Bilingualism at the Wichtel Akademie
Bilingual education at the Wichtel Akademie München
We consider bilingualism to be an important building block in early childhood development: it lays the foundation for lifelong learning and helps children to find their way in an increasingly international society. We are proud to play our part in promoting bilingualism and look forward to accompanying children on their way to becoming confident and linguistically adept individuals. In addition to our German-English kindergarten and crèche groups, we also offer a German-Spanish group at our facility in Munich Fürstenried.
Bilingualism and education
Numerous studies have proven the importance of bilingual early childhood education: children who are exposed to several languages in kindergarten or nursery from an early age not only develop greater linguistic flexibility. They also show improved cognitive skills, such as better problem-solving behavior and increased cultural sensitivity.
Playful language experience in the daycare center
Instead of teaching the language as in school, we make it a playful experience in the daily routine. Language education is embedded in our holistic pedagogical concept: our team of English educators accompanies pedagogical activities that are geared towards the interests and needs of the individual child.
Our aim is not for the children to leave the bilingual kindergarten perfectly bilingual. Rather, we want to encourage them to enjoy using the English language and gain their first experiences with it. Above all, the children can try out for themselves how English "feels in their mouths". Even if they don't understand much at first, they will gradually learn the meaning of the words through context.
Bilingualism in the crèche
From September 2024, we will also gradually integrate a bilingual offer in the crèche. Due to the different developmental stages of the children in the bilingual crèche and the bilingual kindergarten, our pedagogical approach also differs. In the crèche, the children are at an early stage of linguistic development. This is why our focus here is more on the playful and intuitive teaching of language. We support this through age-appropriate activities and interactions with our educational staff. It is important to our team to create a supportive and stimulating environment in the nursery that lays the foundation for successful bilingual development.