Congrats! You’ve secured a spot and are now preparing for your child to start Kita 🥳 One of the most frequent questions we see is what things parents should buy for Kita.
Every Kita will send you a list of things they need you to bring when your kid starts Kita but there’s a few things that you will find on pretty much every list.
We've detailed them below based on our personal experience (none of the brands are paying us to post about them, we just like them and think you might, too!).
A small backpack
We adore the Affenzahn animal backpacks, which are very popular and of good quality. They have a "Kleine Freunde" edition for the little ones and "Große Freunde" for the older kids.
The backpack should be able to fit a small water bottle and some change of clothes or your child's favorite stuffed animal. I find it helpful for them to have a front strap across the chest so it doesn't fall off.
House shoes/slippers
There's lots of different brands of "Hausschuhe." For the little ones, “grippy” socks or leather "Krabbelschuhe" work best in our experience.
Rain gear
You'll need a full set of rain gear (pants, jacket and wellies) to store at Kita for those rainy and wet days.
This means you'll have to buy two sets - one for home and one for Kita. There's lots of different brands – I find Tchibo, Ernesting's Family, H&M and even the Lidl or Aldi own brands do the trick.
Change of clothes
Our kids went through A TON of clothes in the first couple of years at Kita because stuff gets wet, dirty or otherwise unwearable… It got better once our daughter was 4 years old or so but up until then, we had at least 3 sets of outfits at Kita at any given time 🙃
A water bottle
We like these from munchkin but again, there’s lot’s of different options. When buying think about usability, sustainability/durability and (one of the most important factors for me personally!) whether they can go in the dishwasher!
For older kids, we like the stainless steel bottles from LÄSSIG.
A snack box
If the Kita needs you to bring breakfast or snacks, a "Brotdose" will he helpful. I find these stainless steel snack boxes from DM to better great value for money and very practical with the little divider to separate the snacks.
A favorite stuffed animal and/or pacifier (if applicable)
If they have one they need for napping or otherwise.
Plus, labels for everything so the things don’t get lost! You can use stickers or stamps or a marker. (I like the stickers option for any clothes I might want to resell but they only work well for clothes with labels.)
Also, keep in mind that clothes can get quite dirty and potentially torn while playing at Kita, so I would not recommend buying anything expensive for Kita (an exception in my book are warm wool items and good shoes and hats for the winter!).
Last but not least, for environmental (and financial) reasons consider buying at least some of these items second hand. I like Vinted and Ebay Kleinanzeigen as online sources. You may also try Nebenan.de. Or, look for a second hand shop in your neighborhood or a (kids) flea market on the weekend.
