Introduction/specifics

Since 1972 the building Taunusblick 26 exists in the district Nieder Rosbach. The daycare center is located on the edge of the old town center of Nieder Rosbach, in a quiet location and close to the pond area and the Rosbach. The adjacent fields, meadows, the pond area and the Rosbach offer ideal conditions for walks and excursions. The large and natural outdoor area of the Kita Luna, as well as the adjacent public playground and the football field, with their old tree population, the many hedges and bushes, offer pleasant climatic conditions at any time of the year and ideal conditions for activities of all kinds and in almost any weather.

We are an open house and work without a fixed group structure. To this end, we use differently furnished rooms with a thematic focus (creative and work area / construction room / role play room / settling-in group), in which the children can move back and forth freely according to their interests. All children have a reference teacher and parents have a fixed contact person.

Some special features of our facility:

- We have a trained cook who cooks fresh meals with the children every day.
- Once a month there is a breakfast week (buffet).
- daily changing offers and AG's, intensive pre-school work
- Guinea pigs, rabbits, fish and snails enrich our everyday life.
- Since 2007 we are financially supported by our sponsoring association.
- Spacious outdoor area with a large tree population, very convenient location in a quiet residential area with adjacent playground and football field.

Our pets

It is impossible to imagine our daycare center without animals. They fascinate the children and stimulate them to feel, smell and listen. Our guinea pigs and rabbits are very loved. The children find comfort and warmth with them and return affection to the animals. They are very proud and eager when they are allowed to take over tasks or teach other children how to handle the animals. The children also experience the loss of a deceased animal intensely. They grieve individually and differently. It is important that the adults provide appropriate guidance and empathetic support. Our agate snail and the aquarium in the dining room are also often admired and frequently function as "breakfast TVs". The children are natural and caring with them and care for, nurture and protect them with adult support. Our two guinea pigs and two rabbits live in an approximately 9m² animal room and are regularly examined by several doctors. The veterinary care is provided by the local veterinary practice Rosbach vor der Höhe. Once a week the animal room is thoroughly cleaned. During our closing times, the daycare center's educators take turns caring for the animals.

Rooms

In our house, each room has a thematic focus and is used as a functional room. The furnishings of our rooms offer different work opportunities for children and have an encouraging learning and research atmosphere with a high stimulating character. Our rooms and the range of materials are created together with the children. Depending on the needs and workload, each room is changeable and can thus open up new areas for the children to experience.

Studio Our - creative room offers the opportunity for creative development through painting, handicrafts, cutting and gluing with different materials, colors and shapes.
Transformation room - our role-play room allows children to slip into other roles and give free rein to their imagination, for example by dressing up.
Construction room - equipped with a wide variety of construction and building materials, vehicles, and a wooden workshop with real tools, this room leaves no wish unfulfilled for the children.
Dining room and game room - when breakfast and lunch are not being eaten in the dining room, this room is used multifunctionally for group activities, birthday parties, conversations, table games and puzzles.
Hallway - the hallway is the center of the house. In addition to the welcome area with the adjoining checkrooms, this is also where most phone calls come in. Daily information (for example, when someone else picks up the child, appointments, etc.) is gladly received here and passed on to colleagues.
Rabbit hutch - rabbits and guinea pigs allow the children to interact with small animals. If accompanied and interested, the children are welcome to give them a few strokes. 
Bathrooms - there are several bathrooms in the house. The yellow bathroom is adjacent to the beehive. There is the possibility to set up a water workshop. There is also a baby changing unit here. The blue bathroom is equipped with a shower, while there is a visitor toilet in the red bathroom. The staff toilet is located in the basement.
Quiet room - here you will find different and quieter games (kneading, doing puzzles, reading books), as well as a retreat with a cozy corner.
Open kitchen - fresh food is cooked here every day and the children are always welcome to help. In this way, they learn responsible, conscious handling and preparation of food.
Staff Room - this room is used for break times, parent meetings and team meetings. Part of our mini-library is located here. In addition, external activities can also take place here.
Gymnastics room - the gymnastics room offers plenty of space for sports, movement and physical experiences.  It is always highly frequented - especially when movement games are led.
Outdoor area - with a sandbox, climbing frame, suspension bridge, swing, construction trailer and play huts, as well as a water playground and many raised beds, our outdoor area offers many possibilities. Due to a lot of greenery, it is possible to play, experiment or relax here in almost any weather.
Office - here you will find almost continuously a contact point for parents, educators, children and visitors.

The children can play in all rooms and also on our outdoor grounds, taking into account their age-appropriate and individual requirements, even without direct supervision, and can also be among themselves from time to time. The teachers are always available as reliable caregivers.

We do not understand the duty of supervision to be present everywhere and at all times. We act according to the motto: As much control as necessary, as much freedom as possible. The composition of the generally mixed-age groups of children during free play times is essentially based on the current needs of the children, the pedagogical offers, inclinations, personal interests and friendships.

Daily Schedule

Our weekly schedule

Fixed structures and a secure framework are formed by daily focuses and weekly recurring activities.

07:00am to 09:30am Bring time / free play time / time for breakfast

Monday  Spiele AG / Theater AG / Werkstatt AG

Tuesday  Our Grandpa Comes to Us / Music School Friedberg / Meeting of the Preschool Children

Wednesday   Animal Club / Fairy Tale Club / Meeting of preschool children

Thursday   cooking and baking AG / gymnastics in the Haingrabenhalle                                           

Friday   Nature Day

12:00h to 13:30h lunch

13:30h to 15:00h Free play time

15:00h to 15:30h afternoon snack

17:00 The nursery closes

Food

Our catering concept

Breakfast

In our house your children bring their breakfast from home three weeks a month. In the dining room they have the possibility to eat breakfast from early in the morning until about 10:00 am. We provide the children with fruit and raw vegetables every day, as well as milk, cocoa, sparkling water, still water and unsweetened tea if needed. Breakfast time is always accompanied by an adult. This person assists the children with help, provides fresh dishes, fetches supplies of drinks and fruit, and creates a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere. Children who are not so fond of breakfast are of course reminded more often. We would like to see attention paid to a balanced diet. Balanced for us means that everything is allowed as long as it is consumed in moderation. Even the youngest children have likes and dislikes when it comes to choosing their food, and attention must be paid to this. What we are happy to do without are drink packets such as Capri Sun or packets from which fruit is squeezed. Always the last week of the month we have a breakfast buffet, which we prepare together with the children. The children can make requests, we sometimes go shopping together, and we also actively help with the preparation. There is always a sign on our front door in time with requests for donations. As a rule, the following items are available during the breakfast week: bread, rice cakes, crispbread, rusks, sausage, cream cheese, cheese, jam, yogurt and muesli. Sometimes highlights are added like, crepe, scrambled eggs, fruit salad etc.

Lunch

In our house, fresh food is cooked for and with the children every day. The lunch is varied, balanced and suitable for children. Our cook is actively involved in the preparation of all meals every day. In this way, the children naturally learn about healthy and balanced nutrition and experience this in a family setting. Natural ingredients are used for the most part and no ready-made meals. In addition, no flavor enhancers, artificial flavors or preservatives are added to our meals. Due to this individuality, we can also take allergies and intolerances, as well as cultural and religious eating habits into account and prepare the appropriate dish separately. The lunch itself takes place in our dining room. We strive to create a friendly and relaxed atmosphere in which eating together becomes a fun experience. We try to make unfamiliar foods palatable to the children, but do not force any child to eat. We are understanding of likes and dislikes.

Our meal times are as follows: we start at 11:30 a.m. with the very young children and those who are very hungry. Of course, the table saying must not be missing. From 12:00 p.m. until about 1:00 p.m., all other children can go to lunch in two or three more rounds. We use a list to check whether all the children have eaten. We attach great importance to table manners and try to set a good example for the children. Lunch is accompanied by two adults. Each child is allowed to choose his or her favorite food on his or her birthday. Our kitchen is open to all children and adults, anyone may enter and is welcome to ask for a recipe.

The menu plan hangs in advance for the week in the dining room and on the front door. For our children with pictures and for the adults in written form, of course declared with the allergens that must be labeled. In case of illness of our pedagogical cook we are supplied by the catering Greentimes Bärenstark or the local butcher Simon. A substitute takes over and organizes the kitchen.

Snack

For all children who are registered for longer than 3:00 p.m., we provide a small snack in the afternoon. This is also very individual and varies from day to day. Here, too, an adult is always present and accompanies the children.

Specifics

Our open concept

In order to give the children, within the scope of their possibilities, the greatest possible freedom of choice for their own path, we have decided on the concept of open work. The concept of open work conforms to the Hessian Education Plan. The equipment and furnishings of our functional rooms cover the educational areas, are tailored to children's needs and prepare the children for independent living.

The conventional group principle with fixed groups of children and strict room allocation does not exist in our open house. Our doors are open. All (functional) rooms are equally accessible to all children. The children are free to choose with whom they want to play, in which room they want to play, with which specialist they want to be, which offer they want to take advantage of and how long they want to occupy themselves with it. They have more freedom of movement - both inside and outside. There are more free play phases and less scheduled time. In this way, we give all children the same opportunities to work on topics and themes that are important and meaningful to them and that are based on their current interests and life situations. Moreover, all this happens at their own pace.

The term "open" means much more than just having open doors. It requires adults to be consistently child-centered. In other words, the child is allowed to be a child, to develop freely and independently, and thus to be the active shaper of his or her own development. The adults see themselves here as "enablers"; they do not rush ahead of the children and influence them, but support them in exploring their world independently. These decision-making opportunities and freedoms do not overwhelm the children. On the contrary. Children develop amazing competencies as soon as they are trusted with independence, self-responsibility, co-responsibility and participation.

Our functional rooms are supervised by a fixed reference person according to the "expert" principle. This means that the pedagogical specialists are resource-oriented. Depending on which personal strengths and preferences are present, these are also lived out and used in the rooms and offers. Through this concept, we achieve an enormously high quality in the areas offered, which benefits the children completely.

The dinosaurs – our pre-school group for five to six-year-olds

In the last year of kindergarten, the pre-school children are looking for new challenges and want to feel like “big ones”. That's why the dinosaur group meets twice a week. During this pre-school work, the future school children are prepared for everyday school life. This takes place through working together, concentrated individual work, carrying out assignments, games in a circle of chairs, group games, discussions and movement. Numbers and letters are learned and written, quantities are assigned, shapes are learned and initial mathematical knowledge is expanded. All of this happens in a playful setting, alternating between quiet and active phases. Furthermore, general topics such as who am I, body, feelings, school, way to school, current topics of the children or others are dealt with. In addition, activities such as trips and excursions are particularly important to us. This opens the horizon and widens the view of things that happen outside of the day-care center.

Our weekly schedule

Fixed structures and a secure framework form daily focal points and weekly recurring activities, offers and working groups. Every day, all children have the opportunity to freely decide which offer or group they would like to take part in. In some AG's you have to dial in for a longer period of time, others are open and can be changed weekly.Our age homogeneous groups