Planning and Implementing the Daily Routine in Slovene

Authors in this paper present the design and implementation of daily routines in Slovenian kindergartens. Slovenian national document for preschool education, Curriculum for Kindergartens (1999), describes daily kindergarten activities (communication and interaction with and among children, use of compliment and reprehension, and rules for controlling time and space) as equally important as curriculum’s written goals and contents. Because hidden curricula may have the strongest effect in the implementation of the daily routine (Apple, 1992; Kroflič, 2005), we loosened past ideological influences on the kindergarten practice and centered our curricula on preschool teachers’ awareness of the importance of hidden curricula elements in the implementation of daily routine. Results (N = 331) of a research, part of a project called “Professional training of educational staff for implementing special educational principles of Reggio Emilia concept in the field of preschool education in the years 2008−2013”, done in years 2009 and 2011, show that there have been some changes in the planning of daily routine. The biggest shift in the implementation of the daily routine was made in so-called “toilet training ” and care for personal hygiene. Research results also show that there are some changes in the implementation of nap time or sleeping, which according to the Curriculum for Kindergartens (1999) must not be mandatory for all children, and also in the implementation of focused activities and eating. For even better practice, there will have to be more continuing education and training for professional workers in education with the goal of developing additional competences fo