Introduction/specifics

Kita Paradies pursues an integrative concept that focuses on the child and their relationship to life. The facility has therefore set itself the goal of awakening and promoting the individual abilities and interests of the children entrusted to it. The children are given the opportunity to build a foundation that enables them to live in the community.

People of all nationalities, cultures and religions are welcome in our daycare center. We treat all people with respect and appreciation and see this diversity as an enrichment.

Our daycare center is a place of encounter. Together, but also individually, children and adults can discover, play, learn and laugh. We see life as a constantly changing process that everyone in our community can influence and that must be constantly scrutinized for the benefit of the child. We value the needs and interests of children and their families. Through mutual respect, attentiveness and open communication, we create the basis for a trusting relationship in the educational partnership.

To enable children to develop according to their interests and at their own pace, we attach great importance to creating an environment that encourages play and learning. Equally important to us is an emphatic, appreciative relationship with each other for the success of the educational work. In this way, we want to include the children's co-determination according to their age and stage of development and give them the opportunity to be self-effective in shaping their everyday lives.

Our holistic educational work is based on the Hessian Education and Upbringing Plan (BEP). The BEP stands for a pedagogy that focuses on the child with its individual learning requirements. It provides us with stimulation, structure and creative freedom at the same time and enables us to initiate processes together as a team, with the children and the parents.

We have been a certified literature daycare center since August 2019 and want to give children access to a wide variety of literature. We do this by

• Looking at picture books together,
• reading stories and fairy tales aloud,
• Informing with and through non-fiction books and encyclopedias,
• acting with Kamishibai (storytelling theater)
  and
• close cooperation with the community's own library, the Wallufer Schiffchenbibliothek.

The opportunity to come into contact with books and thus access a wide range of educational opportunities is very important, especially in today's world.

Kita-Paradies has also received the Research Station award several times. With the Klaus Tschira Competence Center plaque, we show that we are successfully integrating early science education into our everyday educational activities.

Basics

Pedagogical approach

We work according to the "situation-oriented approach". Our aim is to support children in understanding the world in which they live and to help them become more and more self-determined, competent and responsible as they develop.

Children show us what they know about the world and what concerns them when they play, draw, talk, move and behave. They continue to develop by processing and understanding their experiences. This is why the children's topics are at the forefront of our facility.

The topics brought up by the children are taken up by the teachers and addressed and worked on in projects.

With the situation-oriented approach, we make it our task to accept the children in their personality, to treat them with respect and to accompany them lovingly and helpfully on their path through life. From this point of view, it is possible to create a "prepared environment" for children in which they can work according to their own personal needs, abilities and interests. An activity that is a prerequisite for development and learning.
 

Image of the child

Every child is unique and is perceived and recognized for who they are. This is the fundamental attitude of our daily activities. The teacher therefore acts as a companion, observer and source of inspiration for the child.
 

Inclusion / integration

At Kira Paradies, there is a diversity of family forms, languages and countries of origin.

We recognize the equality of all children and give them the same educational opportunities as part of our everyday daycare routine.

Children learn from and with each other. This learning in the socialization process promotes all children. We respond to the individual learning speed and needs of each child.

Inclusion is therefore a challenge for us to perceive and recognize children in their diversity - in their entire personality as belonging to multiple groups and not just with regard to one aspect of their identity.

Integration means children with and without disabilities playing and learning together, experiencing everyday life together, accepting strengths and weaknesses, helping each other and celebrating progress together.

Several of our nursery teachers have additional qualifications as integration specialists. They support and accompany the group specialists in everyday life with methodology and knowledge. It should be emphasized that an integration specialist is not only responsible for the integration child, but should rather be seen as support for the entire group.

We do not view the socio-educational support of children with special needs as an isolated action by the integration specialists, but rather see it as the task of the entire team to allow all children to participate. The reduced group size and the additional specialist should serve as compensation for the higher demand within the group in order to do equal justice to all children.

To summarize, it can be said that teaching the following values is of great importance:

• tolerance
• respect
• consideration
• appreciation

Participation

Participation = involvement, co-determination

Participation means taking part in the structuring and co-determination of everyday life.

We want to encourage the children to express their own concerns, wishes and interests. This means that we educators listen to the children and take them on board in everyday daycare so that we can develop activities/projects from them.

We perceive the children as discussion partners and take them seriously. We create the conditions for learning participation as

• the children are free to choose their own materials,
• the children are free to decide on the type and duration of individual activities,
• the premises are available for free choice,
• the children can spontaneously decide on individual activities in small groups,
• the teachers take the children's wishes and interests seriously and provide them with platforms to do so,
• rules are discussed and negotiated together with the children,
• adults are always there to support the children.

Employee

The educator as a development guide

"There is no other sensible education
than to be a role model" (Albert Einstein)

One of the most important tasks of educational professionals is to adopt an open and appreciative attitude towards the child and to create a child-friendly environment with a positive atmosphere in the facility. This includes, for example, well-prepared rooms and materials as well as a professional attitude of the educators towards children and parents.

Only a good emotional relationship between child-teacher-parents strengthens the children. This enables them to contribute their mental agility and social skills and to use their own resources without fear.

Through documented observation, the educator establishes what needs and interests a child has and what developmental steps it is taking. Any further educational planning and implementation of their work is based on this documentation.

Thus, the educater becomes a development guide who treats each child with respect and appreciation, engages with their individual educational process and supports them in it.

The teacher ensures that the child sees itself as part of the group and feels comfortable within it. They enable the child to express their own needs and to respect and recognize the needs of others.

The teacher ensures that the educational plan of the state of Hesse is implemented and takes part in annual training courses.

Specifics

Quality seal of our facility

Literacy daycare center

Literacy is laid down in early childhood. This involves not only the ability to read and write, but also experience with the reading and storytelling culture of our society, familiarity with literature and skills in dealing with written language.

We have been a certified literary daycare center since August 2019.

Through

• Looking at picture books together,
• reading stories and fairy tales aloud,
• informing with and through non-fiction books and encyclopedias as well as
• presentation with Kamishibai (storytelling theater) and
• close cooperation with the community's own Wallufer Schiffchenbibliothek library

children are given access to a wide range of literature.
The opportunity to come into contact with books and thus access a wide range of educational opportunities is very important, especially in today's world.

Picture books give the youngest children something to talk about. Older children are already able to question things and thus expand their knowledge. Guided communication also expands their vocabulary.

This is why we not only read for and with the children, but also offer parents or reading mentors the opportunity to read aloud in our daycare center and borrow books free of charge.

Likewise

• volunteer reading mentors,
• our active participation in the annual "Reading Festival" organized by the Rheingau-Taunus Reading Promotion Network,
• visits to author readings,
• book exhibitions in the daycare center,
• further training in literary education

help to introduce children to the "world of books".
 

Research station

We regularly take part in further training courses at the research station. The topics deal with "early science education and literature". Various projects are worked on and developed with reference to the interplay between literature and science. The children are introduced to the topic through stories and experiments.

Examples of this include

• light and shadow
• numbers, shapes and quantities
• noises/sounds
• telling/listening
• movement
• philosophizing

By regularly taking part in the training courses, we receive an award that identifies us as a sustainable science daycare center.