Introduction/specifics

Our facility was opened in November 1966 as the second kindergarten of the municipality of Wehrda, which was independent until 1974.

Unlike in the mid-sixties, however, the day care centre is no longer located on the edge of the new development area, but in the middle of Wehrda. A district of Marburg that has undergone significant expansion in recent decades, especially in the north. The day care centre is easily accessible thanks to bus connections and a sufficient number of parking spaces. What has remained is the quiet location on the edge of the forest directly below the Dankersbühl, popularly known as "Gedankenspiel".

In June 2014, the day care centre officially became the first municipal family centre. With parent-child services from pregnancy to school age and an in-house parent counselling service, working with parents is just as important to us as caring for children, since we are guarding the same valuable treasure.

We have taken this attitude with us, even though we had to leave our traditional building for the next few years. The building "Unter dem Gedankenspiel" is being renovated, rebuilt and expanded to include another crèche group, a fresh cooking kitchen and additional rooms for the family centre's services. At Easter 2020, we will therefore have moved completely into the newly renovated rooms on the Diakonie premises "Oberweg 41 A". 

What is important to us!

Respectful, open-minded and tolerant interaction with children, parents, colleagues and guests at our family centre is very important to us. We strive to develop according to the demands of society (e.g. with regard to the media) and yet always keep an eye on child-oriented pedagogy according to our Hessian education plan.

As a place of education for children, we use the cooperation with external professionals and experts in the field of language, music, nature, movement and health.

"You have to keep moving in order to keep the balance" (Albert Einstein).

Rooms

Welcome to a short tour through the premises of the Gedankenspiel Family Centre.

In the entrance area, on the left, you will find the information boards where you can find all the information you need. This would be, for example, current day care centre information and especially daily or weekly updated photos of the groups and the children's activities.

On the right you will find the hooks for muddy trousers and muddy clothes, "our mudroom".

 If you go further, you come to the children's cloakrooms. Each child has their own hook and a small property locker.

If you go up the stairs, you will come to the early-morning area.

Here the children can have breakfast and occupy themselves with building materials, puzzles or painting materials until it is time to go to the groups/rooms.

To the right is the active room. There are many possibilities to climb, swing or balance. This is made possible by a hook system anchored in beams (a so-called motor centre).

There is a corner with disguises for role play such as robbers and police as well as a music system (sponsored by our booster club) for dancing and romping.

In the construction room there are various materials, challenges and ideas to try out. The studio is right next door. It is separated from the construction room by a large cupboard. The various materials and colours give the children the opportunity to try things out and make great things.

In the next room, the quiet room, the children can act out in role play or do quiet activities such as puzzles or painting. The library is located here, and the popular reading mentors also have a place here.

We have a beautiful new bathroom for the children and our ball bath has also found a place in the hallway. Of course there is also a staff room, an adult bathroom, a kitchen, a management office and a small meeting room.

If you walk past all the functional rooms, you come to the bistro. Here the children can have all their meals and birthdays are also celebrated here.

Opposite the bistro is the crèche. This consists of a large group room as well as a separate bedroom and a bathroom with a nappy-changing area and mini toilet.

Outdoor Facilities

Here are a few impressions of our outdoor area.

Daily Schedule

A normal day at the family centre under pandemic conditions

As the daily routine in the crèche differs from that of the over 3 year olds, the description for the crèche children follows in blue.

The doors of the family centre open at 7.00 a.m. for all children whose parents are at work. Two professionals start their service.

The early service area is directly adjacent to the children's cloakrooms, so that arriving families are greeted and welcomed directly.

The Krabbelkäfer, our youngest visitors, with working parents, start their day together with the daycare children in the early service area.

At around 7.30 a.m., the next specialist begins his or her service, so that the children divide up into their home groups.

At 8.00 a.m. the day starts for all the other children. All the groups are now occupied and are looked after by their caregivers.

By 9.00 a.m., all children should have arrived at the family centre and until about 10.00 a.m., the day-care children have the opportunity to try out free play and eat according to their individual needs in the breakfast corner.

The Krabbelkäfer should also have arrived by 9.00 am, the breakfast area in the crèche is supervised by a specialist and is available to the children until 8.45 am.

We have deliberately decided against a joint breakfast in the crèche in order to accommodate the individual needs of the children and families with their different arrival times and family structures.

Until lunch, the groups use the time individually according to the situation approach.

What are the children's current concerns?
What are the children's needs at the moment?
In which way and in which rooms can we best address the children's topics and needs?

In addition, forest days and other activities or projects take place regularly in the groups.

All children with a 12 o'clock place are picked up between 11.45 - 12.00 o'clock and do not take part in lunch.

Currently, the groups have lunch one after the other in the bistro from 11.30 am.

The nursery starts its day with a common morning circle in which each child is greeted by name. We also talk about the weather and determine it with the help of weather stones. In our morning circle box, the children always have a small selection of picture cards with finger plays, songs and rhymes to actively participate in the morning circle.

In the time from 9.00 - 11.00 a.m. we offer the children different activities according to our weekly plan:

• On Mondays we want to discover the forest and nature.
• Tuesdays are for running, romping and racing.
• On Wednesdays, we spend the morning in the outdoor area.
• On Thursdays, the focus is on books and stories.
• On Fridays, there are needs-oriented small group activities.

Based on the situational approach, the balance between structure, which offers support and orientation, and the freedom to pursue one's own interests is very important to us.

All Krabbelkäfer meet for lunch together at 11.00 am in the Bistro. Saturated, tired and exhausted from the morning, the children go to sleep, accompanied by a specialist.

After lunch in the bistro, the groups return to their function rooms. After an exciting morning, there is now a somewhat quieter time. The children play in free play, read a book with a specialist or rest on recliners while listening to a radio play or music.

From 1.45 p.m. the children are seen off and collected with a 2 p.m. place. From 2.00 p.m. onwards, only our full-day children are in the house.

After the nap at around 1.45pm we say goodbye to our 2pm children, they are taken to the cloakroom area by a specialist while the other children have a snack.

In the kindergarten we have another snack at around 3pm and the groups end the day indoors or outdoors, depending on the weather.

In the afternoon, there are either small play activities, we use the outdoor area or we go to the kindergarten children together with the nursery teachers.

Basics

Our facility is open from 7am-5pm and we have space for 75 children. In addition to the crèche group with 10 places - our Krabbelkäfer - the day care centre has three regular groups: the bear group, the elephant group and the dinosaur group. We work according to the situational approach and the needs-oriented concept (for explanations see the framework concept of the city of Marburg).

This means that our day care children still have fixed group times, but can move freely around the facility during the rest of the time and visit an educational room according to their interests.

With Corona, everything is unfortunately a little different: Since we observe the hygiene and distance regulations, we currently work in fixed groups that we separate from each other. This means that we explore and play in all rooms as a group. Each group (dinos, bears, elephants) uses a different room every week. The Krabbelkäfer are in the nursery rooms from 7:30 am.

Our pedagogical focus is on language, movement and nature. We also focus on projects with our Schulis (children who will be starting school next year).

Specifics

The family centre works in a community-oriented way and day care and the services of the family centre are closely interwoven in many places. We create offers for and with parents and families who usually have a connection to the Kita, as we are in close contact with them and know their needs.

The living conditions for parents have changed. The balancing act between work and family has become one of the greatest challenges of everyday life. In addition, there are uncertainties in the areas of upbringing, education and child development as well as stressful times, e.g. in the case of separation situations. In order to support parents in their concerns, but also in their need for information, we have created offers such as individual parent counselling, themed parent evenings or the parent breakfast or café. In addition, there are on-site exercise programmes for parents that contribute to exchange, relaxation and physical balance.

We would like to briefly introduce some of these offers here:

Parent-child groups

In addition to the classic offers of the day care centre, such as regular parent-child afternoons, summer festivals and Advent afternoons, parent-child offers are an important component of our family centre. They serve to get to know other parents and to exchange ideas with them. In addition, there are play and creative activities to enable children to have new experiences within the framework of a small group. They are open to all parents and children from Wehrda, regardless of whether they attend a day care centre or not. It is possible to join at any time.

These meeting points are funded by the State of Hesse (Hessian Ministry for Social Affairs and Integration) and supported by the Karl Kuebel Foundation for Child and Family. They are called Drop In(klusive) and pursue the goal of providing a meeting and welcome place for families with children under 3 years of age.

Our parent-child groups are accompanied by qualified family mentors. It is not only we as professionals who need to continuously educate ourselves, we also want to offer our volunteers personal development. Therefore, we not only ensure a regular exchange with ourselves, but also offer further training on various topics of pedagogy, education and development in cooperation with the Protestant Family Education Centre.

• Baby meeting Wehrda

For pregnant women and parents with children from 0 to approx. 1.5 years of age.

We meet on Wednesday mornings either in separately rented rooms, on playgrounds or digitally.

At the baby meeting, pregnant women and young parents share their experiences. There are ideas for finger games, songs and small activities such as feeling, listening etc. for the children. A midwife also accompanies the meeting with information about nutrition and development.

• Playmice Wehrda

Parents with children in the crawling age of approx. 1 to 3 years.

We meet on Thursday mornings either in separately rented rooms, on playgrounds or digitally.

At the Krabbeltreff, parents or grandparents meet with their children or grandchildren of crawling age. In addition to sharing ideas and having breakfast together, there are ideas for new games, songs or small creative activities. Since movement is very important at this age, there is plenty of room to try things out, for example in the parish room of the Trinitatiskirche!

Parent counselling

Sandra Frommhold Tel.: 06421/3039289 or Mail: elternberatung-gedankenspiel@marburg.de

The Parents' Advisory Service is a first point of contact for parents in the Wehrda district. It is a so-called initial counselling,

• to clarify the need,
• for support with questions and information in the area of family & education or
• referral to further support services.

The parent counselling centre works in a network with other institutions, associations, educational institutions, etc.

Children's library

The Family Centre has a public library for children aged one to six years. At the moment our library consists of over 1500 books, which we have structured and categorised in cooperation with parents and experts. Little by little we will expand the stock, because reading is very important! As children's books are very expensive, we want to share our large stock with many families and are happy to lend books for home.

Reading aloud not only gives children attention and a sense of security, but also encourages creativity and strengthens emotional bonds. Reading aloud regularly can be a time of relaxation. Dare to dive into the world of fantasy with your children! A quarter of an hour of reading aloud every day already has a positive effect on the child's language development.

Description and Stations

Familienzentrum Gedankenspiel

Oberweg 41 A

35041 Marburg