Finnish-American Teachers Save Time with Kindiedays Versatile Documentation
This is what Ashley Dahlbom wants to share:
Tell a bit about your preschool.
I'm Ashley, the Preschool teacher at FinnAm Kindergarten in Ruoholahti, and have been since 2011. Our Preschool group started small, but has only gotten bigger over the years. We're really proud to say our community values intercultural sharing, exploring our neighborhood and the wider world, and practicing critical lifelong skills such as setting boundaries, empathetic communication, and respectful conflict resolution.
Why and how did you start using Kindiedays?
We've been using Kindiedays since the beginning of the app! The main reasons were the foreseeable shift toward using mobile apps in school and daycare settings for attendance tracking. At the time, the change was intimidating, but the helpful features of Kindiedays eventually convinced us to try it, and we never regretted it.
How do you use Kindiedays today?
I use Kindiedays daily to share pictures, communicate important daily information to parents, track the fun celebrations and events we do with the kids, and create learning reports that embed the Finnish Pre-primary Curriculum. Individual portfolios are mandatory in Preschool, and this year, group portfolios were introduced as a requirement. Still, the change caused us no stress at all because Kindiedays had been handling that for us all along.
How do the parents use Kindiedays?
Parents really appreciate all the photos we send them throughout the day, and they depend on the Events and Menus tabs to stay informed. Parents know they can quickly reach teachers by sending a message through the app, and teachers appreciate that we can send and receive info and feedback while still being present with the kids. It has definitely made communication with parents easier since it's much handier than emailing, and it can be done without having to step away from the group to make a phone call. And we never miss touching base with a parent, regardless of whether we manage to meet face to face on a given day.
How has Kindiedays helped you most?
My coworkers and I have been saved many times by Kindiedays' documentation features, particularly in cases where children or families were seeking extra support for their learning and care. It was easy to print out the child's portfolio, which shows the child's progress, for the family to share and discuss with their multiprofessional team.
The thing I appreciate most about Kindiedays is just that EVERYTHING is in one place, and it's so handy to use. I don't need to remember sign-ins to a bunch of different subscriptions, apps, or emails.
What advice can you give to other preschools?
I wholeheartedly recommend Kindiedays to other educators and childcare workers. It will make the exchange of information with parents so much simpler, and kindergarten staff will have a handy tool for documentation that frees up time to spend doing the things that matter most for the kids!
