The daily regime (chế độ sinh hoạt) is the part of Vietnam’s national preschool programme that suggests how a full day at school should be divided for each age group: arrival and free play, morning exercise, the planned learning activity, corner play, outdoor play, meals, a long midday sleep, afternoon activities and departure. It is a guide to proportions and sequence rather than a fixed clock, so schools set their own times, but they are expected to keep every element and its approximate length. That is why Vietnamese preschool days look so similar from one school to the next, even when the teaching inside them differs a great deal.
Teachers arriving from systems where the day is planned around lessons sometimes see the routine as a constraint imposed from above. It is more useful to read it as a curriculum decision about young children’s needs: long stretches of play, food and rest at regular times, and short adult-led sessions. This article explains where the regime comes from, what it contains, which parts are flexible, and how curriculum leads in bilingual schools can plan a day that satisfies the regime and still leaves room for deep, unhurried learning.
Where the daily regime comes from
The national preschool programme issued by the Ministry of Education and Training covers care and education together, and the daily regime sits in its section on organising time. For each stage, nursery and kindergarten, it lists the activities of a full day and gives a suggested duration for each one. It assumes the full-day model, bán trú, in which children eat lunch and sleep at school, because that is how the large majority of Vietnamese preschools operate.
The logic behind it is simple and close to what most early childhood traditions would recognise. Young children need predictability; they need food and sleep at regular intervals; their attention for adult-led activity is short; and they learn most through play, movement and conversation. A day that respects those needs will look roughly the same everywhere, because children of a given age are roughly the same everywhere. The regime turns that knowledge into a template that a principal in a mountain commune and a principal in central Ho Chi Minh City can both apply.
The regime is also part of how schools are supervised. When education officers visit, the posted daily routine and the weekly plans are among the first documents they read, and they expect the times written there to match what happens in the rooms. A school that has quietly dropped outdoor play or shortened the nap to fit in extra lessons will usually be asked to explain why.
The elements of a full kindergarten day
The national programme suggests durations for each element, adjusted by age. The table below describes the kindergarten day in plain terms; schools publish their own clock times within these proportions, and nursery groups follow a simpler version with more sleep and care time.
| Element | What happens | Points to know |
|---|---|---|
| Arrival and free play | Children are welcomed, health is checked informally, free play in corners | Often the longest unstructured stretch of the morning |
| Morning exercise | Movement to music, warm-ups, simple games | Usually in the yard, whole class together |
| Planned learning activity (hoạt động học) | One adult-led activity linked to the current theme | Short: roughly 15–20 minutes at three, rising to about 30–35 minutes in the final year |
| Outdoor play | Observation walks, free play, games, gardening | Expected daily, weather permitting |
| Corner play (hoạt động góc) | Children choose among role play, building, art, books, science corners | The richest time for observation and conversation |
| Lunch, hygiene and the midday sleep | Hand washing, a main meal, tooth care, then a long sleep | The nap in kindergarten is about two and a half hours |
| Afternoon activities | Snack, review or extension of the morning, songs, stories, free play | Lighter, often where supplementary programmes sit |
| Departure | Tidying, a short reflection, handover to families | An important moment for brief exchanges with parents |
Read as a whole, the regime gives far more time to play, care and rest than to adult-led instruction. A five-year-old in the final kindergarten year might spend half an hour in the planned learning activity and several hours in play, outdoor time and conversation. Teachers who expect a Vietnamese preschool to be lesson-heavy are often surprised by this; the pressure towards more formal teaching, where it exists, usually comes from families or from a school’s marketing, not from the programme.
What is fixed and what is flexible
Fixed: every element appears every day. Schools are not free to drop outdoor play, corner play or the nap. The programme treats them as curriculum, not as filler between lessons, and supervision checks that they are there.
Fixed: rhythm and sequence matter. Meals and sleep at consistent times, active periods followed by quieter ones, and a predictable order are part of what the regime asks for. Constant changes to the order of the day are themselves a quality problem.
Flexible: clock times and small adjustments. Schools set opening and closing times, and can shift elements by a few minutes to fit their building, their kitchen and their families. Seasonal adjustments, for example moving outdoor play earlier in the hottest months, are normal.
Flexible: what happens inside each block. The regime says there is corner play; it does not say which corners or how they are equipped. It says there is a planned learning activity; it does not dictate the method. This is where a curriculum framework such as Global Nexus does most of its work.
Flexible: individual children. The programme expects teachers to respond to individual needs. A child who cannot sleep can rest quietly with a book; a child who is hungry earlier can be offered food. Flexibility for individuals inside a stable routine is a sign of good practice, not of weak discipline.
The midday sleep and the shape of the afternoon
No element surprises newcomers more than the nap. Children from about three to six lie down after lunch for roughly two and a half hours, on mats or low beds in the classroom, with curtains drawn and teachers present throughout. In systems where children of four and five no longer nap, this can look excessive. In Vietnam it reflects long school days, an early start, a hot climate, and a broad cultural expectation that young children rest in the middle of the day.
For staff, the nap is also the only extended period when teachers can plan, write observations and prepare materials while still supervising the room. Schools organise it differently: some rotate one teacher out for a break while the other supervises; others use the time for short team meetings in the doorway of the classroom. Curriculum leads should treat these minutes as a scarce resource and protect them from administrative tasks that could be done elsewhere.
The afternoon that follows is shorter and lighter. Many schools use it to revisit the morning’s theme through stories and songs, to continue a project, or to run supplementary programmes such as English, music or movement. Because children wake at different speeds and families start arriving from the late afternoon, activities here work best when they are open-ended and easy to join and leave. A complex project step planned for the last hour of the day rarely goes well.
Routines as curriculum, not interruptions
A common mistake in imported curricula is to treat everything that is not the planned activity as transition time to be got through quickly. The Vietnamese programme takes the opposite view, and the research on early learning supports it. Hand washing, setting the table, serving food, putting away mats and tidying corners are where children practise independence, cooperation, sequencing and language every single day. Done well, they also give each child a few minutes of individual attention that a whole-class lesson never could.
In a bilingual classroom this matters even more. Routines are repetitive, predictable and full of concrete action, which makes them ideal contexts for a second language. A child who hears the same short English phrases at lunch every day, alongside the Vietnamese ones, absorbs them with no drilling at all. Global Nexus deliberately plans language for routines in both languages, so that meals, hygiene and tidying carry as much learning as the morning activity. This is one of the clearest places where a framework’s principles and the national regime point in exactly the same direction.
The practical step is to write routines into the weekly plan with the same seriousness as activities: what language will be used, what children are learning to do for themselves at this point in the year, and which children need extra support. Once routines appear on the plan, they start to be observed, discussed and improved, instead of simply happening.
Planning a day that meets the regime and leaves room for depth
Curriculum leads who want a day that is both compliant and rich can work through a short sequence of questions when they review timetables.
- Start from the regime’s proportions for each age group and check that every element appears with roughly the suggested length.
- Mark the longest uninterrupted stretches of play and ask whether anything is breaking them up unnecessarily, such as specialist sessions that pull children out of corners.
- Place the planned learning activity at the time of day when the group is calmest, usually mid-morning after outdoor play, and keep it within the suggested length for the age.
- Decide where supplementary programmes sit so that they extend the theme rather than replacing corner play or outdoor time.
- Plan language for routines in both languages, and agree who leads which routine on each day.
- Protect a defined part of the nap for planning and documentation, and make sure supervision is never compromised.
- Review the routine each term with teachers, using observations of how children actually experience the day, and adjust.
A timetable that passes these checks will satisfy an inspector and, more importantly, give children long periods of meaningful play inside a predictable day. It will also make life easier for teachers, who spend less time managing rushed transitions and more time with children.
Reading a Vietnamese timetable as a newcomer
International teachers joining a Vietnamese school are usually handed the class timetable on the first day. It will be in Vietnamese, it will look very full, and it may seem to leave little space for the kind of teaching they were hired for. Before deciding that, it helps to look at it again through the lens of the regime. Much of what looks like fixed scheduling is actually open time: corner play, outdoor play and afternoon activities are blocks in which the teacher decides almost everything.
It also helps to ask colleagues which elements matter most to the school and to families. In many schools, punctual meals and a calm nap are non-negotiable, because parents notice immediately when they slip. In others, the morning exercise is a point of pride. Knowing these priorities saves new staff from well-meant changes that cause friction. Over time, the most effective international teachers learn to work inside the regime, using its predictable shape as the stable frame within which children feel safe enough to explore, question and try out a second language.
Câu hỏi thường gặp
What is che do sinh hoat in a Vietnamese preschool?
It is the daily regime suggested by the national preschool programme: the sequence and approximate length of each part of a full day, including play, morning exercise, the planned learning activity, outdoor play, meals, the midday sleep and afternoon activities, adjusted by age group.
How long is the planned learning activity in Vietnamese kindergartens?
It is short. As a rough guide it lasts about 15 to 20 minutes for three-year-olds and rises to about 30 to 35 minutes in the final year before grade one. Most of the day is spent in play, outdoor time, routines and rest.
Why do Vietnamese preschool children nap for so long?
The full-day model, early starts, the hot climate and a cultural expectation of midday rest all contribute. The programme suggests a long sleep after lunch, about two and a half hours in kindergarten, and schools are expected to protect it, while allowing quiet rest for children who do not sleep.
Can a private school change the daily regime?
Schools set their own clock times and can make reasonable adjustments, but they are expected to keep every element of the regime and its approximate proportions. Dropping outdoor play or shortening the nap to add more lessons would conflict with the national programme.
Where do English sessions fit into the daily regime?
Bilingual schools usually place supplementary English in the planned activity, in corner play, in routines or in the afternoon. The strongest programmes weave English into existing blocks so that it extends the theme rather than replacing play, outdoor time or rest.
Do nursery groups follow the same daily regime?
Nursery groups for children under three follow their own version, with more sleep, more frequent meals and more time for individual care. Their planned activities are shorter and often happen with small groups or individual children rather than the whole group.