HEI Blog | Education

Children play in play-based learning activity

Can play-based learning support academic skills?

In the ever-evolving landscape of education, one question continues to captivate educators, parents, and researchers: Can play-based learning truly support the development of academic skills? While traditional teaching ...

Discover the top preschool curriculums for kindergarten business owners

Choosing the best curriculum for your kindergarten

With numerous preschool curriculums to choose from, kindergarten/preschool owners and principals often find themselves pondering the best fit for their school. Determining the ideal curriculum relies heavily on your ...

6 tips for how to approach special needs in early education settings

Special needs, diversity and inclusion are all highly relevant topics for early educators, especially because the first 7 years of a child's life are crucial for their lifelong success. You may already be familiar with ...

The Top 10 Benefits of the Holistic Approach to ECE

Holistic development is the social, emotional, physical, mental, and intellectual growth of a person. It’s an important focus area in early childhood education and care because children develop rapidly between the ages ...

Holistic Education versus Traditional Education During the Early Years

Holistic education and its approach is most often compared to traditional education methods when looking at how children learn and develop skills during their early years. The biggest difference between the two is that ...

Boy with wooden house

What is Holistic Development?

Imagine you are building a house. You make detailed plans for the study with specifications about how big the room should be, where the desk should go and the size of the windows. As for the rest of the house, you leave ...

HEI children running

How The Best Early Childhood Education System Really Works

The writer is originally from China, now living and working in Finland. As a mother of a two-year-old boy, she has firsthand experience about the early childhood education system of Finland. Here she shares her ...

parent and child

My Experience with Finnish Early Childhood Education

As a mother of a two-year-old boy, I have thought about finding a daycare for him since he was born. Coming from China where it is usually a long and difficult process, I thought that this would also be the case in ...

Including All Kids: How HEI Schools Incorporates Diversity

Inclusion and special needs are becoming increasingly important in the educational field, especially during the last two years when many schools were required to shut down or implement remote teaching due to the ...

STEAM Education for Little Ones: It's child's play!

What is STEAM education? There's a lot of buzz about STEAM education, but what's it all about? STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics, and it has become increasingly buzz-worthy due to ...

teacher with two children reading

The Best Educational Books and Resources About Finnish Education

Finland is well-known for its education system, and there are many resources out for those who want to know more. We've compiled some of the best books, website and webinars to help you get familiar with the Finnish ...

The Story & Science Behind the HEI Schools Design

Every adult knows that it can be hard to get children to focus. The younger they are, the more easily they get distracted. Research even proves it! [1] At HEI Schools, we created our learning design so that children can ...

teacher and baby high fiving

Early Learning for Babies and Toddlers

"Can toddlers learn anything?" "Is early education just babysitting?" "What’s the point of bringing my baby to school?" We hear these questions often in our line of work, and our answers are yes, no and let us explain! ...

How to implement the HEI Schools Toolkit at YOUR kindergarten

How to Implement the HEI Schools Toolkit in Your School

The Finnish approach to early childhood education is well-known for a reason! Its progressive pedagogy places the child’s needs and interests at the center with a focus on holistic growth and transversal competencies ...

Talking to Mentor Teachers: Liisa

At HEI Schools, we ensure that Finnish pedagogy is implemented in all of our local Learning Centers and Clubs by providing thorough introductory teacher training and management training to all local staff and by sending ...

Finnish Teacher Training in a Nutshell

As experts in Finnish education, a question we often get asked is: “What’s the secret to Finnish education?” Our answer: The teachers. In Finland, teacher training, as well as the approach to the teaching, is different ...

6 Reasons Why Finnish Early Childhood Education is Excellent

For the past ten years, Finland’s education system has been praised as one of the best in the world. The most recent PISA scores in 2018, showed that Finnish students aged 15 years old were one of the top five in ...

Montessori & Finnish ECE: Daily School Life, Standardization & Development (Part 3)

Welcome to our article series about how Finland's early education model compares to Montessori. In this series, we deliver a clear picture of how these two different approaches take shape in the classroom and which one ...

teacher playing with children

Montessori & Finnish ECE: Learning Philosophies & Environments (Part 2)

Welcome to our article series about how Finland's early education model compares to Montessori. In this series, we deliver a clear picture of how these two different approaches take shape in the classroom and which one ...

Children peek out of an indoor window at HEI Schools

Comparing Montessori & Finnish ECE: Their History (Part 1)

As a parent, choosing the type of early childhood education appropriate for your child can be challenging. There are a variety of well-established alternative preschool models, such as Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggio ...

Expanding the circle of compassion in the time of global crisis

By: Professor Lasse Lipponen, Early Childhood Education professor at University of Helsinki and Co-Founder of HEI Schools Who do you care about the most? Who would you help in their time of need? For many of us, the ...

University of Helsinki’s Educational Sciences Ranks 23rd in the World

We are proud to announce that our shareholder and partner, University of Helsinki, has been ranked 23rd in the world for Educational Sciences in the 2020 QS World University rankings. This is the third consecutive year ...

Nordic Know-How: Teaching Children About Themselves & the World

Nordic education systems, and indeed Nordic values, are renowned the world over. Why? Source: HEI Schools In a recent New York Times opinion piece, “This is How Scandinavia Got Great,”* author David Brooks argues that ...

Praising Children is More Effective than Reprimanding

Many times it feels like increasing your volume when speaking to children just doesn’t motivate them. So what can help? Research shows that praising children in the classroom leads to more on-task behavior and focus. At ...

Two children take a nap at a HEI Schools Learning Center

Children Study Better in Calm Environments

A recent study has shown that visually rich surroundings distract children from their studies, while less distracting environments improve their performance. A recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Child ...

Child playing with sandbox toys

How to be Happy: The Importance of Creative, Active Children

The OECD recently released the results for its global test of 15-year-olds in math, science and reading, known as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). China and Singapore ranked first and second, ...

Let them play: Children who play more grow up healthier

Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash The World Health Organization’s most recent guidelines about physical activity show that children under five should play more and sit less in order to establish healthy lifestyle ...