The aim of this article is to contribute with knowledge about how teachers in school-age educare describe their teaching. Teachers in school-age educare move between two different value systems as they are in a field of tension between tradition and new educational policy intentions. Written reflections from 48 teachers at 31 schools in four municipalities have been analyzed based on what has been described as necessary teaching elements; intentionality, interactivity and intersubjectivity. The deductive analysis resulted in four themes; Play-oriented teaching, Subject-related teaching, Situation-based teaching and Value-based teaching. The results, based on the study's analyzing concepts, show that the teacher's control is central to whether the activities that the teachers carry out can be called teaching or not. The results also show that teaching in school-age educare still centers around a historical core of play, child focus and adaptation to the situation, even though this has been supplemented with new educational policy intentions that emphasize teaching and evaluation of childrens’ learning. However, the analyzes also show that teachers in school-age educare can move flexibly between the two value systems.