Daycare support

[Rip]

Hi everyone,

Our situation is that we have a toddler (under 3) who is at home and we're receiving the child home care allowance. We're thinking of enrolling him in a private day care for 1-2 hours possibly 2-3 times a week. My question is: can we apply for the private day care allowance?

KELA would know better, but I think the answer is "in principle yes, but as would loose the 'Espoo-lisä' for the younger one, it would not be worth it."

[Liam1]

Re places in Espoo, we put our 2 year old into ICEC in Niitykumpu, but there is one in Westend as well. New terms start in August.

We have been happy with the level of care. The 2 year olds(Tiddlers) are a bit apart from elder kids and we felt that they provided good activities and were well looked after. English is the language, though some of the helpers clearly speak Finnish (think Oliver got one Finnish "class" a week as he speaks Finnish). The kids tend to be from all over the World but coverse in English with each other.

We had our boy in for the full day (think it cost about €250 after KELA/Espoo contributions), though recall that others took half days. Not sure how the price adjusted.

[Flossy1978]

I don't think it's common for children to be in daycares here for 1-2 hours a day 2-3 times a week. Either they are in daycare for proper part time hours or fulltime. I am not sure if you'd find a daycare will to work with you on such short hours just a few times a week.

If that's what you are after, maybe you should try to find some English speaking types of activity groups. Or even have someone who speaks English take them for the times you need. They can take your children to parks etc.

And it's such a short time, maybe KELA wouldn't even be obligated to help? You should ask from them as well as the daycare you want your child in.

I just don't see a daycare really wanting to do what you want. It's not really conducive to a small child, if you know what I mean.

I could be completely wrong, I've just never heard of it. So I am sorry if I sound like I am offending you. I am not meaning to!

[CH]

Flossy does have a good point. At least for the municipal daycares there is a minimum time per week, although I guess private daycares might be more flexible.

One option would be "Puistotäti", a (private) playground attendant that looks after the children at a playground for a few hours. The one we used spoke Finnish, Swedish, and English (the parents could request the language the child would be spoken to, and the Puistotäti used all languages in the activities), but ask in advanced what languages will be used. I think that some of the open daycares had also the option of them looking after the child, but I'm not totally sure about that.

A lot of the Finnish kids who don't go to daycare go to clubs instead to play with other children. The Espoo city's clubs can be found here and the Espoo parish has also clubs, but their page is currently under renovation, so I couldn't search for the link.

[coatlicue]

Hei!
One more question. We gonna start to attend private daycare, but not sure about Kela support. Is my child really have to go to the daycare before applying for Kela support (and I'm paying whole price for the period till Kela's response)? Regards, co

[sowmyabalajee]

Hello,
Is there anyone who sent their kids for part time ( single session ) ? Just wanted to know the how much benefit from Kela... We are planning to put both our kids there and it would be easy to calculate whether it is manageable for us...

Thanks,
Regard,
Sowmya Balajee

[Amandine.K]

It depends on where you live and whether your child would attend more than 25 hours per week or not. There is quite a difference under 25 hours and over. Pm me if you want more info about the Kela support

[onkko]

Hei!
One more question. We gonna start to attend private daycare, but not sure about Kela support. Is my child really have to go to the daycare before applying for Kela support (and I'm paying whole price for the period till Kela's response)? Regards, co

You cant just start private daycare. There is law about those.

[sowmyabalajee]

Actually am planning to put my children for 15 to 20 hrs per week. will i get still get Kela support? if I will get Kela support only if I put for over 25 hrs... will think about it. Please clarify, if you know.
Thanks

[Amandine.K]

Hei!
One more question. We gonna start to attend private daycare, but not sure about Kela support. Is my child really have to go to the daycare before applying for Kela support (and I'm paying whole price for the period till Kela's response)? Regards, co

Hi,

It takes a few weeks for Kela to reach a decision. So you could apply a few weeks before the starting date, it is possible but you need to be 100% you are going to attend and probably pay the registration fees before the daycare give you the WH2 form. But even if you pay the whole daycare price at the beginning, you will get Kela support retroactively for that period too.