Introduction/specifics

Introduction

Our “Kinderhaus Froschkönig” opened its doors on March 02, 2009 and since then has been caring for a total of 40 children aged six months to three years in four groups. The “Froschkönig” is open from Monday to Friday from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm. A maximum of 20 childcare places are available between 7:00 and 7:30 am.

We are located in the Marbach district of Marburg, directly opposite the "Brunnenstraße" city bus stop and we can be easily reached by public transport (line 5 and line 14).

As a crèche close to the companies Siemens Healthcare Diagnostic Products GmbH, CSL Behring GmbH, GSK Vaccines GmbH and Pharmaserv GmbH, 30 of the 40 places are primarily available to employees of these companies.

(The contact persons responsible for the allocation of these places can be obtained from the respective personnel departments).

The remaining ten places are allocated to Marburg parents according to defined admission criteria.

Rooms

Premises

In our institution there are two children's groups per floor, each of which can be reached via its own entrance.

Each group room has an adjoining children's bathroom with washing and changing facilities as well as age-appropriate toilets, with the help of which we can support the "potty training” of your children in a natural way.

In addition to the group rooms, there are one or two sleeping rooms for each group, which ensure that each child can find a peaceful nap time according to his or her needs and preferences.

A large play hallway and an exercise room on the upper floor round off the premises.

Play and movement in our institution do not only take place in the group and/or movement room. We use all rooms that the children can reach independently and we try to offer the children exciting and experience-oriented play and movement opportunities in all of these rooms.

We deliberately refrain from using too many materials and distractions in order to avoid overstimulating the children.

All rooms are designed in such a way that they can fulfil the principles of the urge to discover, the joy of movement and the need for rest/relaxation in equal measure.

We use the room design specifically to be able to offer your children opportunities for social interaction and for overcoming their own fears, and to motivate them to try out new things.

Outdoor Facilities

Outdoor area

The requirements, ideas and basic concepts described above should also be taken into account in the outdoor area. Thus, there are areas for running and romping, for speeding with age-appropriate vehicles, a large sandbox, in order to be able to make a variety of sensory experiences, to dig, to muddy and to be able to experience the sand with all senses. Through the elaborately modeled enclosure, the children can be offered further motor challenges (balance, coordination, etc.) in a playful way.

The outdoor area is completed by a bird's nest swing for resting and relaxing and two small pieces of playground equipment that are also age-appropriate.

Daily Schedule

Daily routine

Our daily schedule should have an adequate balance between flexibility and routine.

It should support you as parents and your child in your individual needs as much as possible, but at the same time offer security and stability with fixed framework conditions and cornerstones. For example, the setting of mealtimes and bedtimes, the design of the daily schedule, and the regular inclusion of seasons and annual festivals are structurally fixed cornerstones that serve the children's well-being and meet their need for security, routine, and rituals.

You will find out the exact framework conditions and procedures at an early stage in our “Aufnahmegespräche” that take place before your children are taken care of.

Food

Catering

In our “Kinderhaus Froschkönig” we offer your child a daily full board that includes lunch, breakfast, afternoon snack and all beverages.

Our own kitchen cooks according to the guidelines of the „Deutschen Gesellschaft für Ernährung (DGE) - (German Nutrition Society)". In order to additionally maintain the high qualitative standards of healthy nutrition, our kitchen staff has been certified as “Genussbotschafterinnen - (pleasure ambassadors)" by the “Sarah-Wiener-Stiftung - (Sarah-Wiener-Foundation)" after appropriate further training. They regularly participate in the “Arbeitskreis Köch*innen in Marburg - (working group of cooks in Marburg)". In addition, in cooperation with the “Arbeitskreis Jugendzahlpflege (AKJ)  Marburg-Biedenkopf - (Youth Dental Care Working Group)" and the “Marburger Mini Modell - (Marburg Mini Model)" we follow the guidelines of the “Zuckerfreien Vormittag" - (Sugar-Free Morning)" and implement it in our institution.

We obtain most of our food from organic suppliers, always making sure that the goods are purchased regionally as well as seasonally. By using a wide variety of spices and herbs, the children are offered the greatest possible variety of tastes. The use of salt and sugar is kept to a minimum.

Basics

Our self-image

In our “Kinderhaus Froschkönig” we would like to support you in the upbringing, education and care of your children.

Under the aspects of the „Hessischen Bildungs- und Erziehungsplan - (Hessian Education Plan)" we would like to focus on the encouragement  of the individual needs and interests of your child as well as the development of the overall personality. At the same time, we want to encourage and strengthen the community among the children, taking into account the idea of inclusion.

Based on the knowledge of contemporary pedagogical approaches as well as the basic law of our democratic society, we would like to offer your child the chance to gain basic experiences for coping with life now and in the future.

Purposes of our work

We want to be a place that your child enjoys visiting, where it feels comfortable and secure, can meet other children and experiences community.

We treat your child with love, respect, attentiveness and empathy and attach importance to supporting and strengthening them in the development of their emotional, social, communicative, body-related, cognitive and learning-methodical competences. It should learn to develop its own abilities and to develop new ones.

With our work, we would like to contribute to creating a fundamental basis for your child to get along in its later lives.

Employee

The Team

In the “Kinderhaus Froschkönig” we generally work according to a flexible duty roster, with which we try to deploy our staff as effectively and as demand-oriented as possible, and thus to be able to realize the actual care needs.

Regular training and further education - in accordance to the "Hessischen Bildungs- und Erziehungsplan - (Hessian educational plan)", but also within the framework of certification as a “Hessische Bewegungskita" - are just as much a part of our team's self-image as regular supervision and team meetings, which are intended to contribute to the success of a functioning team.

Topics such as team development, basic pedagogical attitudes and other qualitative aspects of our work are just as important in our eyes as the design of the daily routine, the structuring of everyday life and developmental psychology, since only in the interplay of all these components can good and successful childcare take place.

The team sees its role as pedagogical staff in being a close caregiver for your child, who treats him or her with understanding and appreciation.

A continuous examination of our own “Bild vom Kind - (image of the child)" and our understanding of education is indispensable.

We would like to approach your child as an educational partner with a high competence and dialogue-oriented attitude, because we see each child as a social human being endowed from birth with basic competencies as well as a diverse learning and development potential.

Your child should be able to actively experience the environment and learn "co-constructively" within the framework of a learning community and in exchange with others.

In our institution there is no "management" in the conventional sense. Pending decisions are discussed and clarified together in the team and finally made jointly and independently.

Certain management and administrative tasks are taken over by the responsible coordinator. She acts as an interface between the team, the office, parents and the partner companies.

Teamwork with parents

Parent work

As the provider of the “Kinderhaus Froschkönig” the “Marburger Eltern-Kind-Verein e.V.” has been in existence since 1971.

Today, an approved provider of day care institutions for children, it was founded at that time as an association of self-organized parent-child groups. In the meantime, the “Marburger Eltern-Kind-Verein” cares for about 180 children from six months to six years in nine institutions in the city of Marburg.

In all of its groups parents organize themselves with the opportunity to have a say and to take responsibility for group life. In this way, the communality of all the little and big people involved makes the ideals of the “Marburger Eltern-Kind-Verein” tangible. (cf. www.eltern-kind-verein.de).

In the “Kinderhaus Froschkönig”, we work constantly and actively to harmonize the ideals and requirements of our provider with the conditions of a „betriebsnahe Krippe” (institution close to the company) in a way that is promising, meaningful and positive for all involved.

Entering into a successful educational partnership with you as parents is our top priority. It is important for us to work together with you as parents and thus as your child's most important caregivers in a trusting, open and equal manner.

Various forms of joint discussions are very important to us and form an important basis for a functioning educational partnership with you. For example, we hold admission talks before the start of care so that we can get to know your child. Daily door-to-door talks to exchange information about the child's short-term experiences with you and with us are just as important as the twice-yearly development discussions that round out this offer.

We would like to encourage all parents to openly share their wishes, suggestions, problems or concerns with us so that we can deal with them promptly and openly and work out constructive solutions for the good of the child.

Specifics

The „Froschkönig“ as a „Bewegungskita -  (movement daycare center)"

At the moment we are actively in the process of being certified as a “Bewegungskita - (movement daycare center)"

The idea to get certified - because of the importance of movement for a healthy development of the children - was a process of several years in our facility and has slowly but steadily matured as an idea.

As a joint initiative and with the official support of the “Sportjugend Hessen” and the “Hessischen Ministerium des Innern und für Sport - (Hessian Ministry of the Interior and Sport)" the aim is to create the opportunity for children to experience a wide range of movement at an early age in kindergarten, in order to contribute to a successful childhood education, promote health and prevent accidents.

In our work, it has always been very important to us to ensure a healthy development of body, mind and soul of the smallest children entrusted to us with an adequate promotion of movement. In the understanding of our pedagogical work, we have always been convinced that various areas in a "healthy development" must be holistically intertwined and are largely dependent on the "movement skills" of the children. This includes, for example, the development of perception, the possibility to experience space as much as possible, the cognitive development as well as the development of the child to "social beings" - socio-emotional development.

Through our work as a “Bewegungskita” we want to primarily emphasize the fundamental importance of the medium of movement for all areas of development, without coercion and with a lot of fun and joy.

Unfortunately interrupted by the restrictions of the corona pandemic, the “Froschkönig” will continue on this path as soon as possible