Text | Yo-yo Mom
The official account | Yo-Yo Mom German Parenting
In the blink of an eye, I am going to kindergarten. Two weeks ago, kindergarten teachers came to visit the home and informed us of the timing of opening and entering the kindergarten.
From next Monday, I will have to accompany Ran Ran to adapt to kindergarten every day. The teacher said that I had to set aside a month to be mentally prepared, and it might be a month before the child could successfully adapt to the kindergarten environment without a mother.
I will share with you the story of Xiao Ranran's adaptation to the kindergarten after it begins. The most depressing thing is that the money I reported to Ran Ran for the early education class has been paid to the end of March, but I can't go, and I don't refund the money.
However, even so, I still do not regret enrolling Ran Ran in an early education class. I even regret that I didn't take Yo-Yo to early education classes before!
I had just moved to Germany and was not familiar with everything in Germany, nor was the German language good.
Coupled with the challenge of coping with newborns, I had some degree of postpartum depression. It can be said that in the first year of yo-yo's birth, I was very socially afraid, unwilling to contact germans, for fear that others would think that I was a mute.
I didn't dare to take Yo-Yo to an early education class or a baby swimming class, nor did I report myself to a postpartum recovery class because I was afraid that I would not be able to communicate with others because I did not understand the language. Looking back now, I feel that I am much luckier than Sister Yo-Yo!
During that time, I built a car at home behind closed doors every day, and I learned German as soon as I had time. Even in the two months of returning to China, I didn't have time to visit the community with my parents and Yo-Yo, they took Yo-Yo downstairs every day to play, and I took online German classes at home.
At that time, I set myself the goal of being able to communicate with kindergarten teachers and other parents before yo-yo entered the kindergarten at the age of one and a half, so as not to drag my baby's social back!
The goal at that time was completed, and now my German has been fully communicated, so this time I signed up for the postpartum repair class after the confinement, and the harvest was very large, and I have not stopped until now.
When I was able to climb, I also started to enroll her in early education classes, and I have been in school for 5 months.
In fact, at the beginning, I was still hesitant to apply for an early education class, anyway, she was going to go to kindergarten when she was more than one year old, was it necessary for an early education class?
However, in the place where I went to the postpartum repair class, I experienced a "roll" of German mothers!
There are 8 mothers in the postpartum rehabilitation class I reported, and the children are similar in age. When I was only four months old, I often heard German mothers talk about their children going to early education classes. I was amazed that the Germans had reported it so early.
Two moms even said that they and their babies have daily arrangements:
Monday Morning Class,
Tuesday Baby Swim Class,
Wednesday Baby Massage,
On Thursday Krabbelgruppe (a kind of parent-child circle gathering in Germany, also a form of early education class),
Take your baby to a postpartum repair class on Friday (that's the one I went to),
Saturday parent-child yoga or BuggyFit (moms pushing strollers to work out outdoors)...
I was dumbfounded to hear it! It turns out that German mothers also started "chicken babies" so early!
At that time, I was still rubbing, I felt that there was no need to send my children to early education classes too early, I couldn't even climb, what could I do...
Later, I took Ranran to the sports treatment and took her to wash my teeth with me. I found that she was very, very afraid of life, as long as she cried as soon as she saw strangers, and the exercise therapy could not be carried out at all!
It's no wonder that Ran ran was born during the pandemic, and in the past two years, our social activities have decreased significantly, and we have hardly taken her to play in crowded places. She had too few opportunities to contact the outside world, so she cried when she saw people approaching.
Therefore, I quickly arranged an early education class for her, so that she could have the opportunity to contact others, and by the way, see if the German early education class is fragrant?!
I will first talk about the results: Ran Ran is very fond of going to early education classes, after she went to two or three times, she was afraid that the situation of life would improve significantly, and she dared to climb in front of other mothers alone to play.
Took her to exercise therapy, and finally didn't cry as soon as she saw the doctor! After solving the problem of fear of life, sports therapy can really be carried out effectively.
Early education classes in the form of classes
The concept used in early childhood education classes comes from the Hungarian pediatrician Emmi Pikler, which is currently the most popular early education concept in Germany. Its biggest feature is that the moisturizer is silent, hahaha.
If you don't understand this concept, there will definitely be a kind of "just this?" Feel like the money has been cheated out! " illusion.
Let me summarize the three most easy-to-implement principles of the Pikler philosophy:
1. Pay great attention to the importance of daily care for early education and establish a parent-child connection, adults and young babies have to change diapers, wear clothes, take a bath and brush their teeth, etc., every day, are excellent early education opportunities!
Caregivers should not complete these daily activities as mere tasks, but should communicate with the child in the process, explain the activities being done, and naturally build trust and security through physical contact such as touching and hugging.
2. Caregivers should provide children with an appropriate amount of open play material, but not too much, to create a "seemingly casual but carefully prepared" environment for children to play and explore freely.
3. Respect each child's rhythm of development and allow them to develop their ability to exercise at their own pace in their own movements.
At the Early Education Class with Pikler in mind, the atmosphere is particularly relaxing!
The mothers sat against the wall around a large room, with a lot of "play materials" prepared by the teacher in the middle, and the babies played freely, and the teacher did not interfere or guide the children to play anything.
The reason why it is called "game material" is because many of them really can't be called toys!
The most important game materials are kitchen utensils: pots and pans, wooden spoons, bottle caps, vegetable baskets and other daily necessities, as well as silk scarves, sensory balls, cars, etc., the common feature is that they are all natural materials, and there are few plastic toys.
Several typical Pikler large sport racks are indispensable to the Pikler concept, such as tripods. I later bought it for Ran Ran as a first birthday present and placed it in the living room.
Compared with Waldorf and Montessori, Pikler's concept is more elaborate, and the most recognizable is this tripod, which can be equipped with double panels, one side is a smooth slide, and the other side is a small climbable step.
Every time I went to early childhood education, the teacher had already set up the environment, and each time there was a change: the rotating game materials and the sports racks, and the way they were placed.
Although some materials are reused, as long as you change the layout and collocation, it is a new exploration for children.
These game materials are placed randomly on the ground, seemingly disorderly, but in fact, they are carefully designed by the teacher!
During each 75-minute early education session, the teacher would store it every 20 minutes, returning the scattered items to their original positions, and then smiling and squinting as the children messed up again. Storage-chaos-storage-chaos, tireless, and the cycle repeats.
Every time I sit there and watch ran play, I feel like these 75 minutes are the most relaxing moment of the week! It's so healing!
In a completely safe environment, I don't need to play with her or worry about what toxic things she puts in her mouth, I just need to watch her interact with other babies and enjoy the pure time.
I quickly understood why German mothers like to enroll in early childhood education classes for their months old!
For children, it is a perfect and scientific environment to socialize with their peers.
For mothers, this is also a perfect time to rest and relax, and at the same time, you can also communicate with other mothers and ask the teacher to educate children. This is a social opportunity for moms!
Every time in class, the teacher would ask every mother:
How have you been in the past week? How is your baby eating? How did you sleep? Are there any happy things and worries you'd like to share with us? Every mom has to take turns answering.
When I hear other mothers worry that their children eat too little, wake up at night N times and sleep badly, especially clingy, love to bite people, etc., I instantly feel that I am not lonely!
It turns out that the problems that my children experienced, others are also experiencing! Therefore, this weekly sharing often becomes a place for mothers to pour out their bitterness and comfort each other.
Sometimes the teacher will also send some reading materials on specific topics in the group before the class, so that we can read it in advance and then discuss it in the next class.
Topics we discussed included sleep, complementary feeding, eating on your own, adapting to kindergarten, how to transition from diapers to toilet training, and more.
The teacher will also share with us some professional good books, picture book toys and other good things to provide professional information for mothers (this seems to be what I do!). ）。
Finally, singing is also an essential part of the early education class. However, this is not a feature of Pikler, and all early education activities are indispensable to singing.
At the beginning of each lesson, there is no ceremony. When the children arrive, they are free to play, and when all the mothers are seated together, the teacher and the mothers will sing a welcome song together, and the welcome song will sing the name of each child.
The children are still in a state of free play, but every time we sing, all the babies will stop their work and stare at the adults, especially when their names are sung, and the babies can't help but imitate the adults to do the waving movements.
At the end of the day, there is a sense of ceremony, and the teacher will first put away the game materials scattered on the ground and send a signal that "the game time is about to end".
Then sing 3-4 songs together. Sing each song twice, sing the same song every time you go! For small babies, repetition makes them feel safe, and repetition is how they learn.
Although the early education class is only once a week, the harvest is still not small.
Playing at home she always likes to stick to me, she will follow me wherever I go; when I go to the early education class, she does not stick to me, she can climb to the distance to interact with other children and adults, just from time to time to turn back to me to confirm the eyes, occasionally crawl back to me for a hug.
I believe that the early education class will have a positive effect on the adaptation of natural admission to kindergarten, and help the one-year-old baby better adapt to the collective environment! Looking forward to embarking on a new journey in life next week, I will continue to share with you Xiao Ranran's kindergarten clearance!
Note: This article only records my personal experience of taking children to early education classes in Germany and sharing the concept of early education. Early education is not equal to early education classes, and this article does not constitute a recommendation for everyone to report early education classes. Whether to report to the early education class, report what is the decision made by each family according to their actual situation, please do not misunderstand my original intention.
Author: Yo-Yo Mom, studying in the Netherlands to meet love, studying in Saudi Arabia to feel the exotic style, working in Ireland alone through pregnancy, raising two mixed-race female dolls in Germany, sister "Yo-Yo" 7 years old, sister "Ranran" 10 months, Father Marx is a German sociologist with a delicate appearance and a delicate heart. Share the interesting life and cultural collision of Chinese and Western families, and gain insight into German education. His masterpiece "Learning Parenting with German Mothers".