> Giving our kids a rich social life and early education without the pressures of a traditional school model is probably the one thing Finnish society has figured out. (The rest is more or less a mess right now.)

Coming from Slovenia, that's what kindergarten is supposed to be. The word literally means "children's garden" and has nothing to do with school.

To quote wikipedia "literally children's garden, is a preschool educational approach traditionally based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school.".

I don't know what happened in the anglophone world that turned this joyful concept into school. My girlfriend grew up in the US and considers "kindergarten" to be the beginning of school school where they start by teaching you how to read&write. Wikipedia seems to confirm this notion.

Maybe it's just semantics and word-meaning drift.

I thought kindergarten would be equivalent to Croatian "vrtić" too, but it seems to be the year before 1st grade. Before that there is a spectrum of programs like daycare or preschool or playgroups which are more like what the grandparent described. I've no idea why kindergarten took on such a specific meaning in the US.

The cost of day care over there is stunning. The day care we send our children to in Australia is very similar to what you describe (i.e., compassionate and loving staff, focus on play in a mixed social environment, lots of outings and great food).

But the cost is $85 per day, per child. We have two children so it costs more than our mortgage to take our children to day care. It is also one of the more affordable day cares.

The government is supposed to cover 50% of the cost, but only up to maximum of $7,500. Meaning they end up covering far less than half.

Where I live in the US you can send a child to a good daycare for about ~$350 per month.

What causes daycare to be so expensive in Australia? Wages, regulation, not enough supply, something else?

$350? Is that subsidized? That doesn't seem possible.

A good student:teacher ratio for 1-2 year olds is 1:3, for 3 year olds is 1:5 and for 4 year olds is 1:8. Assuming an even mix, that's an overall ratio of 1:4. 350 x 4 x 12 is $17K a year per teacher, and that's only if nothing goes towards rent, supplies and the other costs of running a day care.

It isn't possible...this person is way off.

It's entirely possible if by daycare the person means a 1:5 or higher teacher:child ratio in a rural part of the country, or possibly just a babysitting service with a zoo of children and very few teachers.

I'm sure it's just Mom's taking kids into their home to make some money on the side. They're making less than minimum wage and aren't accounting for any rent or supplies, but it's better than the nothing they'd get staying home to look after their own kids.

My point doing the math was that a day-care as a "real" business has to charge at least double the OP's $350 a month.

Just to give a good indication of the range of options/prices in the US, a good day care in Seattle proper runs just under $2000/m and has a 1 year long waiting list. We applied for 3 and got into 1. (For an infant, prices go down about $150/m for every year of life).

I'm not sure why it's so expensive. They do seem constantly undersupplied and I expect they pay their staff well.

I found some average prices for Australia [1]. They list "Long day care (child care centre)" at $70 - $185 per day, which is what we found when looking at prices.

[1] https://www.careforkids.com.au/child-care-articles/article/7...

Edit: looking at some of the other replies, it seems just as expensive in some parts of the US.

Data point: private daycare for 1-3 year olds (4:1 ratio) is about €1700/month in Germany, but in my town it gets subsidized by around €8-900/month. Some counties subsidize down to 0 cost if they want to attract families; publicly run daycares are around €450 for daycare and €220 for kindergarten, but they have stricter closing jours (our private one is open 8-6) and more days off per year (up to 6 weeks).

Where the heck did you get $350/month? In the midwest I was paying nearly $1000/month per child for a good daycare, that is pretty darn common.

Having spend the last 3 months in Australia I would guess it is regulations,security and liabilities.

It has to do with the area, too. I live outside Boston, and it's 350/week around here; and we're not even at once of the expensive ones.

$85 a day is about $1,700 per month, which is typical for a major American city for an infant.

It should be noted that attending kindergarten is not mandatory in Finland and that there are different options for day care (e.g. at home or "family care" at the home of a licensed day care person). The other options are much more popular in rural communities due to distances.

This was recently changed so that the "preschool" became obligatory for 6 year olds, so they have to take educational activities for 4 hours a day at a kindergarten but may still have their day care elsewhere.

Btw, the aphorism quoted in the article is better translated as "what you learn without joy, you'll forget without sorrow".

I live in Stockholm, Sweden and more or less day care system is same here. My son is 4 years old & he started day care when he was 1 and half. His life is so rich in terms of social activities, learning etc. We absolutely love this system. The money we pay is $130/month and thats the highest a family pay if both parents are working.

Is there free daycare available in Finland? How good is it?

It's not segregated. They are using the same services, just paying according to their income. 300 euros max /mo even in the capital. Poor families pay next to nothing and their multiple allowances cover it if there's a nominal cost (child allowance 100 eur/mo covers it).