As a kindergarten we have a legal mandate, namely to look after children, to accompany children in their education and to advise and support their parents. In our pedagogical concept, we summarize how we implement this mission.
The work in our kindergarten is inspired by the philosophy of the Reggio Emilia approach. The image of the child, the role of educational staff, spaces and materials, working with parents and working in the community are the pillars of this globally recognized approach.
The predecessors of Reggio pedagogy developed in the mid-20th century through a group of ambitious parents in the Italian city of Reggio Emilia. The founder of Reggio pedagogy is Loris Malaguzzi. We also derive our knowledge, thoughts and actions from the Day Care Center Act Schleswig-Holstein and the guidelines for the educational mission of day care centers in Schleswig-Holstein. Another signpost for our work are the works of Emmi Pikler and Elfriede Hengstenberg.
In our work we assume that every child
- has its own personal treasure,
- needs secure attachment and relationships with adults in the daycare center,
- has more than 100 languages to tell us about its impressions of the world,
- is constantly in a self-educational processes and
- prefers to learn in the presence of other children.
It is our greatest concern to affirm the children in their individual being and to accompany them in their development process to independent personalities. We know that children’s self-learning processes are very much dependent on the extent to which children are involved in the day-to-day life of the Kita. We engage the children whenever appropriate and possible, yet steer processes whenever we think it is necessary.
Participating in the everyday life in the day-care center is a valuable experience for the child, to experience security and attachment, to practice familiarity and to get to know new things. For this reason, the educational concept of the Kita includes the emphasis on “key situations”, such as familiarization, bringing / arriving, group circles, meals, nursing, sleeping, free play and picking up.
The safer a child feels with us and the more self-determined it becomes – and that happens with time – the more we are looking for solutions to support the child’s own decisions. The children should have a say in how, where and with whom they would like to occupy themselves here in the day care center. And if groups open themselves temporarily in the course of the day, it is exactly what makes this possible for children! We therefore call for opening processes both in the crèche and in the pre-primary area. For the preschool children, we offer a dedicated project group once a week.