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.

What would be a better way to teach children about these important skills than through a captivating streamed story?  

Storyline Online is a free resource for learning during COVID-19. It has a huge video library of loved storybooks read out loud by celebrated actors, plus free a Activity Guide for teachers linked to each story. Children read and respond to works of literature with emphasis on comprehension, making connections among ideas and between texts with focus on textural evidence.

Let’s take for example The Rainbow Fish. Rainbow Fish is an award-winning book about a beautiful fish who finds friendship and happiness when he learns to share. With this story it is possible to teach children about reading and writing + friendship skills.

Friendships skills are something that never ever go out of style. Therefore, discussing about kindness, feelings and sharing is always a smart idea. Especially now, when children might be staying at home and playing in smaller groups – even by themselves – it is good to remind children about the important cornerstones of friendships.

Download a free Child Resume

Teaching mathematical skills to children is an important part of the curriculum. Each teacher on Earth must have ideas how to teach numbers and counting to their group of children, but this term it all might have to be done remotely.

Download Child's Individual Curriculum template

Learningmole in Youtube offers great videos for teaching mathematical skills for children. The videos are originally made for home schooling and they are perfect for remote teaching as well. In case in-school teaching is possible, these videos give you loads of ideas how to get children interested in number related activities at school too!

First of all, it is a good idea to teach children how to count, for example from 1-10. Video ‘Counting to 10 for Preschoolers and Kindergarten Children’ is great for that, as it shows how to count with your fingers. This video can be shown in class or the link can be sent home to families. With the video children also hear the name of the number and see how the number looks like. This develops children's number recognition skills.

After that you can choose an activity for the children that challenges them in a right level. Learningmole has a selection of math activity ideas that use legos as a tool for learning through play. Video ‘Lego Number Games – Counting Games’ offers children fun opportunities for recognizing numbers and counting. Depending on your teaching methods you can do this activity in-class in small groups or send the link of the video home so the same activity can be done also at home. (In case legos are not available, any blocks or even rocks work!)

To support learning, sing rhymes (for example: Five little ducks) and ask children to count outloud in all sorts of situations (for example: how many cucumber slices they have on their plate).

Before you start, take a look at this guide to help you modify the activities to a right age level: