Introduction/specifics

Play, music, gymnastics, learning and fun –

                                                                        – in a modern child daycare in Kreis Düren.

In 2006 the district administration of Düren started offering under-3 child care – initially as a pilot project. It was then not yet clear what we now know today:

An essential building block of family and work compatibility had been created. It was a building block that would develop into the daycare facility „Kreismäuse in der Marienstraße“ in summer 2018 with seven groups and a modern, clear-cut and pedagogically grounded concept and building. Since January 2022  now underthe sponsorship of the child day care Kreismäuse AöR, 130 places for children from 4 months to primary school age – for all children in the city as well as the district of Düren.

We, the „Kreismäuse in der Marienstraße“ , would be happy to inform you about our concept: "Focus on the child"

Rooms

Following the guiding principle „the child at the very heart“, we have constructed and designed our building for CHILDREN.

The child daycare facility „Kreismäuse in der Marienstraße“ has seven groups spread across the ground and first floor of building E of Kreisverwaltung Düren, which can be accessed by the in-house staircase as well as the elevator.

The ground floor accomodates two groups of group form II (4 months to 3 years). The first floor accomodates five more groups, three of which are group form III (3 years to primary school age) and two of group form I (2 years to primary school age).

The rooms are divided into playing areas that provide a generous, exciting and eventful learning arena for the child to experience, try out and explore. The professionally compiled room concept offers stimuli as well as security, because a room and ist design play a major role in how the child finds its way in its environment, how it moves and how it develops a sense of security and comfort.

The children themselves and their actions we observe show us time and time again that a room concept is never finished but ever changing. It has an impact on our well-being and nurtures our perception, our interaction and our communication.

Each of the seven group rooms leads to a respective storeroom as well as a side room, which is designed to the childrens‘ needs. All group rooms are equipped with a kitchenette, so the children can here practice their first housework tasks, by themselves or guided. Furthermore, the group forms I and II have respective quiet rooms for the children to meet their natural need for rest.

The rooms are designed and arranged into playing areas with imagination, leaving room for change. There are individual areas for roleplay, construction, crafts, works, projects as well as an atelier and a Snoezelen room. Open shelves and cupboards offer the children a consciously reduced array of play material from all educational fields. As is possible room-wise and staff-wise, the children can work and experiment with various tools and elements (such as hand drills, hammers, pliers, saws, nails, magnets, sand or water).

Each group has access to a respective washroom with a shower as well as toilets and washbasins customised for children. In addition, the children of group forms I and II have access to separate nursing rooms, in which each child has its own cupboard for diapers and nursing utensils. The wardrobes are placed in the corridors. Here each child has enough room for shoes, hats, sunscreen, gym bags, etc.

Our spacious information board informs parents of current themes, projects, events, dates as well as our weekly changing meal plan.

The ground floor furthermore accomodates a multipurpose room used by all groups for gymnastics and exercise as well as a water play room for the children to experiment and become familiar with the element water no matter the weather. Moreover, both floors have spacious play corridors with various playing equipment (shop, reading area, sitting area). We also have an office, a staff room, a therapy room, staff and visitor bathrooms, a parents‘ café, various storage rooms, a canteen kitchen with separate delivery and rinsing areas as well as a conference room. The rooms‘ generous allocation and brightness create an atmosphere in which everyone feels comfortable.

Outdoor Facilities

Owing to our location at the heart of the city, our outside area is naturally limited in size. This is why we have installed three high-quality playground apparati that compensate for the lack of expanse with structural finesse and explorer-friendly design.

Our outside area invites the children to run, frolic and climb. On two modern 3-tower-modules with bridges the children can develop and strengthen their motoric and cognitive skills through balancing, climbing and jumping.

There are a number of slides available to the children, the large tunnel slide at the side of the building being an absolute highlight. Our large variety of vehicles encourages exercise and role play. The generous sand area, which includes a mud play module, provides lots of room for play and experiment with the elements water and sand. Thanks to the versatile and well-grounded materials, the children can let their imagination run free on our outside grounds.

Food

A healthy diet is essential to keeping our body healthy. We take great care of a healthy and diversified diet. The children take part in choosing and preparing our meals and can choose between various healthy foods and meals. Here they can test their sensory perception sufficiently. We provide beverages such as mineral water, milk and tea. The child learns of different foods and their nutritional values and learns to distinguish foods by their appearance, smell and taste. The child learns to drink from a glass autonomously. It practices eating on its own, expresses its food and drink requests, names cutlery and dishes, learns how to handle them, remains seated until the meal is finished and helps to clean up. Together with the children we establish table rules and provide for a relaxed and talkative atmosphere during meals. In the course of block opening hours and the extension of full-day places lunchtime has matured into another main focus of child daycare.

Appropriate eating habits contribute to our health. That is why we provide good and top-quality meals that are freshly prepared and delivered every day.

It is our goal for the children to take their meals in a homely atmosphere and feel part of the community.

In all seven groups, the children have daily repeating eating rituals. The tables are set appealing so that a pleasant atmosphere is created and lunchtime is made a sensual experience.

Including preferences in the meal composition and occasional „wish days“ are important components of this familial circle. The use of cutlery – which greatly fosters eye-hand coordination – is continuously strengthened.

Especially with food a child can make many own decisions, communicate its needs and experience an inner satisfaction. Acting autonomously and mindfully and respecting wishes in basic needs can let mental strength (resilience) grow.

We take into account the correlation of diet, exercise and health and follow the quality criteria of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung e.V. (DGE).

With the balanced diet we offer in our daycare, your child will receive everything it needs to grow, learn and frolic.

Description and Stations

Kreishaus Düren-Haus E

über Google-Maps

Basics

T H E     C O N C E P T

An important foundation for a child’s development are a positive and well-balanced self-awareness as well as the abilities of acceptance and tolerance. This foundation enables the child to integrate and develop.

An important goal of our pedagogical work is to offer the child and the parents well-balanced, caring and competent support so that a good set of tools is there for every Kreismäuse day, for family life as well as for group life.

We therefore prioritized within our concept the following main points in these fields (amongst others):

• protected environment
• cooperative togetherness with closeness and distance, freedom and limits
• participation
• self-education and mentoring educational processes
• supporting and fostering intellectual, spiritual and physical development
• promoting resilience
• inclusion
• educational partnership with parents
• quality management
• and many more

For us supporting each child individually is the primary goal, because each child is unique and takes its very own steps of development.

Your child writes its own educational history in our daycare in the following educational fields:

Employee

The pillar of our work is our team of educators who look after the children they are trusted with every day with loving and attentive care.

In each group we have at least one qualified educator who is supported by, depending on the group form, a qualified pedagogic, medical professional or childcare worker in order to meet the work’s high standards.

We employ more than 30 members of staff in our daycare.

In order for the children to feel secure and accepted, they are attended by at least three qualified employees per group who shape their educational work creatively with many ideas and foster the childrens‘ play and development.

Our employees regularly qualify themselves further with continuing education programmes.

Quality assurance

Quality control

Our work is regularly reviewed to verify if we are reaching our goals and meeting the childrens‘ needs.

Documentation and securing of results

• listing and proof of occupancy
• situation analysis
• development documentation
• protocols
• annual reports

It is important to us that continuous quality development also equals the constant review of our educational actions and observations as well as questioning educational processes in all educational fields.

Qualification

THE IDEA

Play, music, gymnastics, learning and fun – in a modern child daycare in Kreis Düren.

In 2006 the district administration of Düren started offering under-3 child care – initially as a pilot project. It was then not yet clear what we now know today:

An essential building block of family and work compatibility had been created. It was a building block that would develop into the daycare facility „Kreismäuse in der Marienstraße“ in summer 2018 with seven groups and a modern, clear-cut and pedagogically grounded concept and building. The daycare, funded by Kinderbetreuung Kreismäuse e.V., now offers 130 places for children from 4 months to primary school age – for all children in the city as well as the district of Düren.

We, the Kreismäuse in der Marienstraße, are happy to inform you about our concept.

„The child at the very heart“

Additional Offerings

Acclimatisation phase

The transition from family to Kindertagesbetreuung Kreismäuse AöR is an enormous challenge for the child. Within a short amount of time, it has to learn to adapt to a new environment and build new relationships. During the first period of time, everything is unfamiliar and new for the child, rooms, rituals, children and grown-ups. It first has to get used to new situations, a different daily routine and the separation from its parents over several hours. To make this step forward easier through a smooth transition, we at Kreismäuse have a special acclimatisation phase. It is important for the development of relationships, between your child and our educators as well as between you and the educator of your child. This phase is there to help, support and back children and parents.

In a step-by-step process the acclimatisation aims to

• gain the confidence of your child, to enable it to get to know new people while the parents are still within reach,
• get to know your child and its characteristics,
• learn about rituals and habits in your family, which could also maybe find a place in our daycare (e.g. bedtime rituals, cuddly toys or cuddly blankets),
• learn about your insecurities, worries or fears and together find meaningful ways to handle them,
• enter into conversation about separation anxieties that maybe you also feel,
• come to know that your child’s transition to our daycare can strengthen and enrich the relationship between you and your child.

During this phase we want to lay with you the foundation of a long and trusting partnership. Young children often need a lot of time to get used to everyday life in the group. In preparatory talks we arrange care times and embed them into the framework of a slow and loving detachment from the parents. When the child shows that it feels safe and cheerful, when it adjusts closeness and distance, when it communicates feelings and needs, when it curiously takes part in the daycare’s educational programmes, then you can see that the acclimatisation has gone well.

Integration

„Kindertagesbetreuung Kreismäuse Aör“ – a place for all children

Our daycare is an alternative to special institutions for children with developmental delays and disabilities. We offer enough places for integrative children.

In our daycare, integrative children receive all the support they need. For the families of integrative children we offer competent support and consultation in all questions concerning their child’s education and support.

An integration place requires special education needs, which are determined by the public health officer of the health department. It is constitutional law that all people are equal, with or without disabilities, and that noone must be disadvantaged because of their disability. Excluding people with disabilities violates their dignity. We are open and competent for the care and education of children with disabilities. When parents ask for a respective place, we look into the requirements at hand and those that must be met to affiliate in the daycare. In the past year we were successfully able to give parents who were in need of integration places for their children the respective places.

The general conditions also include personnel and material requirements. The goal of integration is to foster the child with disabilities and to mentor mutual learning processes of children with and without limitations. After the requirements of the general conditions have been verified and met, the child begins to visit the daycare and a pedagogical specialist for integration begins the observation phase, if necessary also with therapeutic support. Together with the parents they develop an individual education plan for the child, which is effective for one year and is modified to the respective stage of development. Children with a physical or mental disability should feel at home in our daycare. They should feel that they are appreciated like all children and have a fixed place within the group.

We feel that children with disabilites are a gain for everybody in our daycare.

To see the harmonious relationships of children with and without disabilities, their acceptance and understanding, their giving and receiving of help and their shining eyes are the greatest reward for our integration work.

Quality Assurance

Profile

• fixed groups and fixed caregivers
• room for privacy in comfortably furnished play corners
• room for open play according to aspects of the situational approach
• explorer-friendly outside grounds in the heart of the city Düren
• healthy, wholesome and well-balanced food
• flexible care times
• carefully selected and constantly trained staff
• long-term experience in child daycare from 4 months of age
• educational programmes in the fields language, music, art, science, gymnastics, forest pedagogics and psychomotor activity
• regular development talks and close cooperation with parents
• exciting and diverse preschool work

Cooperations

As a family centre, the „Kreismäuse in der Marienstraße“ offer a holistic educational child care service that builds on the lifeworlds of the children and their families. Our work as a family centre aims to make it easier for parents to take part in low-threshold, target group specific educational courses. For this purpose we have created a strong network with various cooperating partners across Düren.

The foundation of our work is the optimal networking with many different institutions (such as family education facilities, nursery schools, doctors, psychological and pedagogical counselling centres, …), and the main link point is our daily communication with parents.

The protection of each individual’s as well as each family’s privacy has utmost priority – only with the parents‘ agreement can and shall we take the initiative.

Teamwork with parents

We are a family support institution and aim to be in continuous dialogue with parents in order to recognize the needs of the child. Therefore, parents and educators should be in cooperative partnership with one another and find a common line.

The cooperation with parents is thus of central importance to us and we wish us a good educational partnership and open dealings with one another.

The first contact between families and educators is made in the admission interview, where we exchange and note first information about the child. In addition to these very comprehensive admission interviews, we conduct regular development talks as well as a final conversation (including a written report)

We regularly conduct conversations in passing about current events and the well-being of the respective child. Parents furthermore receive current information through parent letters, kita newspapers and our information board in the corridor.

Moreover, we offer parents‘ afternoons, special events for fathers and grandparents and regular festivities for the whole family (e.g. Easter breakfast, Christmas celebration, etc.).