Everything You Need To Know About Kindergarten In Sweden | Swedish Förskola 

Thank you Uli. Skål Tom.

Thanks for watching!

Oh, that's new to me. Do you need a specific reason or can you just apply with no reason?

That's a great tip! Thank you! 🙏

I think it's the same in Germany.

Not rude at all. It’s always good to ask questions 😊 He’s actually currently looking after our youngest daughter during parental leave. I mention a lot “I” and “me” but it’s really “us” 😅 When the kids are both at home he goes to the library with them or the museum whilst I’m working.

I am not Uli but maybe i can help her answer this one! Food is included in the price and is mandatory for the preschool to provide. If the preschool is a bigger one they usually have a chef that cooks the food on site but if its a smaller one without a chef the municipality have like a catering service that provides the food. If your kid needs it they can have both breakfast and lunch at the preschool and some fruits in between as well. Hope that answers your question!

Ah, I forgot! My bad, sorry! Yes, all the meals are included. Main meals are breakfast and lunch, snack times in between, mainly fruits. And there is something called "Mellanmål" which is bread with toppings in the afternoon. The meals are healthy and freshly cooked as Axel mentioned below.

Thank you, Axel! :)

Ah, I totally understand you. If I were you I would get in touch with the kindergarten directly. Or if it's possible have more preschools lined up and contact them all. If you type into Google "jämför förskolor" and then the municipality you live in you should find all the preschools and there you can also find ones which accept direct applications (I know that because I contacted the municilpality I lived in and asked them if I can do anything to expedite the process 😅). Then you put them in the queue and they can accept you immediately. June-August can be a bit tricky though because many preschools reduce staff and many kids are on holidays so preschools even merge during that time. It took me 2 months to find a kindergarten and I started looking in June. I hope it works out for you. You should get a place within a month but as I said I would contact the preschools directly or choose one which accept direct applications/no queues.

@@LivingSwedish Wow, thank you! I will look into that. I will let you know if it works! Greetings from the north 🌲🦌

As a swedish , who used to work at kindergarten/preschool, and living in the north of Sweden, I have never heard of anyone asking the preschool to be put in a que. Not the preschool who takes care of that but the municipality. You usually get a spot within 4 months but it can be that no spots are available. Here it it easiest to get a spot in August, that is the month most children starts and it takes at least one week to introduce the child and get an easy start for the child so you can’t just show up the first day and leave the child. If it is a smaller child it takes 2 weeks. In june and july it is holiday/vacation time, maybe the beginning of August too. Many preschool close during july so the few children that needs care are at one preschool that is open. Since everyone in Sweden have 5 weeks vacation most takes out at least 4 of them during summer so we expect that every child also has 4 weeks off preschool. They also needs vacation. And starting preschool in the beginning of August is most usual, and to start in June often makes no sense because in july the staff is on holiday therefor August is more natural. Now I am talking about my experience and maybe that it might be a little different in other places but I guess the differences are only small. Every preschool follows a national ”läroplan”, think that is curriculum in english, so it won’t be much difference between the different preschools on how they work. In july most of Sweden sort of stops, it is holidaytime! Factorys closes, not all of them, and different businesses stops for those 4 weeks, not the service jobs of course. So summer holiday is very important to us.

The long waiting time _may_ be due to either lack of free spots in your area, the planning cycle at the municipality, or both. I know that the planning cycle for child care in our municpality governs how many spots there might be in each district. Also, if you chose a spot close to home, which might be very popular, that might also affect the waiting time. So, while I understand it might be frustrating, it might not actually be all that ridiculous and have a reasonable explanation.

Yes, true! 🙏

Thank you so much! If you want childcare before your little one is 1 year old there are agencies like nanny.nu/ and my-nanny.se/. Or you sometimes find people offering their childcare services in Facebook groups if you haven't joined them already. You don't need to do anything in terms of registering with the government for childcare. But if you're looking for parental leave pay then check out www.forsakringskassan.se.

Usually the swedish parents are at home with children that small as the parental leave is generous.

@@erik.... that makes sense; but as a U.S. citizen that likely will be relocating for a graduate program to SE with a very young infant, I would not have access to what SE residents and citizens have........at least......that's how I understand it to be. I'm still learning.

@@stac_y_with_no_eI was in a similar situation, moving to Sweden with my partner and 5-months old daughter. Even if you haven‘t previously worked in Sweden and paid taxes, you can still apply for parental leave with Försäkringskassan and receive some SEK 5,000/month.

@@stac_y_with_no_eI was in a similar situation, moving to Sweden with my partner and 5-months old daughter. Even if you haven‘t previously worked in Sweden and paid taxes, you can still apply for parental leave with Försäkringskassan and receive some SEK 5,000/month.

That is such a wonderful story! Thanks so much for sharing! And I have hope that my daughters will teach me all the Swedish I need hahaha How amazing!

Berätta mer om detta nya koncept. Vad är det?

Yes, I do all the time :)

Precis :)

Because I'm German I probably say kindergarten all the time. But yes, förskola in Swedish and preschool which I say a few times I believe.