Our Services

Our Academy of Childhood daycare offers the following services:

 

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Happy childhood

We know how to make a child happy

Family Celebrations

For the families of the Academy of Childhood, including current children and our graduates, we organise parties that are often remembered for a lifetime.

The goal of these celebrations is not only to create a memorable joyful event but also to teach parents and children how to make parties with their own hands.

Such events often allow us to see things we don’t notice in our everyday life and help unlock the talents of both children and parents. For adults, it’s an opportunity to reconnect with their Inner Child and help It unleash.

We organise such parties both in our house and in the countryside. During these activities, as a part of our extended family, we acquire new skills, exchange experiences, engage in group activities, e.g.: making wreaths etc.

Small Groups for Adaptation

For such children who require individual support small groups are specially formed in our kindergarten. These groups are made both for children who attend our daycare regularly and for those who attend the kindergarten for a few hours.

What could be a better way for a child to learn to interact with peers, with older and younger children than in a diverse-aged group of children under the guidance of specialists? Such an environment helps children see and accept various characters, tastes, and moods. It teaches them the commonly accepted community rules of coexistence and mutual understanding.

Here, children develop communication skills, learn to negotiate, and understand their own and others’ boundaries. The groups are intentionally kept small so that children can adapt comfortably without overexerting themselves. It’s after participating in such groups that children find it easier to adjust to state daycare, school, to communicate with other children and adults outside the group. Their self-confidence grows, and they develop the ability to make friends and, consequently, to feel freer and happier.

Who benefits from small adaptation groups?

  • Children who have difficulties in communication with peers.
  • Children with speech delays or speech negativism.
  • Children who haven’t yet learned self-control or self-discipline, those who struggle to take control of their behaviour and reactions in stressful or conflict situations.
  • Children who enjoy socialising but find it difficult to follow common rules or to consider others’ interests, or who are used to “playing by their own rules.”
  • Children who find expressing their emotions or understanding the emotions of others challenging.

Preparation for Studying

We prepare preschool-age children and primary (elementary) school pupils for the learning process.

The key elements of effective learning are:

1) Physical body’s readiness for learning. At school, students have to change their physical habits, including sitting at a desk for extended periods with good posture and holding a pen or pencil for a long time. We assist in forming these physical habits to prevent physical fatigue.

2) Attention. Nowadays, attention deficit is becoming increasingly widespread among students of all ages, leading to difficulties in processing information and, consequently, unsatisfactory academic results. We help children develop this essential skill.

3) Self-control skills. Another crucial skill affecting learning competence and social integration is the ability to manage one’s emotions and adhere to the social norms of behaviour accepted at school.

We provide professional support for all these aspects, developing the necessary skills for school-based learning, both individually and in group.

Children’s Parties

We regularly organise children’s parties, both for birthdays and other special occasions, for the Academy of Childhood family. These events typically take place on our premises.

The goal of such a party tailored to a child’s needs is to enable them to unlock their potential. Based on observations made by the Childacademy specialists, we aim a party at helping a kid become braver, less anxious, more giving, less controlling, or more spontaneous, and so on.

A birthday is a magic time when you can transform something within yourself and your life.

A party is carried out as creative process, so it’s clear to participants how easy it is to arrange them: costumes and props are handmade from available materials, and participants take roles which they choose themselves. It could be a pirate quest, a space adventure, or any other format that matches the birthday child’s interests.

Read Jelena Parfjonova’s article on how to throw a true joyful party for your child (in Russian):

Creating a friendly Estonian-language environment

In 2023, Academy of Childhood became part of an experimental methodology – the Multikey platform – to create a child-friendly Estonian language environment involving parents, teachers and children at the same time. Children hear Estonian speech, they are naturally involved into discussions in the language, they play games in Estonian – in general, they learn the language through play.

We can see that our methodology is met positively by the children: they are happy to respond and switch to communicating in Estonian.

Childcare Services (from 2 hours)

If you need to leave your child in safe hands, in a family-like environment, we can offer you this opportunity. In our non-standard childcare centre children interact like in a large family, with kids of different ages, all under the careful supervision of child development specialists. We provide this service during working hours, at prior arrangement.

Parent groups

With the birth and/or arrival of children in the family life changes, and even the most responsible parent is not always fully prepared for all the events. A parent group can become an excellent support on the path to conscious parenting.

One of the main goals of the group is to bring together like-minded individuals for the exchange of their experiences and the acquisition of new knowledge and methods from the professionals of the Academy. →

Seminars, training sessions, and workshops for current and future educators, caretakers, psychologists, and other childcare specialists

The Academy of Childhood has over 20 years of experience in organising training sessions, seminars and workshops, both as one-time events and as larger projects. We are ready to share our skills and knowledge according to your specific request.

Assistance for Expatriates

For some time now, the Academy of Childhood has become a reliable support for those who have moved to live in Estonia from other countries. We have a substantial information database, which allows the center to provide various valuable advice on different aspects of integration into the local society, including useful contacts. In addition, the center offers psychological support to expatriate families. These services are free for members of the Academy of Childhood.

In addition, the center offers psychological support to expatriate families. These services are free for members of the Academy of Childhood.

World and us (international cooperation):

Since 2006 the Academy of Childhood has been actively participating in international youth and professional projects, such as the ERASMUS+ programme. Over the past years we have hosted volunteers from many countries, including Estonia, and several psychology students from Bologna University completed their internships with us.

From 2018 to 2020 the Academy of Childhood was the principal partner in a programme of Azerbaijan Institute of Education aimed at creating Education and Socialisation Centres for children aged 3-5.

In 2017 the Academy of Childhood was taken as a model of a child center for children aged 3-5 y.o. in a joint project between the Institute of Education of Azerbaijan and the EU. Thanks to the three-year fruitful cooperation around 50 centres were opened throughout Azerbaijan. the Academy of Childhood wrote programmes for them, trained childcare specialists and conducted monitoring. At that time Azerbaijan faced a big shortage of such programmes and centres to prepare preschoolers for school and to develop their communication skills. The Academy of Childhood helped find solution to this problem. There have been opened nearly 1000 similar centres in the country so far, and the state preschool programme of Azerbaijan is based now on the methodology of the Academy of Childhood.

The Academy of Childhood maintains ongoing partnerships and collaborates with organisations from Finland, Latvia, Italy, Azerbaijan, Germany, Switzerland and others.