In the city of Oulu there are quite a few kindergartens or rather day-care centres that provide early childhood and preschool education. As in any other country of the European Union, in Finland these educational institutions are either run publicly by local communities and municipalities or privately by supporting associations. And by the staff, of course! In general, the monthly costs that parents have to pay for the early education of their children are fairly low, thanks to the Finnish taxing system and more or less favourable educational policies. Kindergarten teachers usually obtain a Master’s degree in early childhood education. During their studies at university they do several weeks of practical training in kindergartens, and thus bring fresh theoretical ideas from the academic world into their professional field. Perhaps that is why, for instance, Oulu’s kindergartens are able to offer high-quality services and a broad variety of pedagogical approaches.

Amongst the kindergartens applying main stream pedagogy, there are institutions that specialise in Montessori- and Steiner-education. Others emphasise the education of the Christian faith, and – if wished so by the staff and parents of the children – workers from Finnish churches visit kindergartens every once in a while in order to organise special religious activities, the so-called pikkukirkko. Additionally, in Oulu one also finds day-care centres following curricula that stress the importance of nature, music, technology, sports, physical exercise or ecological ways of living for children and the rest of society. Furthermore, a considerable number of kindergartens in Oulu put emphasis on language education, and they include, for example, English activities in their daily work. Last but not least, there is also a Swedish and a Finnish-German kindergarten. The former mainly serves the Swedish-speaking minority of Oulu, the latter makes it possible for children in Oulu to make themselves familiar with the Finnish and German languages and cultures.

Oulu’s Finnish-German kindergarten is named Saksanpähkinä, thereby giving reference to its bilingual and bicultural approach. According to its leader and kindergarten teacher, Katja Koirikivi, it was founded as a private institution already in the 1970’s by the effort of a German-born lady, Gisela Tauriainen, who is also known in Oulu as being the initiator of swim schools for babies. At one time Saksanpähkinä was supported – both financially and organisationally – by Oulu’s Finland-Germany society, while nowadays it receives this kind of help from its own supporting association. The facilities of Saksanpähkinä are located at Puistokatu 9 B, not too far from the city centre in a big house by a park with a small playground. It usually opens its doors on workdays at 7:30 a.m. and closes them at 5 p.m. A hot meal is served at around midday, which is typical also for other educational institutions in Finland.

Currently three kindergarten teachers, two trainees and a kitchen aid are taking care of twenty children. The kids are between two and six and a half years old. Annu Lampinen and Beate Piirainen, also teachers in the kindergarten, state that two of the children have German mothers and Finnish fathers. The other kids come from entirely Finnish families. A few of these have relatives in Germany, though, or they went there to spend some time and gathered work experience, before they moved back to Finland again. Being asked about the activities organised by Saksanpähkinä, the kindergarten teachers mention that most of the time they don’t differ much from the ones in regular Finnish day-care centres.

For instance, they do a lot of playing inside, go outdoors for little hiking trips, and carry out projects according to different themes. The last one was about Indians and – as every parent or person involved in raising children knows – the kids loved to learn about the lifestyles and customs of the native Americans. Once or twice a year the older children are allowed to stay overnight in the kindergarten. This is a true highlight, say the teachers, and the two trainees – Tarja Aikio and Anna Leena Sarpola – nod approvingly. Saksanpähkinä has also been successfully using an innovative pedagogical method called storycrafting. It was developed in Finland by a group of educational researchers and makes it possible for children to express their thoughts, feelings and ideas through narratives. For the kindergarten teachers, this means that by listening to the childrens’ stories, writing and retelling them together they might come to a better understanding of the children.

In addition to that, Saksanpähkinä is dedicated to arrange events that are customary in Finland or Germany, like Finnish Independence Day or the German Saint Nicholas Day. But there are also other events. For example, a few weeks ago the kindergarten invited the children and their families to participate in the Martinmas festivities. They are celebrated in Germany and other parts of Central Europe. They date back to Saint Martin, a soldier of the Roman Empire who was born around 316 A.D. in Hungary, and died 397 A.D. in France as the renown Bishop of Tours. It is said that Saint Martin helped to lay the foundations of Christianity in France. In the evening of the 11th of November – the day Saint Martin was buried – one can usually see kids with colourful home-made paper lanterns proceding through the streets. This was also done in Oulu, along with the singing of German-language songs in memory of Saint Martin. Furthermore, the children and staff of Saksanpähkinä staged a play telling one of the legends about Saint Martin, in the Finnish language -- One day Saint Martin encountered an almost naked beggar at the gates of the town of Amiens, took pity and cut his own cloak in half in order to clothe the beggar.

By organising activities like the ones mentioned above, Saksanpähkinä is surely to be thanked for preparing children to deal with different languages and cultures already at an early stage of their lives. All in all, this seems to be more and more important in a globalised world. Moreover, the work being done by Saksanpähkinä also adds something very concrete to the growing international flair of the city of Oulu. Accordingly, it’s worthwhile to mention that the kindergarten also maintains friendly relations to a kindergarten and a few families in Germany. Katja Koirikivi says that, occasionally, staff members even make excursions to Germany in order to acquire new teaching equipment such as games, books, and handcraft material. She states that educational supplies are generally more up-to-date in Germany, and they want to profit from that, of course. Conversely, as Saksanpähkinä applies a successful pedagogical method developed in Finland – storycrafting – next time they go to Germany they might tell their friends there about it.