I have made a research about two different methods for introducing small children to Nursery School/Kindergarten. I choose to do this as I have found very little about this in the literature we have studied during my education to become a pre-school teacher.

This period in the life of very small children and their parents is a big change in their daily life. The more traditional way to start pre-school is to do it very gradually during two weeks, the two-week method. This means that the parents visit the pre-school together with their child for a very short time, about one hour the first day. After one week they leave their child with the staff for about an hour and at the end of that week they try to leave it full time (6-8 hours). Today there is a new model to do this introduction to pre-school. In this model the parent spend three whole days, the 3-days method, at the pre-school together with their child. This is a very big change in routines for all parties involved.  I have made my research by interviewing 6 pre-school teachers in Södertälje and one from another municipality. I have also distributed an inquest to 40 parents whose children have recently begun attending pre-school.

Four of the teachers work with the new model and three with the traditional model. In my research I have stated the following questions:

• How affects parents and children regarding factors as feelings and security?
• Which are the benefits and the disadvantages with the two models?
• Which are the benefits and disadvantages as the staff experiences the different models?
• Did the parents now anything about the different models offered?

All previous research in this area agrees on the fact that a positive contact between teachers and parents are very essential. Small children relay on their parents and if the parent is comfortable and safe with the pre-school the child will be too.

The Swedish curriculum Lpfö98 states that every pre-school is obliged to take in consideration the needs and the level of development for each child. Every pre-school has to learn to understand every new child and create a positive relation with it.

All my interviews with the teachers made it clear that they all emphasized the aspect of security for the children. They all also try to create good relations with the parents. Some teachers and schools do it by meetings before the child start pre-school and others during the first days at the school.    

Another positive affect the three days teachers brought up was the fact that the children during the three days got to know all the teachers at the school. The teachers working with the two week model stretched the fact that good relations between parents in their group are something that everybody benefits from.

My inquest to parents gave me only 15 answers which mean it is hard to draw any conclusions from it. From both groups I got benefits and disadvantages regarding the different models. Most of the parents were aware of which model their pre-school offered before they started. The majority of parents in booths groups are satisfied with the model used at their pre-school.