Forest Tale Daycare has been a popular and exemplary service of the Downtown Community Center since its opening. It offers great help for downtown parents who have to run official or other types of errands, who would like to organize a program with only one of their children, or who just need some time to regenerate. We had this conversation with our colleagues from Forest Tale about the everyday life of the daycare.

You pay special attention to free play but the daily routine must be also important. How shall we picture a morning or an afternoon in Forest Tale Daycare?

Rita Kőszegi: It is true that free play is essential in our days. We adapt every activity to the needs of the children and we also help them in the process of choosing a game and playing it, as well. We have two regular points in our daily life: an activity at 11 o’clock and the afternoon rest time from 1 pm. to 3 pm.

You have a well-equipped room with a lot of role play and educational toys. Do the kids have favorites?

Bettina Varga: When choosing toys and tools we always focus on the fields of interest of every age group. This is how they can improve and develop in a joyful way while playing. Everybody has their own favorites (even us), so it would be difficult to mention only one, but children love to cook in the toy kitchen, to dress up as policeman or play board games, do jigsaw puzzles.

Children from different age groups are present at the same time in the daycare. How can you manage their different needs?

Nikoletta Széki: My colleagues have different specialties (we are infant, toddler and kindergarten teachers) so we organize the activities and differentiate according to the composition of the group. Games and toys cannot be strictly separated in our daily life but we aim to choose activities that are interesting and optimal for the development of all age groups.

After a consultation and the settling-in period kids can come to the daycare. How does the current situation affect your days?

Anita Nagy: Now it is a high priority to disinfect the surfaces and the toys regularly and we also wear face masks. When choosing our face masks we pay attention to the needs of the kids, so the masks are nicely patterned. We even have transparent masks so kids can see the movements of our mouths, which is essential in the process of learning how to speak. But apart from these our daily life is calm.

Once in a month you publish an article on the website of the Downtown Community Center, which gives useful ideas for parents in terms of games that can be played at home and also offers short poems and customs connected to the given season. Do these appear in the daily life of the daycare, too?
Rita Kőszegi: When writing an article we use the monthly syllabus of the Forest Tale Daycare and it creates the basis for the ideas that can be carried out at home, as well. This is very important since we know how big of a challenge is to plan a family’s valuable free time.

Thank you for the conversation!

This article is translated by Emese Murin.
Click here for the Hungarian version.