice carefully, refuse to go on the bike, observe a bit more, try once or twice, and take a break...they learn little by little once they have the courage and confidence to do it!

The lack of physical activity is a high-risk factor in terms of health. Physical inactivity is connected to global mortality rates and overweight.

In early childhood, children learn and develop rapidly. Early childhood is a period during which children form their lifestyle habits. A child's day is filled with many different types of activities, and the most important thing is that all those different aspects are in balance: eating habits, physical activity, time of sitting/restraint, screen time, rest, and sleep.

World Health Organization (WHO)has made a guide (Guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under 5 years of age) that helps parents as well as early childhood professionals to implement little children's days properly between different actions. The guide is for children under 5 years of age. The guide aims to give guidance how many hours per day children should spend being physically active or sleeping for their health and well-being, and the maximum recommended time these children should spend on screen-based sedentary activities or time sitting/restrained.

How to support children's mental health?

Recommendations at a glance by WHO:

Infants (less than 1 year) should:

• Be physically active many times a day in many different ways, particularly through interactive floor-based play - the more the better.
• For those not mobile yet, this includes at least 30 minutes of tummy time spread throughout the day while awake.
• Not be sitting/restrained for more than 1 hour at a time (e.g. pram/stroller, high chair, car seat, baby carrier). Screen time is 0 hours as it is not recommended. When sedentary, engaging in reading and storytelling with a caregiver is encouraged.
• Have 12–17 hours of good quality sleep, including naps.

Children 1-2 years of age should: