“Curriculum is an organized framework that delineates the content children are to learn, the processes through which children achieve the identified curricular goals, what teachers do to help children achieve these goals, and the context in which teaching and learning occur.”  

- National Association for the Education of Young Children  (NAEYC)

Center's Curriculum consists of all the information related to the center in one tight package. Center Curriculum is a guideline for the staff in their everyday work, and it also tells a lot of you and your values to the families. Therefore, it is a nice idea to have your Center's Curriculum available for the families too.

It is very important to think how your center operates and what are the core values that everyone should know of. Writing down the curriculum with the staff unites your team and sets everyone on the same page.

When planning, arranging and developing early childhood education and care, the primary goal must always be the overall wellbeing of the children. Children’s interests, wishes and needs guide the teachers work forward.  

I  have prepared a list of questions that guide you when writing down your Center’s Curriculum. Think of the questions in detail, as thinking of the themes ahead makes it all easier when the situation hits you - for example a case when someone is bullied. When your team has a clear practice of how to deal with bullying, families trust your professionalism and most of all children feel secured, valued and happy.

Take a look at the themes to include in your Center’s Curriculum!

The Group curriculum has several important themes that help your planning process during COVID-19 times. During these times it is crucial for example to draw a backup plan for exceptional situations together with your team.

Group Curriculum is a tool to assess children's learning and overall educational work with your team and support the process of pedagogical planning.

Get your NEW Group Curriculum template from Kindiedays!

Group Curriculum is drafted in the beginning of the academic year, but it can and should be assessed and modified regularly with the staff. The Group Curriculum includes information about the specific children of the group, so each plan is valid only for one academic year.

Group curriculum should include information about the group's working methods, educators’ strengths and individual qualities of the children.

With your team, discuss for example the following areas:

• Description of the group of children
• Description of the educators and their strengths
• Description of the educators’ duties and responsibilities
• Learning areas that are available for the group

Väike Päike is a network that provides a wide range of services to children and their families in Estonia. Our organization includes nine daycare centers, two kindergartens and a hobby school. We welcome children aged 3 months to 9 years and we have around 750 children enrolled.

My name is Kristi Stahl and my main role in Väike Päike is public relations: I am responsible for external communication, writing articles, blog posts, communicating with parents and politicians, trying to participate in national legislation as a consultant etc.

My second role is to launch the virtual kindergarten platform for online learning and development, that we have been working for quite some time now. The Corona virus crisis made it clear that this kind of online platform for Estonian speaking children - made by Estonian kindergarten teachers - is essential for the new and changing world.

Our main idea in Väike Päike is that the foundation to success, happiness, emotional balance is laid in the early years before elementary school. A lot of children spend most of their awake time in childcare, it is essential that the teachers and nannies understand the importance of their role and use this responsibility consciously.

Corner stones of our curriculum are:

I am Kärt Kukk, a manager in Väike Päike's biggest unit in Viimsi, Estonia. Everyday 142 children go to my kindergarten.

Viimsi kindergarten run a Free Trial with Kindiedays this spring and quickly realized this a way to move forward. Starting from September 1st, all our teachers have been involved with Kindiedays and are using it now daily.

It is great that I can quickly check how many kids are present in each group. I can see easily what each group has been doing during the day – 'Learning posts' and 'Daily report posts' are being done daily. It is a great tool not only for parents but for teachers too.

From teacher’s perspective the program eases the process of educational documentation – all the posts and photos will be saved in child’s portfolio. Although typing and writing personalized posts might be time consuming, teachers feel that it is well worth it.

Read more about Kindiedays solution for Pedagogical Documentation.

I can see each child’s personal portfolio as well as curriculum reports that are great tools for teachers to analyze work that has been done so far and plan the work ahead.

Individual approach is something that we have been pushing for a quite a long time now and Kindiedays serves this purpose. Thanks to Kindiedays teachers do not need to keep the list of kids on paper and cross out the ones who have left in order to keep track on the number of kids present. Just a tap on a phone does the magic.

Each academic year every child needs their very own, individual ECEC plan. This year the plan is more needed than ever. New kinds of learning methods will take place and children’s learning will probably be monitored differently than before. Children might have fears or questions in mind that need to be addressed in teaching properly. Also, peer support and friends are much needed.

Download Child’s Individual ECEC Plan for free from Kindiedays and start your journey to help children master skills they are dreaming of and gain knowledge of areas they wish to understand.

According to ‘Helsinki’s Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care’, every child in ECEC has the right to receive education and care that is systematic and goal-oriented. In order to achieve this, an individual ECEC plan is created for every child in a daycare center with the child and their guardians. The plan can be filled out eg. during a video conference.

The plan includes goals that are set together. A child’s teacher is responsible for creating and evaluating the child’s individual ECEC plan.