Helsinki - Post Report Question and Answers
Are preschools available? Day care? Are these expensive? What has been your experience with them, if any? Do the schools provide before- and/or after-school care?
We enrolled our kids in local Finnish preschools and the Kulosaari bilingual elementary school and had an incredible experience. The local preschool/daycare system is higher quality than anything we've experienced in the States and a fraction of the price (when our three kids were going full time the monthly bill was approx 320 euros, all inclusive). The only negative is the early end time (pick up by 5pm latest) but I know some tandem couples who have made it work. - Dec 2022
The International School of Helsinki has preschool options that cost about $15,000/year. Local preschool options are highly subsidized and could cost embassy families as little as a few hundred dollars a month. These options are in Finnish, but several embassy families are happy with them. ISH has some after-school extracurricular activities but no consistent before or after-school care. - Oct 2021
Helsinki has several private preschools that serve children up to the official school age of 7. Some preschools take children as early as age 2, but most only accept children beginning at age 3. Helsinki city day-cares (päiväkodit) take children from age 1, but parents must qualify, usually by proving that both parents work full-time, and pay the necessary taxes. - Oct 2018
Expensive. - Jul 2012
Local daycare is government subsidized and very good...although it is in Finnish. Private daycare in English is available for 25 Euro for 4 hours a day. - Jan 2011
There are English-speaking preschools available. - May 2010
There are many daycares and preschools available and they are good. Nannies or babysitters, however, are extremely expensive (10 euros/hour) - Mar 2008
