Since 2003, specialists have been developing a pioneering new educational concept in partnership with parents and civic activists. In the spirit of the brilliant scientist Albert Einstein, who formulated his conviction as follows: "The most beautiful and profound thing a person can experience is the feeling of mystery."
The concept has received great recognition nationwide: in 2005, for example, by winning the nationwide competition "Promoting all talents", by the Einstein daycare center Bismarckstraße 6 being awarded the Stuttgart Innovation Prize three times and in 2008 by the Einstein daycare center Daimlerstraße 103 being awarded the nationwide Prevention Prize.
Individual promotion
Every Stuttgart child is perceived with his or her individual interests and feelings, developmental profile and the linguistic, cultural and social background of his or her family.
Each child has an individual educational plan and is actively involved in everyday activities and projects. During joint educational experiences such as children's conferences, the educational processes of all children are deepened and new educational areas are opened up.
The educational areas include language - communication - literature, body and movement, music - social learning - experiments as well as natural phenomena - mechanics - construction. Correspondingly, the rooms in the daycare centers are designed differently.
Language support
Since 2016, 78 municipal daycare centers have been participating in the federal Sprach-Kitas project. Within the framework of the project, the employees and managers of the daycare centers continuously develop and secure their quality in the focus areas of language education integrated into everyday life, inclusive pedagogy, and cooperation with families.
They receive technical and methodological support from the daycare-integrated practical counseling. The focus is on raising the awareness of the pedagogical staff for the design of a language-promoting learning environment and a sensitive attitude to dialogue.
Particular importance is attached to ensuring that the children express all their activities in linguistically differentiated words and are supported and encouraged by the professionals in their dialog. In addition, the presence of the German language is consciously ensured by other language role models such as reading mentors. Regular language assessments allow for targeted support and also advice for parents.
Language education and language promotion in day care facilities for children
The acquisition of language skills has a considerable influence on the successful educational biography of children. This makes it a basic prerequisite for social participation and integration.
Children from families with little stimulation, children with developmental delays, or children with a migration background who are learning German as an additional language often need more intensive support for their language development processes. This more targeted support takes place within the framework of language education and support integrated into everyday life at the daycare center and is oriented toward the child's individual stage of development, abilities and interests.
To this end, there are currently three language support programs in which Stuttgart daycare centers participate:
1. federal program Sprach-Kitas
2. grants from the state of Baden-Württemberg
3. funding principles of the youth welfare office
Educational partnership is a top priority
The most important observations and experiences in the educational history of the girls and boys are recorded for each child in a personal education and development book - called a portfolio - and regularly discussed and evaluated with the parents.
In other ways, too, an intensive educational partnership is cultivated between parents and the daycare center, which already begins with the presence of mother and father during the settling-in period. Later, this includes a variety of joint activities in the context of projects and festivals, as well as a parent survey that takes place every two years with joint evaluation by the daycare center management and the parents' council. In addition, the daycare centers are increasingly developing into family meeting places with counseling and educational offerings. For example, parents can borrow children's books and games.