Enzweiler daycare center

Representation in absentia

• The closing times are communicated to parents at the beginning/end of each year.
• The Enzweiler daycare center is closed for three weeks during the summer vacations, between Christmas and New Year, on bridge days and on a total of 4 team days per year.
• Additional closing days due to company outings or staff meetings may occur and will be announced in good time.

• 18 part-time places (7 a.m. to 2 p.m.) from 2 years of age,
• 22 all-day places (7 a.m. to 5 p.m.) from 2 years of age

There are currently 7 educational specialists working in our daycare center, divided into 3 full-time and 4 part-time positions.

Surroundings
The Enzweiler daycare center is located in a quiet residential area, just outside the town of Idar-Oberstein, close to the Nahe river and to forest and meadow areas that can be reached quickly on foot.

The open concept in our daycare center means

• Self-education and independent development of children
• Self-determination
• Personal responsibility
• Integration/inclusion

The open concept is characterized by the flexible design options of the rooms. This gives the children the opportunity to pursue their own needs. The children shape their own development.

The functional rooms should have a stimulating effect on the children, give them the opportunity to gain new experiences, encourage them to try things out and play and follow their own interests.

The open concept offers the children the opportunity to come into contact with different play partners, so that there is always the possibility of new interest-related play groups. The children get to know all the educators at the facility and therefore have the opportunity to choose their own confidant.

Premises and educational areas

Agate room (movement construction site)
This room is equipped with many different movement materials. The highlights are our wall bars and climbing wall.
The development of motor skills goes hand in hand with the development of all brain functions. Movement is very important for cognitive, social and physical development.
For us, movement means that the children can act out their natural urge to move. In our agate room, we allow the children to discover and try out different types of movement, such as balancing, climbing, running, jumping and sliding. Thanks to the many different materials, children and teachers have the opportunity to create different movement landscapes at any time.
By trying things out, the children can recognize their own limits and thus learn to better assess dangers (e.g. when climbing on the climbing frame).
The children have the opportunity to move to music here and thus experience the music and their own bodies.
We also use this room for our regular singing and storytelling circles.

Amethyst room (creative room)
In the creative room, the children work with different materials such as pens, scissors, paper and paintbrushes. We provide the children with natural materials and everyday materials for crafting and building to encourage their creativity and fine motor skills. They design and work creatively while standing at easels, on the floor and at tables. They learn different techniques and try them out.
The children should learn to value their own work and that of the other children.
We offer the children different construction materials in our creative room, which are exchanged depending on their interests.

Rock crystal room
This room is located at the back of our daycare center. This functional room is specifically equipped with play materials for the younger children and serves as a quiet play area.
As all groups are open, this room is used specifically to meet the special needs of the younger children. It is used for settling in, group activities and activities. The room is available for all children to play in.
Another area offers the children opportunities to try out role play and drama. They get to know their own bodies and how they can express themselves. Among other things, the children have the opportunity to imitate the world in which they live, for example in our play kitchen.

Sapphire room
A sleeping and relaxation room adjoins the rock crystal room. In this separate, comfortably furnished room, we have the opportunity to cater to the different sleeping needs of the children. The room is also used for quiet play in small groups and book reading. Different lighting effects create a relaxed atmosphere. After lunch, all children have the opportunity to rest or sleep there.

Corridor
One area offers the children the opportunity to work on games of patience and games that promote fine motor skills in a quiet environment. Other materials such as table games, puzzles, books and construction materials are available here. All materials are interchangeable according to need or interest.
There is also the opportunity to build on a carpet in the hallway with different materials such as a wooden train or Lego Duplo. Here, too, the materials can be changed individually.

Dining room
This room is used for breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks. Other activities, such as the preschool meeting or small group work, can take place there between meals.
Each child brings their own lunch box from home for breakfast. From 7:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., we accompany the children during open breakfast.
We also take part in the "European School Fruit" program. This means that fresh fruit and vegetables are available to all children throughout the day.
We offer all children a warm lunch delivered by a caterer. From 11:30 a.m., the children eat in two groups.
The full-day children bring a lunch box from home for their afternoon snack.
At all mealtimes, we try to create a pleasant atmosphere for the children, teach them values, norms and table manners and encourage them to try unfamiliar things. No child has to eat what they don't like.

Outdoor area/ research corner
Our outdoor area is used extensively as a play area at any time of year thanks to its wide range of possibilities. Thanks to the many possibilities, the children can climb, swing, slide, build, crawl, jump, run, ride a bike and much more.
They get to know different materials, get to grips with them, try them out and explore.
Our outdoor area is a "little forest" with lots of meadows, shrubs, hedges and fruit trees. There is a covered research corner in the outdoor area with materials that are accessible to the children at all times. Research enables the children to gain their own experiences in and with nature and promotes the self-education process.
Beds have been created with the children in which different vegetables are planted each year. Strawberries and raspberries also grow there. The children get to know different types of vegetables and fruit and can get to know and taste the different growth phases from planting to harvesting and the variety.

Gym
We regularly use the gym with our children, which is located in the adjacent building. It offers the opportunity to work with large equipment and plenty of space. By setting up larger movement landscapes, we enable the children to expand their motor skills.

Some of our learning objectives/learning fields

Education for independence
Our educational work is designed to encourage children to act and learn independently, for example through the freedom of choice that each child has when they can select, use and help shape the functional areas themselves.
The materials for playing and working are freely available for children to choose and use. During free play, the children also have the opportunity to decide on the time, duration and type of play themselves.
In order to give the child a certain amount of personal responsibility, it is important to make joint rules and agreements that are understandable and appropriate for the child. This takes place in the daily educational process and in the development of the whole group. We trust the children to use the outdoor area, the functional rooms and the playroom in small groups without constant supervision by a teacher. In doing so, we take into account the developmental stage, age and reliability of the individual child.
Independence also means mastering everyday tasks, such as dressing and undressing independently, going to the toilet on their own, carrying out small tasks (fetching and taking things away) or putting together materials needed for work, as well as tidying up the workplace.

Project work
Project work is a form of everyday life at the daycare center in addition to the wide range of activities and targeted offers. Project work develops from the ideas, needs and impulses of the children and teachers. It takes place over a longer period of time (several days, weeks, months). A project can offer the children the opportunity to gain an insight into the world outside their familiar environment. By working on projects, the children learn to implement actions, procedures and designs themselves.

Some goals of the project work:

• The development and implementation of own ideas is encouraged
• Stimulating the imagination and creativity of the individual
• Encouraging children's curiosity
• Expanding the vocabulary
• Accepting and expressing criticism
• Supporting independence and community skills

Nature education
One focus of our educational work at the daycare center is nature education.
Nature education means giving children the opportunity to experience nature with all their senses. Encounters with nature promote the healthy and holistic development of children. Nature offers a variety of stimuli, motor challenges, impulses and stimuli for independent exploration.
Regular time spent in nature helps to strengthen the immune system.
Being outside every day, regular excursions into nature, projects involving sowing and planting, or observing the changing nature in the annual cycle are an integral part of our educational work. We want to combine environmental protection and children's encounters with nature.
Our natural outdoor area provides us with sticks, cones, leaves, stones, water, mud, flowers and grasses.
We use our outdoor area in all weathers to give the children the opportunity to gain holistic experiences.
In addition to the outdoor area, we also find other natural habitats to explore and discover in the surrounding area on hikes, for example to the neighboring forests or the Nahe river.
It is therefore important that there is always sufficient clothing in the facility that is suitable for the weather conditions.

Participation
Participation means the active and sustainable involvement and co-determination of children in planning and decisions that affect their living environment.
Children should be educated to become active and active people.
We achieve this when children are involved in matters that affect them in an age- and development-appropriate manner. We take the children and their ideas, wishes and needs seriously and ensure that there are sufficient opportunities for participation and support them in their implementation.

Examples in everyday life could be

• The interior design
• Planning projects/ activities/ celebrations
• Rules
• Daily routine

Children should learn to represent their interests and experience participation as responsibility.
They can gain such experiences in our discussion group. This takes place on a weekly basis and strengthens the children's independence and personal responsibility. They learn to take an interest in each other and to stand up for their own interests. The children develop an awareness of acceptance of others and learn ways of dealing with conflict.
We offer the children the opportunity to communicate their complaints, needs and concerns. To this end, we have set up a letterbox in the hallway together with the children. There they have the opportunity to express their concerns with the help of drawings or writing, if necessary with the support of a pedagogical specialist. This content is discussed together in the discussion group.

We would like to:

• Attract attention
• Motivate participation
• Learning together with the child
• Focus on your strengths - this promotes energy and confidence

Miscellaneous

Settling in
For the "little ones", starting daycare means leaving the family and getting to know a new, unfamiliar world.
To make this transition easier for the children, a gentle settling-in period in the presence of a familiar caregiver (e.g. mother) is necessary and essential.
It is important for the children that the parents are not only physically present, but also give their child benevolent attention in order to give them the feeling that "it is right that I am here".
The duration of the settling-in period depends on the age and needs of the individual. Children under the age of 3 are acclimatized in the Bergkristall room in accordance with the "Berlin model". For older children, the settling-in period is individual and adapted to the child's needs.
Before the child visits the facility on its own for the first time, it is familiarized with fixed caregivers from the daycare team through so-called taster days.
Only when the child can detach itself from its mother or father and has established a relationship of trust with the educator will it be admitted. The transition to the other nursery teachers is also carried out carefully.

Last daycare year
We want to promote a sense of togetherness within the group of future schoolchildren in order to grow together as a community. The educational goals anchored in our pedagogical concept are the basis for a self-confident personality development that can survive in life and at school.
In our facility, the pedagogical work is and remains oriented towards the life situations and spontaneous ideas of the children. The resulting learning takes place situationally in daily interaction, in play, in project work and in all activities that take place in the daycare center. We want to encourage the children to cope competently and autonomously with life situations in the present and the near future, because it is not just the transfer of knowledge, e.g. numbers from 0 - 10 or the distinction between circle and triangle, red and green alone, that is important, but skills such as

• The courage to say no
• Dare to try something new without fear
• Curious and motivated to try things out
• to speak freely and without shyness in large groups
• not to be discouraged by defeats
• to form their own opinion
• answer for yourself
• to teach children the ability to finish a task they have started
• increase stamina
• express yourself in complete sentences
• increase memory and concentration
• learn to be considerate
• learn to listen
• letting others finish

In the final year, a further focus will be on experiencing the reality of life outside the daycare center. This includes, for example, excursions to the surrounding area, traffic education, bus trips, getting to know the school (cooperation) and much more. In small groups, the future schoolchildren are allowed to use our outdoor area on their own after consultation and assessment by the teachers. The group is observed from a distance by the responsible teachers in order to encourage the children to play independently.
The children play an active role in shaping the final year. A group name is chosen together through democratic voting, and goals, activities and themes are defined that form the focus of the final year.

Relaxation and rest time
After lunch, all children have the opportunity to take part in various relaxation methods in a prepared relaxation room, such as children's yoga, Kamishibai, relaxation music with relaxation exercises, reading aloud and free storytelling and fairy tales.
In addition, the children can rest in cosy corners and on the sofa with pillows and blankets to recharge their batteries for the day.
Sleeping is arranged according to the individual sleeping habits and sleeping needs of the children. Everyday life at the daycare center is often exhausting and tiring, especially for the very youngest children. We therefore reserve the right to decide when a child needs to sleep.
Sufficient sleeping facilities are available. We provide a trusting and cozy atmosphere that makes it easier to fall asleep.

Cooperation with parents
Parents' afternoons/parents' evenings are planned and take place as required and include various topics (e.g. information on certain activities with the children, presentations by speakers, parents' committee elections).
The daily door-to-door talks always provide an opportunity to briefly discuss important matters.
For discussions that require more time and an undisturbed atmosphere (consultations, development discussions, problem topics, etc.), we teachers offer parents the opportunity to make an appointment for a parent-teacher conference at any time.
Development discussions take place once a year.
We maintain good and close cooperation with parents/parents' committee and parents' council for festivals and educational planning.

Trainees/interns
We are a training center for trainees and interns at vocational schools for social work.
We also offer school interns the opportunity to gain initial experience in pedagogical work.