In the community with other children, they train their social skills and gain the important experience that there are not only adults, but also other children who behave similarly to them in terms of movement, motor skills and speech, e.g. who cannot yet walk or speak properly. Together, the children then develop much faster.
With biblically based daycare centers that meet this need for the extraordinarily important phase of security in the family, parent initiatives and church communities have a great opportunity to introduce not only children to Jesus, but also their families – who are rarely likely to be traditional churchgoers.
Out of diaconal responsibility, we are also called upon to be there lovingly for children whose (single) parent(s) cannot look after them full-time in the first three years.
After all, daycare centers are very important for the many children living among us whose parents speak little or no German. Daycare centers are particularly important for their integration so that they have a chance at school.
Incidentally, we have a long tradition of Protestant daycare centers: the founder of the kindergarten idea is the German pastor’s son Friedrich Fröbel, whose first daycare center is right next to the Evangelical Alliance House in Bad Blankenburg and is now a museum.
Published in “idea” on March 3.
