Registration: You can apply by filling in the online form or you can call us: 041 530 43 07

Requesting a place

Visitng the Nursery: We will contact you as soon as possible after you have successfully registered and arrange a meeting at the Nursery for you to look around. This way, you will get a chance to see our beautiful location and meet the Day Care manager, as well as the team in person.

Subsidies: In the meantime, you can take care of all the aspects regarding subsidies.

Subsidies

Settling In: Since children have highly individual needs, we will customize the settling in process to the needs of your child.

Day Care: The regular day care will start after your child has successfully gone through the familiarization process.

The City of Zurich is interested in providing a broad range of supplementary child care services in line with local, school and family needs. Generally speaking, organizing and financing child care outside the family is the responsibility of a child’s legal guardians. The City of Zurich will grant to legal guardians, depending on their economic strength (income, financial assets) a discount on their child care costs at the institutions with which the City has entered into agreements to that effect.

For further information, please go here:

https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/kinderbetreuung/KostenSubventionen_neu_beantragen

Our day care nursery is located in the quiet neighborhood of Hottingen in the vicinity of the University Children’s Hospital Zurich.

Depending on your child’s age and development stage, as well as his or her individual needs –which we pay a great deal of attention to –, the length of the settling-in period at Sunshine Day Care Nursery varies between about two and three weeks. On one hand, your child will, during this period, establish contact with other children, become acquainted with our team of carers, familiarize himself or herself with the nursery’s premises and play possibilities, and experience our daily routine with its rules, procedures and activities. On the other hand, it is during this period that the process of separation – when the child becomes independent from the parents and often vice versa – takes place.

It is a process where the parents retreat step by step, ultimately leaving the nursery for a specific amount of time, the intervals becoming longer and longer over the length of the settling-in period, gradually so and depending on the child’s progress, up to the moment that the child feels perfectly at ease without the parents‘ presence. It is our aim to ensure that at the end of the period your child has established a firm relationship with our carers as well as with the other kids and has become familiar with his or her surroundings.

We follow the Berlin settling-in method, adapting it to each child’s specific needs.

We are there for your child from Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m

We offer all children full-day, family-based care based on a comprehensive and clear care concept – regardless of gender, nationality and religion.

Solid pedagogical foundations

Our main concern: We create the space and structure for your child’s well-being. In a world of security, joy and stimulation, we offer him familiar processes and rituals that give him security and recognition and are essential for his healthy, self-determined development. We take your child’s needs into account and respond to them individually, tailored to his or her level of development.

Close cooperation with parents

There is no care without a trusting atmosphere characterized by mutual respect. You, the parents, are our most important partners. We would be happy to take your feedback, your wishes and your child’s individual needs into account. We also inform you regularly and comprehensively about their well-being and progress – and about our care work. In return, we would like to thank you if you also respect the daycare rules. These are comprehensive, guarantee your child’s well-being and cover all aspects of advanced all-day care.

You can find our complete support concept here:

Pädagogisches Konzept Sunshine Kinderkrippe 2023

Yes, our annual schedule forms the basis of our daily work with the kids. What distinguishes us are our daily outings and our forest exploration days, where we follow our motto: “Let the kids experience on their own how in spring the flowers come out of hibernation, how in summer the butterflies dance above the meadows in full bloom, how in fall/autumn the trees shed their multicolored leaves, and how in winter everything outside is covered in white sugary powder.”

You will find our full annual schedule here:

https://sunshine-kinderkrippen.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Jahresplan-fuer-Eltern-2024.pdf

Generally speaking, the daily routine at our nursery is governed by our rituals and by the general structure of our activities for everyone, as well as by free play.

Whether it is painting, themed handicrafts, singing, exercise, cooking or baking – our activities for everyone both require and foster the children’s social, perceptive, creative and motor skills, for example in role play. These activities can also take place across groups and allow new friendships to form.

We give free play a great deal of room, allowing each child to decide for himself or herself what and whom he or she would like to play with, and also for how long he or she would like to pursue this activity. While the children are playing, our carers will tend to remain in the background and encourage the kids only where they feel that it is necessary.

Early bird time from 7 a.m.

Whether still sleepy or full of beans already – the kids are received by our carers between 7 and 9 a.m. before the morning circle starts at 9 a.m. and everyone kicks off a new day singing a couple of songs.

Next, it’s the start of a planned activity for everyone according to a given theme, or the kids are allowed to play freely. A singing circle for everyone is also included in the morning routine.

Depending on the daily menu, the older children are allowed into the kitchen at least once a week to help our team prepare lunch or snack.

Lunch at 11:30 a.m.

Lunch for everyone is a fixed daily ritual at our nursery. Here is where we create a familiar atmosphere with lively conversations – this is a matter close to our hearts.

At our nursery, we pay a great deal of attention to providing the kids with a wide variety of fresh and, above all, healthy foods. This is one of the core concepts of Sunshine Day Care Nursery. And that is why plenty of fruit, vegetables and salads are on the menu every day.

Our great variety of foods is meant to encourage the kids to make discoveries and to develop a positive attitude towards food, without ever forcing them to taste something they don’t want to. Good table manners as well as handling knife, fork and spoon on one’s own and helping oneself to one’s food at our lunch buffet are also part of our concept.

We bottle-feed and/or give baby food to our little ones as directed by their parents and following their individual daily needs/patterns.

Immediately after lunch, everyone brushes their teeth, and then it’s off to the midday nap – for those who would like to take one.

Afternoon from 2 p.m.

Unless we haven’t gone outside already – before lunch –, now is the time to do it.

Our daily “expeditions” to the nearby playgrounds, the Dolderwald forest or simply our own garden/yard are an important part of the Sunshine Day Care Nursery’s concept. No matter what the weather conditions may be, with the exception of storms or torrential rain, we go outside and allow the kids to fully experience nature.

Birthdays are, of course, a very important thing in the lives of our little explorers, and that is why we duly celebrate, preferably in the afternoon, each of these special days including all its rituals.

Zvieri (afternoon snack) at 4 p.m.

Round about four in the afternoon we all sing a song together, something along the lines of “Food, glorious food”, which indicates to the kids that it’s time for their well-earned afternoon snack. Here, too, we follow our concept, offering a variety of fruit and healthy titbits – and, of course, a slice of cake for everyone if the afternoon happens to be a birthday afternoon.

Next, we dive into another planned activity for everyone or let the children play freely, until it’s time for their parents to pick them up between 5 and 7 p.m. and we give extensive accounts of the day’s events.

Needless to say, it’s our youngest ones that constitute the big exception to the rule over the course of every day, simply because they follow their own pattern, and we have to follow them. However, we always strive to include them as best possible in our varied routine, and we also keep our groups mixed depending on their individual sizes.

Providing care for more than 33 children, each of whom brings along a set of specific needs, means an extraordinary amount of responsibility. And that is why our team is made up of carefully selected and highly qualified specialists and closely monitored trainees who are capable, backed by a framework of standard structures and procedures, of carrying this responsibility.

We place a great deal of importance not only on the professional behavior of each of our team members, but also on their personality and their personal interests. A healthy team spirit, the will and ability of each end everyone to carry the Sunshine Day Care Nursery’s concept, and the joy of working with children – those are our top priorities. All this is reflected in the way our group teams are made up.

We can provide care for your child on between one and five whole days per week. You can also leave your child for a minimum of two half days in our care.

We offer three mixed-age groups of up to 12 children each.

Generally speaking, health, accident and liability insurance are the parents‘ responsibility. That said, our day care nursery has obtained extensive liability insurance coverage for any incidents/accidents that may occur in our area of liability.

Yes, of course. Our day care manager will be happy to give you more information.

For the protection of other children, sick children may not be cared for in the nursery.

The rates at the Nursery are the same for every month, independent of the number of days the particular month has. Absences caused by illness, bank holidays or vacation are taken into account in the all-inclusive price.