Natural paradise for Notzing's offspring

With a year delay due to corona, the St. Nikolaus community kindergarten in Notzing celebrates its 20th birthday on Saturday, July 9th.

A lot is planned from 10 a.m., including the Munich Kasperl and magic clown Manuela, a bouncy castle invites you to play, and the nature experience garden is open to all visitors.

Notzing – This garden is something very special, emphasizes the head of the kindergarten, Simone Thalhammer: “There are meadows, shrubs and perennials for picking.

The children can climb on the natural wall, and the slide is attached to a small hill.” This can also be used for tobogganing in winter, and all year round there are trees to climb or a sand and mud zone to let off steam.” A real paradise for the Notzinger offspring: "Involving nature as much as possible and letting the children participate in it was very important in our facility from the start," says Thalhammer.

A good two decades ago, the Oberdinger municipal council decided to set up the kindergarten in Notzing.

According to Thalhammer, it was simply the turn of the district at the time, and there was a need for two groups of 25 children each.

The kindergartens that already existed in the Oberdinger municipality were all run by the church, but the municipality wanted to have the institution in Notzing under its own wing.

The ten employees in Notzing work with a partially open concept.

The director explains: "The little ones should have plenty of opportunities to choose their own play locations and to move around freely in the rooms." The youngsters also have a say in the gymnastics lessons with a psychomotor concept.

Thalhammer: "We involve the children, they decide in part how the gymnastics lessons are run, how they want to support themselves." But they spend most of their time outside, regardless of the weather.

There is an extra dirt sluice in the rooms of the kindergarten for cleaning.

In addition to romping around in their own nature experience garden, they often go on excursions, including to the strawberry field, to the potato field, to the pond or to the forest.

The kindergarten benefits from many local partnerships, for example with farmers.

"Here the world is still in order, and you just know each other," says Thalhammer.

And: "The commitment of the parents is also considerable."

The size with two groups is currently still appropriate, supply and demand were balanced.

Overall, little has changed over the past 20 years: "The educational partnership with the parents has grown a bit, they are even more involved." In addition, the proportion of double-jobs has increased significantly.

Then as now, the same applies in the facility: “The children come first.

They should feel comfortable and leave us as an independent and individual personality," confirms Thalhammer.

But now it's time for the celebration.

According to Thalhammer, the planning for this has gone perfectly so far, thanks above all to the commitment of the parents' council, and everyone is already looking forward to the big day.