How to enroll a child to kindergarten in Denmark

Moving to a new country with kids is always a challenge. Getting them used to the climate, adjusting them to the different food than they used to in their home country, learning a new language if needed and more than that how to enroll a child to kindergarten if they are too young or finding a school. Our kids are still too young to go to school, but our first one is old enough to go to kindergarten. 

A couple of weeks after we move to Denmark, I contacted kommune to enroll our daughter in kindergarten. It was a holiday period and I could not get a quick response from the kommune so I called them a couple of times for more clarifications. At that moment, I haven’t got my NemId, so from the kommune, they agreed to help me over the email. Fortunately, a couple of days after, I activated the NemId.  It is possible to start the enrolling process even before you get the NemId. 

Digital Placement Service

You can log in to the digital placement service here. Select your kommune and click the Videre button. You can see the login link on the top right corner. You can log in using the NemId. There will be a tab for each child in the family with their name. Select the one that you want to enroll. In the first section, you can see the list of kindergartens that the kommune offered. If it’s your first time, this list will be empty. 

It is possible to find the closest kindergarten to your home using the digital placement service. But remember that it depends on the availability and the waiting list for that particular kindergarten. You can select the Opskriv link to find available kindergartens for you. You’ll get a step by step section as below. 

In the search section, you can see 2 options, the first one is called Simpel søgning which is Simple Search where you will input the preferrable starting date and the age range of the child. The second one is Kortsøgning which means Map search. I prefer the Map search as I could get a better overview of my location preferences and more options to filter my search. 

Select the expecting start date in the Behovsdato input field and the child’s age range from the Pasning select box. Next, you have the options under Søg ud fra: section. You can either select the distance from your home address or the second option which is another address. If you select the second option, you have to fill the Anden udgangsadresse field. Next, you can add the distance from the given address in the Indenfor antal km: field. If you prefer to select the area on the map below, you can check the last checkbox and click Vis Muligheder. You can see available kindergartens for the inputted parameters and select up to 3 choices and read the kindergarten reviews from Google or Facebook pages. Also, it is possible for you to visit the institute and then make your decisions.

The kommune will find the placement for you based on your choices. Considering the preferable starting date, If there’s no place available at the moment, or if there is a long waiting list for any of your choices, the kommune will assign a different one for you within 2 weeks. But, if you don’t like the decision, you can be on the waitlist until a position is available. Always remember to log in to the digital placement service and check for messages from the kommune. 

Denmark has forest kindergartens where the kids will spend most of their time outside in nature. We chose one of the closest forest kindergartens for our kid, but kommune informed us that there is a long waiting list for this institute and assigned a different one, which was not in one of our choices. After reading the reviews and visited the kindergarten, we decided it’s a good place for her. It is at a distance where we can go by walk and drop her. Also, on the day we visited, we brought our daughter as well, we were very happy to see how other kids welcoming her and asking a lot of questions. 

We had a walkthrough about a day of a kid in there. It operates from 7 am to 5 pm from Monday to Thursday and 7 am to 4.30 pm on Fridays. They have children from different age groups but they are allowed to play together if they like. There is a backyard for kids to play outside with various outdoor activities. 

The kindergarten will not take care of any payment matters. You have to make the payment to the kommune, you’ll get a Girokort with the payment information to your e-Box after you confirmed them institute. If you haven’t got that, you should contact the kommune. At the time of writing this article, it has been more than a week and we still did not receive it. But it did not stop us from sending our kid to kindergarten. 

Danish Kindergarten Experience

It was my daughter’s first day at kindergarten. We were given permission to stay with her for a week-long. I was staying with her on the first day and observing her behavior in a new environment with new kids. Also, it gave me an opportunity to get to know more about the place.

We took her around 8 am and my wife came back home. Until 9 am, she was playing with Lego blocks. There were other kids who are curious about the new girl in their territory and they were trying to talk to her. But, since it’s her first day, my kid was just focusing on playing with the blocks without giving much attention. At some point, those little once joined with her. When it was ready for the morning snack, the kids collaboratively clean up the blocks and put them in the boxes. They got Rye bread and Apple for the morning snack on that day. 

They have a picture wall with each kid’s photos. I later understood the purpose of it. This is kind of a record marking board, where the teacher pointing to any kid’s pic and pronounce the name, and the kids must tell whether he or she has come or not. This gave the kids an opportunity to remember their friends’ names with the photos. It was funny when the teacher missed my daughter’s name, she shouted from the corner, Hannah is here!!! (In English, no Danish yet :)). They teach in Danish but Somehow she managed to understand the game and respond. It was that specific moment I understood the power of a kid’s brain and how fast they learn things. 

After this game, she got bored of being inside. Then she came to me and asking permission to go outside. It was anyway the time for outdoor activities. They had to change for outdoor clothing. There were some tricycles, early learning bicycles, slides, swings, footballs, basketballs, and some beach toys which they use at the sandpit which my daughter calls the ‘Castle’. It’s a perfect place for a new kid to make new friends. 

They were playing sometimes that day. The caregivers were in a visible distance, but they don’t give specific instructions rather let the kids figure out what they want to play with available resources. It was really interesting to see what they want to do. They have kept a water filter outside with cups. Whenever they’re thirsty, they have to be in line for the water. 

As it was her first day, after the outdoor activities, I brought her home. Next couple of days, my wife stayed with her half-day and on the fourth day she was alone almost ¾ of the day. They have nap time after outdoor games. Lunch follows it and later in the evening more playtime.

The kindergarten has a web app where parents can create an account to track the recordß. They record the kids’ activities on this web app and we can check their main activities with the details. I’m not sure whether it was particularly for this kindergarten or a general one. 

During our initial visit, they told us that they don’t specifically teach but let the kids choose their interesting areas. If they like to write and read, they’ll focus them on that, if they like for art and craft, they have tools for that as well. It is, in my opinion, a really good way for her to start. 

If you are new parents who moved to Denmark and need more information about this process, do let me know in the contact form or you can just add a comment. I’ll try to answer with the best of my knowledge and sources.