Where can i find Simple play area indoor at Espoo

[sahboo]

there isnt such a thing in finland,its all outside really.but try your local park or family centre they will have inside activites for kids during the wk that dont cost mucn or are free

[RA]

a free indoor park.... ehem.... ABC gas station?

[sahboo]

what a fantastically helpful statement ra................

[paulaeire]

http://www.espoo.fi/default.asp?path=1; ... 0682;10688
Open day cares.

[NotEmployedByNokia]

Look for "open day care" centers. They sometimes fill-up, you have to stay with the kids while they are there and the hours are limited, but they are staffed indoor play areas run by the city and they don't cost anything. These are seperate from the staffed outdoor play parks also run by the city.

Take a look on the Espoo city web site for locations:
http://english.espoo.fi/default.asp?pat ... 6846;36849

There are also other great places to take kids during the day. We live near Matinkyla, and the Isa Omena mall has both an open day care (run by a church group, not the city) upstairs, plus a library which has weekly events like music time. There are also at least a couple of multicultural centers around (in Matinkyla and Leppavaara that I'm sure of) which have free or low cost activities for both adults and children.

[RA]

Yep, every time we travel by car and have to make a stop we most likely choose an ABC to let our daughter play for a while. There's also free play areas at restaurants and department stores. At restaurants and cafés though the expectation would probably be that you have to order something, so it's essentially not free, but then you're not being expected to pay another entrance fee for your kid to play. But these are generally just small play areas.

[Mook]

ikea?

[Pursuivant]

yes well you go to the foreign languages section in the library

[ScubaGirl]

I can sympathize with your situation. I left Finland last October for this exact reason (among other things). There just weren't enough nearby indoor activities to keep my daughter busy during the long winter. The best place I found was in Hakaniemi (Helsinki), but I I don't have the number or address anymore (I don't even remember the name of the place, sorry). I'm sure if you ask around you can get the info easily. It's an indoor play area that's run by the city of Helsinki. You can go there with your child(ren) mon-fri from 9.00-15.00. It's free, there are a lot of toys, a kitchen with high chairs and a microwave you can use, and free coffee for all to drink. Also a nice restroom with plenty of space for changing dirty diapers. On Fridays you can even leave your child there for 2-3 hours with the ladies who work there while you go take some time for yourself, but my daughter would freak out if she saw me leaving so I was never able to successfully do that. This is a nice place, the only down side is that it's not in a very convenient location, especially in the winter and if you don't have a car.

Good luck & hang in there! Spring is coming sooner or later

[inkku]

There is also Children's Art Centre Annantalo in Helsinki
http://www.annantalo.fi/esittely

[raamv]

I am with Cory on this one..
There are plenty of places to play, and Nordic countries are know for it in the whole world about the Kid friendliness..
Given this, obviously, it caters to the local language and people => Finnish ( and Swedish ) in Finland...
and Helsinki/Espoo is known for providing the best services for families!!
Just complaining that everything is in Finnish aint going to help you, Instead strive to find what the different notices/services mean etc..( Google translate is your friend)..
Even my local Village library has Foreign language books and CDs ( English, German,French etc).. Just ask the poeple in the desk where you check out, where to find them..
Most malls have many play areas for kids including Ruoholahti, Itäkeskus, Forum etc..

[ScubaGirl]

It's great if Finland suits your individual families and lifestyles. It suited me just fine until I had a child. Everyone's experience is different. I lived in a small apartment, so it was necessary to take my daughter outside at least twice a day, which I did every single day (rain or shine) without fail. I was in the center of Hki, and yet there was squat to do indoors for an active toddler if the weather was bad (which we all know it is for a big portion of the year). Believe me, I didn't leave without exhaustively exploring every single option. There were just not enough places close enough or interesting enough to take a toddler. It was a huge decision for me to make this move and not at all easy. I'm not even done with the move. I still have to go back to Hki to collect the rest of our belongings at some point this year. I miss my friends back in Hki desperately, but I have no idea how I would've survived this winter there with my 2 year old. I get depressed just thinking about it.

I never complained about the language. I got by just fine living abroad in 3 dif countries for almost 14 years with no issue concerning language, so your point doesn't apply to me raamv.

@Cory, every single reason why I left Finland had directly to do with my daughter. And yes, a MAJOR part of that was the lack of things to do during the bad weather months (those on this forum who know me personally know this was consistently one of my biggest complaints). It was really depressing not being able to take her anywhere that could stimulate her imagination. Btw, since moving back to the states I have yet to take my daughter to a McDonald's play area. Probably because there are too many other (and more creative) things to do here that keep her busy (and I guess the fact that I'm vegetarian helps keep us away from the burger joints )

I know what a great crime it is to say anything negative about Finland on this forum, but you can't expect all families to have the same experience. Even if there were only 3 really awesome (and FREE) indoor places to take a toddler in Hki (which there absolutely is not), it would get too repetitious and boring after one week for someone in my circumstances who needs to get their child out of the apartment at least twice a day to prevent cabin fever from setting in. Since moving to this neighborhood in a Chicago suburb (and even though our current apartment is 3 times bigger than the one in Hki), I still take my child out 2 times a day and we never do the same thing twice in the same week. The amount of free & interesting things to do here are just amazing. And if you have some extra cash, there are even a billion other great options for your child.

This isn't a contest to say what place is better, it's just what happens to be better for YOU and YOUR child(ren) and YOUR individual situation. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I made the right decision to leave Hki. So before some of you start insisting that I must not have tried hard enough or traveled far enough to find all the many incredible indoor places to take children in Hki, just be happy that I found a place where I'm content and I'll be happy for you

[raamv]

I never meant to point anything at you Scubagirl!! Just agreeing with Cory and what options we have here..
The last week was the official Hiihtoloma and we had soo much fun outdoors skiing, skating and sliding with those sliding things along with toboggans!!
Was a blast every day that we were out..Didnt need any indoor place..Just the local school playground where my DD goes to school!!
I mean, I dont think that the weather here is "bad"...its just how you look at it..
My kids love it whether its raining or snowing or howling wind..and a lot of kids here seem to be of that attitude..Sometimes Its the parents who "think" that its not good for their kids when they see a snowflake floating outside ( and no one being pointed out here). I used to be like that till I started making it a practice and now I really enjoy the exercise more than getting fresh air ( as I didnt like the reason of "getting fresh air"...instead the reason "exercise" suited me better).
Having said this, and living almost in a big village with very small amount of people, there is definitely more things to do in Helsinki than here!

[Pursuivant]

Yeah, now I really wonder what do all the 100 000 mothers of two-year olds in Helsinki do?

[ScubaGirl]

One of the reasons why I chose to parent in Finland was because a parent is able to parent without all the extra expectations that a child will grow to have when raised in North America. Keeping-up-with-the-Jones in parenting is something I'm not at all interested in.

100% agreed, but Finland is not entirely exempt from that mentality, especially in the neighborhood I lived in (Etu-Töölö). It's all about the people you choose to surround yourself with and I don't keep company with those types. This is a very international town I've moved to and I've befriended people from places like the Czech Republic, Lithuania, India, Sweden, Japan, Poland, Ukraine and surprisingly enough I've even come quite close to two Finnish families here, who (much like you said when you travel back to Vancouver), say "it sucks" when going back to Finland with their children. So to each his own.

@raamv, Let me say this, I LOVE being outdoors. My definition of bad weather is either BITTER cold, where your nose hairs freeze up the moment you step outside and it's uncomfortable to even breathe, let alone play at the park. Or rainy/slushy/muggy/muddy/grey/wet and all together miserable (which pretty much sums up a typical winter in Hki minus the few bitter cold days I previously mentioned). I love the snow and have taken my daughter sledding and building snow men and throwing snow balls this winter when it's not uncomfortably cold here in Chicago. We were even flying a kite last week when we had an unusual warm spell. We go to the playgrounds in the winter here & even ride her tricycle on the freshly snow-plowed sidewalks. I couldn't even push her pram through the slush or ice on certain days back in Hki, so forget trying to take her trike out for a ride. I know that most parts of Finland have breathtakingly beautiful, postcard worthy winter scenery, but I did not happen to live in any of those areas, nor did I have a car that could easily take me to one of these locations. And I wasn't even going to attempt a journey through some snowy wilderness with a pram, lol.

There's so much more that can be learned from a day at the beach at low tide..or a day hiking in the mountains..or a day working in the garden..or a day visiting an elderly family friend..etc etc. Just depends on how one looks at life and it's learning experiences.
My NA friends' kids are spoiled and are constantly whining "I'm bored" just because Mom hasn't taken them to somewhere different in 3 days. They have no clue about how to occupy themselves in the backyard or to come up with their own ideas to figure out for themselves how an anthill is made, for example.
A kid is naturally curious and will learn something from everything they do. My kids have learned that Mom is not there to occupy their time. We spend alot of time together but we don't go to many places. Not that there is a ton of new museums, aquariums, etc to explore every week of the year but there is still a world of knowledge to be learned from everyday close to home.

Listen, I'm not taking my daughter to see Disney on Ice or crazy fireworks displays every day. She's awake for 12 hours in a day. I'd say about 4-6 of them are spent on the outings we take, all of which are incredibly educational, not frivolous nonsense as I think you may assume. For the other 6-8 hours, we're at home. So she definitely finds time to let her imagination grow on her own in her own home surroundings. I like to mix it up though. I want to see her occupy her time at home either on her own or with myself, but I equally enjoy taking her out to interact with other children and partake in one of the many educational classes or many free places specifically geared towards children that we have around here. I couldn't imagine keeping her cooped up at home all day.

On a final note to Hank (aka Pursuivant), this is something I'd expect you to say. Not surprising coming from a bachelor . I can tell you that most (but not all) of the mothers I befriended in Hki shared many of my concerns/complaints. Some of them chose to put their children in päiväkoti, but I did not like the 2 local päiväkoti's that I toured. In one, all the children looked like zombies, just expressionless and blank. I didn't see a single smile throughout the whole tour. Just looked like a miserable place. In the other place, the people were fine, but the päiväkoti itself was just so filthy dirty. Yes, I know all daycares are a breeding ground for germs and disease, but this place was off the charts filthy! The one daycare that I did like, was an international place, but they didn't accept children under 3. There was no chance in hell I was going to stay another winter in Hki just to wait for my daughter to turn 3. The last two winters for me in Hki were two of the lowest times of my life and that is not a healthy environment for a child to be raised in.

I've also seen some friends in Hki who just do nothing but complain about how there is nothing to do in the winter and they literally just stay at home all day with their kid(s) and do nothing. They go out for grocery shopping and if there happens be a pleasant day, they'll go to a playground, but those days are few and far between in the winter. So, what do the other mothers do, you ask Hank? let me tell you, I don't know all the mothers in Hki, but many of the ones I do know are miserable there in the winter.