Daycare Amsterdam

Many children go to a daycare in Amsterdam when their parents are working. Between the ages of 2 and 4, children growing up in the Netherlands can attend preschool. Certified teachers will playfully educate the children. It’s a great way of preparing your child for school.

Kindcentrum De Krekels in Amsterdam Zuid is a daycare center and a preschool. A nice and safe place where children can play together and learn new skills, guided by our qualified and experienced teachers. If you wonder “What is a good daycare in Amsterdam near me?”, please read further and find out what we offer and how our program works. You can also contact us, we’ll be happy to show you around and answer any questions!

What we do at our daycare center in Amsterdam

Let’s start by telling you what we do at our daycare center in Amsterdam. Children from different backgrounds and different nationalities attend Kindcentrum de Krekels. Did you know that attending a daycare center is a great way of learning Dutch? Young children develop new skills through play, and that is exactly the kind of environment we are creating at De Krekels.

In our daycare center, there are many play areas for toddlers. There’s a kitchen corner, a construction corner, and a doll corner. Each child will easily find a play area they like. In the small group setting of a play area, your child will learn to communicate and cooperate with other children.

We also do group activities, like reading a book in the reading corner, making music as a group, or singing songs. In group settings, children will learn to wait for their turn and listen to what other children are saying. It doesn’t matter if your child hasn’t yet mastered the Dutch language. Our teachers give all children the attention they need.

Enroll your child or contact us for more information!

A fixed day structure and group

Young children love structure, repetition, and familiar faces, so we pay a lot of attention to structure when developing our day programs. We have a fixed daily routine and each group has their own teachers. That not only creates a safe environment for the children, it also makes it easy to track the progress of individual children and to adapt our program to any specific need they may have.

We do the activities in a fixed order, but we also balance individual and group activities, so that a child is given a chance to develop individually and socially. We alternate individual activities with activities in small groups or even the whole group.

Making sure each child feels at ease

One of our main tasks is making sure each child feels at ease in our daycare center in Amsterdam. It might be hard to imagine what a newborn’s day at a daycare center looks like. We feed the baby regularly, change diapers, and give them a comfortable place to sleep. Our certified staff console them if they feel uncomfortable. To stimulate their development there are plenty of play areas for different ages. Each play area is adapted to the needs of a specific age group and stimulates the children to learn new skills through play.

Toddlers are a different age group than newborns and also have different needs. At our daycare center in Amsterdam, we explain a lot and answer many questions. Toddlers naturally feel the need to communicate and ask questions. It is their way to understand new things. From our experience, we know that each child develops in its own way, so we have to make sure the child gets what it needs at any given moment. Keeping a fixed day structure, working in small groups, alternating activities, and having the same teachers for a group all help create a positive environment for a child.

You see, the children learn a lot, but there’s also lots of time to play and have fun! The groups at the Krekels consist of a maximum of 14 children. Our childcare center is open on weekdays between 7:30 am and 6:30 pm. Part-time daycare for your newborn or toddler is also possible at Kindcentrum De Krekels.

Please contact Dynamo’s department Planning en Plaatsing if you have any questions, or fill in the application form online!

Play-based education with themes for toddlers

We want to stimulate the involvement of the children by working with themes that play an important role in their world, like giants & goblins, a restaurant theme, or clothing. The children will be working with this theme. We’ll also adapt the play areas if possible. If we have a restaurant theme, for example, we’ll turn the kitchen play area into a restaurant by adding a nice table and chairs. There’s lots of room for their creativity at De Krekels. Crafting, painting, stamping, but also singing and dancing.

Daycare center for expats in Amsterdam

Are you an expat and looking for a suitable daycare center in Amsterdam? Your child is welcome at Kindcentrum de Krekels! Our nursery facility is located in Amsterdam-Zuid and the groups are a nice reflection of the area. In our groups, we have children from different nationalities, and many of the children are from expat families.

Our experienced staff has been working with children whose native language is not Dutch. Reading, singing, and playing games are a great way of learning a new language at a young age. You’ll be amazed how fast your child will pick up the language!

The children mostly live close by and also meet each other outside the crèche. Going to the same infant daycare helps them develop friendships and prepare for school in a great, playful way.

Take a look at this YouTube video to get an impression of what we do at De Krekels!

Daycare facility in Amsterdam with an outdoor playground

We’re proud to say that Kindcentrum De Krekels is a daycare facility in Amsterdam with its own outdoor playground, specially designed for young children. It’s a safe place to play, where children can enjoy themselves by climbing, sliding, and riding duo bikes. We also have an adventure garden with many things to discover: tree trunks to walk on, a crawl tube, and lots of sand to play with!

We believe that being active and playing outside is very important. It is a nice break from indoor activities. Some children find it difficult to sit still, and going outside to play helps us regulate their energy throughout the day. It also helps develop a child’s motor skills. That’s why children who attend our daycare center play in the outdoor playground every day if the weather is fine.

Attention to what your child needs

Our daycare center is for children from 0 to 4 years old. A newborn has different needs than a three-year-old, but our skilled childcare workers make sure each child gets what they need.

If you enroll your child at De Krekels, you’ll have an intake with one of our childcare workers. We will inform you about our crèche and how we work. We talk with you about the feeding and sleeping routines, how your child can be comforted, and what you as a parent expect from us. It is also important to mention any allergies or medication that your child has. In this way, we are well prepared the first time your toddler or baby is brought to our daycare center in Amsterdam.

Most children have to get used to going to daycare too. Getting to know your child is important, it helps us to make him or her feel at ease soon. We realize that it can be hard to bring your child to a daycare facility and that you as a parent have to get used to the new situation too. Don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have!

Certified daycare for children in Amsterdam

Your children mean the world to you. We understand like no other that you want your children to be in a safe and loving environment when you go to work. The Dutch Public Health Service (GGD) regularly inspects daycare facilities in Amsterdam and surrounding places like Amstelveen and Duivendrecht. Each year, there will be an unannounced visit to our location. An inspector checks if our crèche meets the national standards.

At De Krekels your children are in good hands. We have successfully passed all of our inspections. We also hold a HKZ certificate and continually strive to maintain and improve our services.

Please contact us if you have any questions about our certifications. We’ll be happy to supply you with further information.

The best preparation for going from daycare to primary school

At De Krekels, we try to give young children the best possible preparation for going from daycare to primary school. Starting at primary school is a huge step, and we try to make this a smooth transition. We are cooperating with the Dongeschool, the primary school located in the same building as our daycare facility. By combining our expertise, we try to establish a bridge between daycare and school. The teachers at the primary school will be informed about any behavioral or learning issues that have occurred in the early years.

Communication with the school is easier for parents as well. Your contact person at De Krekels will tell you who you can turn to at primary school. If your child needs extra support in a given area, we will help you by informing the primary school.

Dynamo Peuters: a network of daycare in Amsterdam

Dynamo Peuters is offering a network of daycare in Amsterdam. It is part of the general welfare organization Dynamo Amsterdam. We encourage everyone in Amsterdam to participate in all kinds of activities in their neighborhood. We are there for Amsterdam and its citizens. Dynamo Peuters consists of childcare and preschool facilities for children from 0-4 years old.

There are Dynamo Peuters locations all over the city and we always work closely with primary schools near a nursery center. If you are looking for daycare and you live in or near Amsterdam Zuid, Amsterdam Oost, or the city center, you can register your child for a place at De Krekels.

If your child attends a childcare facility in Amsterdam, you may benefit from a contribution to the cost of childcare. On the website of the Dutch tax company, you can find the conditions, as well as information on how to apply for this benefit.

Children with a VVE indication

The consultatiebureau can give a VVE indication for children who are at risk of forming language delays. If you can’t sufficiently stimulate language development at home, they may advise you to enroll in a preschool. De Krekels is a preschool in Amsterdam for children with a VVE indication.

Preschool has many advantages for children whose native language is not Dutch. If they join their peers at our daycare center, we can give them play-based education that helps them increase their language skills. They can catch up with their peers, make friends, and adequately prepare for primary school.

Our VVE program is focusing on several developmental areas:

• Language skills: enlarging vocabulary through singing, talking, and reading
• Motor skills: improving motor skills by moving, dancing, and painting
• Numeracy: developing numeracy by counting together and making puzzles
• Socio-emotional development: stimulating children to play together, help each other, ask for help, and solve small problems to increase self-confidence, independence, and cooperation.

We stimulate the children to develop playfully, in a way that suits their level. Our preschool daycare is more than a regular childcare facility. It’s a place where children can play and learn at the same time.

Enroll your child by filling in the application form online! We will contact you if we have a place available for your child(ren)!

The cost of preschool and daycare at De Krekels in Amsterdam

All children in Amsterdam can attend preschool for a maximum of 16 hours per week. How much preschool and daycare at De Krekels in Amsterdam costs, depends on your income. You can apply for a benefit (kinderopvangtoeslag in Dutch) via Mijn toeslagen. You need a DigiD to be able to log on to Mijn toeslagen. If you don’t have a DigiD yet, you can apply for a DigiD by filling in the application form.

If your kinderopvangtoeslag has been granted, you will be informed about the deduction on the hourly rate of preschool. You will be sent an invoice each month for the remaining amount.

Sending your child to a daycare facility can be quite a step. We can imagine you have questions or need further information. Please contact us or make an appointment to visit our daycare center in Amsterdam-Zuid!