The early childhood education landscape is rapidly evolving, driven by changing educational policies, shifting societal expectations, and technological advancements. As preschool owners and teachers seek to navigate these changes, understanding the key challenges and effective strategies for renewal becomes paramount. 

Understanding the Challenges

The first step toward effective change is recognizing the challenges preschools currently face. Today’s educational landscape demands a shift from traditional methods to more holistic and technology-integrated approaches. The primary hurdles include:

• Outdated curricula and learning methods, such as rote learning
• Inefficient Parental Engagement
• Staff Training and Retention
• Increasing competition

Strategies for Renewal

Addressing these challenges requires a multifaceted approach, focusing on several key areas:

The Finnish Education Model: A Quick Recap

Finland’s world-renowned education success comes from three key principles:

• Playful Learning: Children learn through play, exploration, and creativity.
• Child-Centered Approach: Focusing on individual needs and empowering children to take an active role in their learning.
• Parent Partnership: Strengthening the relationship between educators and parents to support each child’s growth.

By adopting these elements in your preschool, you can create an environment where children thrive, parents feel connected, and your preschool community flourishes.

Here’s how we can help you get started:

• Is the physical environment safe and comfortable?
• Is the environment a pleasant and aesthetically pleasing place to be?
• Are the teachers in the room welcoming, warm and calm?
• Do you feel at ease in this place?

How to create a good emotional learning environment?

Sensitive and familiar teachers

How do we make different play areas visible and interesting?

A classroom should have several different play areas where children can learn, practice, investigate, and, of course, play. It is a good idea to build play areas so that at a glance, you can already see what the point of each one is.

Make the play areas more visible. You can use different types of pictures on the wall and floor. For example, in the car play area, you can use black masking tape on the floor to make roads for the cars, hang pictures of different types of cars and vehicles on the wall, and so on. For animal play, you can use plastic grass on the shelves for animals to walk on, make fences for animals with colorful masking tape on the floor, and again put pictures of different types of animals on the wall near the animal play area.

Toys should be located so that children can easily see and reach them. Toy boxes can be see-through, or if not, the toy boxes should have a picture of the toys that belong in that box. This also makes cleaning the toys much easier - every toy has its own box where it belongs! Cars go to the car box, blocks go to their own box, and so on... When toys are nicely arranged and cared for, children also learn to appreciate the toys and play areas more. It is important that teachers show examples of how to play together with peers and how to clean after playtime is over.

Arranging learning areas by their type

Each learning or play area should be clearly defined by boundaries that separate it from the other areas. The boundary can be anything visible enough for children to understand the limits of the play area, such as low-storage shelves, bulletin boards, tables, chairs, carpets, or even colorful masking tape on the floor.

Similar learning areas should be located close to each other. For example, the library and writing area need quiet space so they can be near each other. On the other hand, the block area and role-play area need more space and allow children to play louder.

Some play areas can be "theme-based" so that they change over time according to the learning theme. For example, if children are learning about farm animals, you could have farm animal play in the classroom, enhanced with pictures, related books, and other little props.

Types of different play areas

The learning environment is a broad and profound term. It is much more than the physical environment with walls, furniture, and some toys here and there. It is vital to consider its design.

How do we assess the classroom as a learning environment?

A typical learning environment is a classroom. It is not indifferent what kind of environment children have around them. The environment affects how children behave during the day; do they get restless or stressed easily? Are children able to focus on their play and activities? Can children find things to do that interest them?

Assess your classroom according to these points and enhance every corner of it!

The participation of the child:

• Are children "present" in the classroom? Are their artworks, toys, and photos visible?
• Are children able to choose what they want to play?
• How are the toys available in the classroom? Can children find the toys they look for easily?
• How can children affect the functionality of the classroom?