Children aged 1-3 are the audience of a series of concerts taking place at Orpheum starting in November ’12 and with dates in 2013 as well.
As far as I know, these are the only concerts for such a young audience here in Graz.
Don’t miss the chance and enjoy the music with your baby. Click here for the program.
If you have time on your hands and you are looking for lots and lots of blogs related to kindergarten, then have a look at
It’s a collection of blogs related to this topic and very handy when looking for one source with different bloggers.
Enjoy your reading!
What does it mean to be foreign? How do different people from different nationalities perceive this feeling? One interesting view has been given by another blogger in Graz and I am reblogging it here. I hope you like it too! The blog is called Mokdong Magpie – sounds intriguing, right?
Tomorrow begins my first day as a high school teacher here in Graz. The school systems in Austria are organized differently than in the U.S., so I will teach ages 11-19 at the “Gymnasium”. The students attending Gymnasium are on a college bound track; after a few years of general study they will begin to choose specializations. I am teaching at two different schools, one that emphasizes sports and one emphasizing music. I’m excited to work with older students, as most of my students in prior years were elementary or middle school-ers, and I hope that I can inspire them to care about my lessons. The TA’s I trained with last week went to one of my schools, and brought back reports of both lovely and terrible classes. This is normal. I had some classes in Korea that I looked forward to everyday, and some where I felt like a…
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What a lovely idea. The Kinderatelier Vasata in Graz started a project especially meant for children and teenagers. The atelier is a place where kids can give their creativity room and space without being subject to pressure or competitive thinking. However, Vasata is a European project and it’s not just located in Graz/Austria but also in other places in Switzerland, Greece and Germany.
Through the arts work, the little artists build on their self-esteem. It is not important to be the best! It is important to feel welcome and accepted and to have a place where they can concentrate on the creative process alone.
This process of concentrating on their artworks alone without any negative feelings from the outside can also support the young artists in dealing with any issues that might be stressing them.
In our ever changing and incredibly fast world where children often need to “function” without being left with room for their own interests and moods, I believe this kind of offer is very meaningful. I will surely check it out!
For all details you can visit the website: www.kinderatelier-vasata.eu or find them on Facebook!
This post may sound a hint too critical, I am sorry for that in advance.
In Graz there is a number of early education centres such as nurseries and kindergardens. For more details, the curious reader is invited to see the post “Preschool Education in Graz”. The government guarantees that ALL children in Graz are provided with daycare, i.e. as long as both parents work and thus need this support from the state. This need is in ALL cases catered for. So they say on the media.
Well, the small print is:
“The goal is to provide daycare to 33% of all children below the age of 3 as set by the EU”.
This raises a number of questions, which need to be carefully considered and which are directly related to socio-political systems. First of all, in Austria there is a maximum maternity leave of 3 years. Aha, so you don’t have to go to work for 3 years?? In theory yes, that’s true. Whether that is the best solution for both mother and child, and on the other hand to society in general, is another question.
What are these 3 years based on? What are the beliefs and convictions behind them? One could say…
a. “It’s for the children’s sake because dueing the first 3 years they are best taken care of by their mother as says developmental psychology”
b. “It’s for economic reasons because other people are employed during your maternity leave and create new jobs”
c “It’s a pure patriarchal system embracing the women’s role to be at home and not working”
Where I actually believe in the validity of argument “a”, I still find it difficult to grasp why this system is designed to enable families to dedicate themselves to having kids, while on the other hand we all know that the labor market is not waiting for us women for 3 years. Besides, this is not a compulsory maternity leave. You could legally even go back to work after 2 months. Not that I stand for that but legally it’s a possibility.
So what about the women who decide to have a family and still get back on the professional track after 1-2 years? What about them? Oh, they are probably the mothers to 33% of the kids in Graz, I see… Being one of those mothers I can only report what a difficult endeavor it was getting a place for my son in a nursery. And you have to face so many compromises:
1. you are not able to choose the best institution for your kid. You are possibly given a place somewhere and you MUST be really grateful for it.
2. when you go back to work, you’re back for real. You can work part-time but what about the times your child gets sick? Who will look after him/her? Not to mention awful situations like the Summer holidays that will force you to find a “solution” for your kid for up to entire 7 weeks while you still have to go to work. That solution could mean you hire a babysitter, if you can afford it, or your toddler is placed in another nursery for that period where he is looked after by complete strangers.
3. once you were generously given a place you are not supposed to get involved in any pedagogical discussions, let alone complain about anything because nursery and kindergarden teachers have a much harder life than you do* and BE REALISTIC – you are in no position to be picky…
All in all, this is reality in early education. I have to be fair though and say I’m fully aware that there are much worse realities and at least we know our children are staying in daycare centres with all necessary infrastructure, food and a warm bed. Most teachers are very committed. The teacher-student ratio at nursery level is actually very good – groups with up to 12 kids are entitled to up to 5 teachers depending on the kids’ age. That is really good.
However, by the time your child hits 3 you are forced to deal with much higher challenges like finding a kindergarden in Graz which:
a. is open beyond 1.30pm
b. allows a nap time
c. has more than 2 teachers for 26 children (this one being an illusion as it turns out)
In the end, you need to make your choices as you believe them to be the best for your child. Compromising is probably something you need to adapt to.
*Refer to the study by the Karl Franzens University “Wissen, was los ist”!
http://www.graz.at/cms/dokumente/10023271_394423/14245642/Wissen%20was%20los%20ist_Endversion%20Studie%20Wustmann%20Dez%2010.pdf
Find out why Vienna is ahead of the game with nursery places:
http://www.austriantimes.at/news/Education/2012-08-01/43280/Vienna_ahead_of_the_game_with_nursery_places/a>s
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Due to the question raised by Pilar to Graz for Kids, I decided to write a short information on flexible, short-time children care services in Graz. As some expats only pass through Graz and stay here only for short periods, it gets difficult for their kids to be integrated in the regular preschool system, which is rather conservative from an organisational viewpoint.
To be more precise, the application process for preschool (nursery and kindergarden) goes like this:
a. at the beginning of each year, around January or February, preschools organise so called open days and all families are welcome to get to know the institution and the staff
b. in March there is an enrollment phase
c. around June you get to know if you got a lucky draw (well based on specific criteria, such as being a resident) and then your offspring would start in September.
For those staying only for short periods it gets more difficult, especially if you are a non permanent resident…
However, there is a childcare care from the Karl Franzens University of Graz, which was initially founded to support university staff needing punctual child care. This is open to everybody and it is called MAMA. It stands for “Mit allen Menschen Arbeiten”, i.e. “To work with everybody”.
At MAMA they take kids from 0-6 years old.
It’s a drop-off group, the child stays there without the parents.
It’s closed on weekends and public holidays.
You need to book in advance!
You can choose the number of hours for your kid’s care between 8:00 and 18:00.
Costs: 59,00€ for 10 hours or on an hourly basis (as per 2012).
According to their website all teachers have been trained to work with children, so they are kindergarden teachers.
Their website is http://www.mama.co.at but unfortunately it’s only in German.
I’ll keep you updated on further services of this nature!
“We want to raise our children so that they can take a sense of pleasure in both their own heritage and the diversity of others” by Mister Rogers.
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