Introduction/specifics

In our mixed-age children's group "Quarknasen", we look after 17 children aged from one year to school entry in a beautiful half-timbered house with a large garden. Our rooms are located on the first floor. We share the house with the children's group "Wonneproppen", which is located on the lower floor.

Our facility is located in a quiet side street, not far from the centre of Marburg. From here, we have the opportunity to explore our surroundings on foot and go directly to the Lahn, the nearby forest or various playgrounds.

The children are cared for by four pedagogical specialists and additional interns from the age of six months, which provides the children with an important constant in their relationships.

We are open from Monday to Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Fridays from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m..

Our facility is run by the Marburger Eltern-Kind-Verein e.V. (Marburg Parent-Child Association).

The Marburger Eltern-Kind-Verein e.V. runs nine facilities in the city of Marburg and currently looks after 180 children between the ages of six months and school entry. The association is a parents' initiative. We attach great importance to the protection of children, a trusting and familiar atmosphere and a cooperative partnership. In our facilities, children are allowed to develop their talents and experience values such as tolerance, community and closeness to nature.

For further information see: https://www.eltern-kind-verein.de/

Our main focus in the pedagogical work is on the participation of the children. From the very beginning, we want to give all children, big and small, the opportunity to communicate their needs and to participate in all decisions concerning them in the day-to-day life of the day care centre (cf. Hessisches Sozialministerium, Hessisches Kultusministerium 2007, p. 106). To this end, we offer a safe and loving atmosphere, peace and time to communicate and develop, as well as appreciative communication at eye level.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Hessisches Sozialministerium/Hessisches Kultusministerium (Hrsg.) (2007): Bildung von Anfang an. Bildungs- und Erziehungsplan für Kinder von 0- 10 Jahren in Hessen. Paderborn.

Rooms

On the upper floor of the Kinderhaus St. Jost we have set up in the premises of a 3-room flat. The individual living rooms are divided into "group rooms" with a family character. We have a large eat-in kitchen where we all like to have breakfast and lunch together. In addition, there is a sanitary and care area, a hallway and a playroom with a construction carpet, which is converted into a bedroom at lunchtime. We also have a creative room with many different materials that do not yet have a specific purpose and thus enable creative design processes. There is plenty of room for imaginative play in our role-play room with a raised platform and a shop.

It is important to us to adapt the environment to the current needs and interests of the children. In doing so, we always keep the different age mix in mind. We want to stimulate the children's senses and holistic development as well as ensure a manageable and balanced ratio of the materials provided in order to prevent overstimulation.

Outdoor Facilities

We like to spend our time in our large natural garden. Here we also have breakfast or lunch, experience the seasons in all weathers and move projects and activities outside. Beautiful old trees provide shade in the summer, a large mound of eroded soil is used for mudding, digging and transporting, and in the winter it invites us to go down a popo-slide. In the sand pit, the children can gain important sensory experiences. A large lawn for dashing, romping and playing football offers the children numerous motor and cooperative experiences, as well as a climbing house, a swing and a slide. In addition, we enjoy watching our bee house, harvesting home-grown herbs from our herb patch and relaxing in our hammock. Our pirate ship in the middle of the garden is the result of a participation project of children and parents, which was designed together with the parents according to the children's wishes and ideas.

Adjacent to our garden, we have a large paved courtyard and a barn that we like to use for theatre rehearsals, exhibitions and projects.

Daily Schedule

The daily routine gives us a structure for everyday life, yet it is flexible and oriented towards the daily needs of everyone involved.

On Fridays, we plan our preliminary programme for the next week together with the children. This is written on a board for the parents. The actual timing of activities and projects takes place on the day itself. Our weekly programme includes, for example, our gymnastics day, music day, excursion day, creative day or theme day based on the interests of the children's world. Yoga and relaxation are also part of the programme.

Daily schedule

7.30 a.m. - 9.00 a.m. Arrival and free play

The children arrive quietly in the morning and have enough time for free play before breakfast. We organise the morning service together with the Wonneproppen.

9.00 am - 9.30 am Breakfast & Morning Circle

Exchange of experiences, ideas, planning of the day, etc. during a joint breakfast.

9.30 a.m. - 12.00 p.m. Free play, activities, projects, garden

Time for age-specific and mixed-age activities, excursions, "school group", forest, free play, theatre group and much more.

12.00 - 14.00 Lunch & nap time

After lunch, the younger children usually take a nap. The older children have the opportunity to relax with a book or audio book. On Fridays there is no nap or afternoon rest.

From 14.00 - 16.00 free play in the garden or indoors.

After an afternoon snack together, we decide where to play until all the children are picked up. For this we meet again with the Wonneproppen.

Food

We all like to eat together. At both breakfast and lunch, we enjoy a sociable and communicative group atmosphere where we tell each other about the day, discuss things and respond to the individual needs of the children. Our meal times also serve as a joint morning circle and children's conference.

During mealtimes, not only are the children's senses stimulated, but they also experience mutual consideration and table culture. We also want to strengthen the children's sense of belonging to the group through their participation, for example, in setting and clearing the table, as well as encouraging their independence.

We attach importance to sugar-free mornings and like to use regional products, preferably in organic quality. It is important to us to teach the children a conscious approach to food at an early age. As a result, we try to dispose of as little food as possible.

Every morning, the children bring their own breakfast from home and prepare it together in the group. Lunch and afternoon snack is currently delivered by a catering company at the request of the parents. This can be prepared in different ways (meaty, vegetarian, vegan).

The children in our group should experience the meals as a positive experience and self-determined. As a result, the participation of the children also plays an important role here, in that they themselves decide what and how much of the individual components they would like to eat.

Basics

For us, children are competent from the very beginning. They control their own development and need an environment in which they feel safe, experience constant relationships and find a stimulating learning environment that challenges their natural curiosity.

It is important to us that the children gain self-determined experiences in their daily lives. Participation plays an essential role in this. Our children should be able to decide for themselves whether they want to participate in activities during free play or not. They should also be able to decide whether they want to play alone or gain important learning experiences in co-constructive processes with other children.

It is also important to us that they experience mindfulness and appreciation in being together with other people and their environment. We want to show the children how to use resources consciously, towards more recycling and less consumption.

In addition, we experience a very conscious interaction with each other due to the large age mix in our group. The children look out for each other, there is a family-like atmosphere in which the younger children look up to the older ones and learn from them. In the same way, the older children look after the younger ones, thus acquiring social skills and learning to take responsibility.

We want to promote the children's self-efficacy. For us, this also includes accompanying children through failures, experiencing their own limits, dealing with conflicts and motivating them to gain new experiences and grow beyond themselves. It is important that children learn to express their emotions. Anger, annoyance and sadness are just as valid as joy or enthusiasm.

Through a variety of creative activities, we want to train the children's ability to express themselves, create joy and fun in working with different materials and stimulate new ideas and impulses. This also promotes the children's self-confidence and self-awareness of their own actions.

Employee

It is important to us that every child and every adult can express their individuality in the group and develop. We perceive everyone with their strengths and weaknesses and see these as an enrichment for the community.

We always want to treat the children with esteem and respect and meet them individually at their own pace of learning and development. We see our role as active companions of the children, who come to us with many skills and abilities from the very beginning. We want to learn together with the children in co-constructive and open-ended processes and give them the support and freedom they need. The experiences that the children have while they are doing are crucial for us. These offer individual and holistic learning processes.

In the team, too, we always work with each other on an equal footing and at eye level. For a good exchange among each other, the preparation of projects and parent meetings, we sit down once a week for a team meeting. Once a month, we have a house team meeting with the "Wonneproppen".

In order to constantly reflect on and review our work, we take part in regular further training based on the Hessian Education and Upbringing Plan.

Teamwork with parents

An educational partnership characterised by mutual trust and in which the child is the centre of attention form the basis for our daily pedagogical work. A close exchange between the parents' home and the day-to-day life in the children's group is crucial in order to obtain important information about the child's sensitivities, current needs and topics. In daily door-to-door talks, we are available to parents for questions, concerns or criticism. In addition, we hold half-yearly development meetings in which we look at the child's development and also talk about possible problems or support options.

A gentle transition from the parents' home to our children's group is an essential part of our work. For this purpose, we meet beforehand for an initial discussion in which we clarify all important points so that both parents and children can settle in well with us.

We also hold a parents' evening every three months, in which we report on everyday life in the group, present projects, clarify appointments and deal with other current topics.

It is important to us that parents feel comfortable with us, that they experience a family atmosphere and that they can contribute to the day-to-day life of the children's group. There are many opportunities for participation and co-design, for example when it comes to the design of our lunch or the garden, as well as the organisation of maintenance, cleaning and care services in times of need.

Projects

We like to explore their living environment together with the children and go on various excursions to do so. We go to the forest, to town for ice cream or to a nearby playground. We all enjoy spending time together. Sometimes, however, we deliberately separate the group for age-specific activities. For example, the children in the "school group" sometimes go to the Mathematikum in Gießen or visit a farm.

Throughout the year, we have a variety of projects and activities. In April/May, for example, we spend 6 weeks with the children in the forest. For this, we go to the Marburg youth development organisation's urban forest area. With the older children, we sometimes spend the night there. Otherwise, we offer an overnight stay in the children's group once a year.

We also enjoy celebrating festivals such as our school cone festival, potato festival or lantern festival, to which all families and siblings are cordially invited.