State-run kindergartens in Bulgaria, just like panel blocks in the big city and indeed most public buildings, tend to look dour and forbidding. Visiting your typical state-run nursery school in the Sofia suburbs, with peeling wallpaper and dark corridors, can remind you of Prisoner Cell Block H.

First impressions at the private Funky Monkey kindergarten are completely different. You’re immediately struck by the imaginative use of eye-catching colours and designs; the spacious classrooms and corridors with large windows, high ceilings and inviting modern decor. No doubt feng shui followers would approve; something about the design seems to radiate positive energy. Even each step on the staircase is painted a different colour. It seems as if a great deal of effort has been invested in every detail of Funky Monkey, just as its unusual name was the subject of much deliberation and even went to a vote among the staff.

Funky Monkey, a private bilingual school with capacity for 60 children aged between three and six years old, occupies a large modern building on Vaptsarov Boulevard in Sofia’s Lozenets borough. The two-storey complex is home to four classrooms, separate sleeping rooms, a large dining room and spacious exercise yard.

Open since September 15, Funky Monkey benefits from small classes – four groups of no more than 15 children in each set with two teachers assigned to each group. The emphasis is early English-language education involving regular twice weekly visits from a native speaker, Paula Ryde, and intensive input from a team of young but dedicated staff.

Overcrowding is perhaps the bane of the state system, as Funky Monkey’s director Lily Atanosova and administrative director Elena Vladimirova tell me. Having spent many years living in Germany, Vladimirova has had ample opportunity to compare standards. She says that Bulgarian state kindergartens are much worse than in other European countries, blaming under-funding rather than the hard-pressed, well-meaning teachers. "In state kindergartens, children watch lots of TV and the teachers have no special attitude. It’s not like a real school where children can learn, explore and develop competencies for the future. Most kindergartens occupy small apartments and the children tend to stay indoors," she says.

Individual care
At Funky Monkey, by contrast, the little ones are engaged all day, learning English, maths, yoga, painting, craftwork, modern dancing, gardening (children grow their own plants in the backyard and are encouraged to be environmentally aware) and gymnastics. They even have excursions to the theatre, museums, botanical gardens, the puppet theatre and the zoo. A spacious, sealed-off backyard area has tents and wigwams where children can play in the cleaner air of this part of Sofia near Yuzhen Park (South Park).

Parents are sent regular information about the forthcoming week’s programme together with photographs of their adventures and outings. Children learn about numbers, time and weather from daily activities, not just by dry instruction. Using various manual and visual activities the kindergarten helps children to acquire skills and knowledge about nature, the world around them and science.

Children get breakfast and lunch according to a special healthy menu developed by nutritional experts. Even a child with a vegetarian diet is catered for and in such a way that his lunch resembles that of the other children. The day starts at 8.30 to 9am and continues until 7pm with an option for extended days. An on-site nurse, at the kindergarten throughout the day, monitors the children’s health, of special importance during the winter months.

Particular attention is paid at Funky Monkey to a child’s moral foundations, notably mutual respect, civility, politeness and support for an individual’s space, as well as the importance of not interrupting, and listening to each other. "Learn and play" is the kindergarten’s motto, emphasising that education should be fun.

Funky Monkey seems a genuinely happy institution. When I visit at the end of October the children are playing happily with Halloween lanterns; the small groups mean they receive the individual care and attention they need. "Each child has his or her own character. At the beginning when we first opened some of them would be crying for their mothers. Now, a few weeks down the line, the same children don’t want to leave," Vladimirova tells me.


Funky Monkey Kindergarten
47 Vaptsarov Boulevard
Lozenets, Sofia
http://funkymonkey.bg/
Tel: 02/4830917, 0884195881, 0899820466
Email: contact@funkymonkey.bg