Advice on choosing the right German kindergarten

[kato 3,560]

 

In South Germany they make a difference between Kita and KiGA/Creche. Kitas are meant for 3 years and above IIRC.

 

Nah, the other way around. Kita is the all-encompassing term (and, to be fair, it's almost a loanword - 30 years ago you didn't hear this term here, and if you did it made you think of the DDR). Subdivided into Kinderkrippe (age 0-2) and Kindergarten (age 3-6). Usually the two are not mixed in the South.

[Elfenstar 1,676]

 

... In the US, kindie is the first year of school, right? In Germany it is not: it IS a childcare centre.

 

Yeah, I'm aware of this. In the US we start school with kindergarten at the age of 5. Year one begins with age 6.

 

We have put him on a waiting list of a childcare center in the Mannheim area, but I just realized they only take care of kids from 0-3 so wasn't sure if they would kick him out once he turned 3 (which is in the middle of the year) or let him stay in and finish the school year, in which case he'd start (German) kindergarten at 3 1/2.

[anne k 3,643]

Probably best to ask them, then. Don't know how it is in Mannheim, but over here when the crèche and kindergarten are separate the crèche has some sort of an agreement with a nearby kindergarten so that all you have to do is sign a few papers and the children are moved over along with their friends.

[Elfenstar 1,676]

After much searching (from abroad nonetheless), we found a Kiga (kindergarten) that takes kids under 3, starting with 2.9 years, so that is where our wee one will go this fall. However, it is 4 groups of about 20 kids, 2 teachers per group plus an additional 2 interns or assistants that jump from group to group, mixed from 3-6 years old. I was so excited that they had availability (we are currently in Singapore) I didn't ask if they have a curriculum, or about meals or other things one should normally ask. It"s also newly renovated and in our neighborhood so we can walk there.

 

At the moment he visits a childcare in Singapore that separates kids according to year of birth (his class is small so he interacts a lot with the kids born in 2011), and has a play-based curriculum so now I am a bit concerned of course of how he will adjust being with much older kids and all and from what I hear, Kindies in Germany are very unstructured. How do your kids fare?

 

I will admit, because we are abroad and are late registering our kid for Kiga (we registered him for many childcare centers, but in Feb they'd boot him out. I didn't know this initially), we didn't look anywhere else so I'm kinda putting all my eggs in one basket. Hoping to see a nice discussion here, interested in what you guys have to say.

[Conquistador 11,153]

Based on my daughter's experience, the quality, i.e., conscientiouness of the child care workers is extremely important, as well as the ratio of Kindererziherinnen to kids. We switched her to a different kindergarten after his first year, one where she didn't even speak the language (Portuguese) initially, and she had no trouble adapting, not least because everyone was so welcoming and inclusive.

[Elfenstar 1,676]

How big were the classes/groups? My son will be, according to the director of the Kiga, the only non-German speaking kid (he understands it cause his papa speaks to him in German, but his Kita in Singapore is English with Mandarin). I'm hoping that it's a good fit, but I will look around when I am physically back in the country. But the convenience of this new place is simply hard to beat. Unfortunately, there are no bilingual programs in Mannheim (the MIS, an int'l school should have one open next year).

[Conquistador 11,153]

I forget what the ratio was, but it was high and the place was chaotic (I only picked her up there a few times, but it was enough to draw a conclusion). My daughter had attended nursery in the same building, and we were happy with it, but were disappointed with the kindergarten. There's a lot less individual attention in a kindergarten than in a nursery, but since your son needs more contact with German, that might work out just fine.

 

Be sure to also look at private kindergartens because they are more likely to offer great activities and have better staff.

[Rankersbo 462]

A word on chosing monolingual over bilingual. Our son is not at a kindergarten because he suffers from speech delay.

 

We don't have the option of bilingual kindergartens round here so had to chose a German speaking one. When our child entered kindergarten he wasn't really speaking. In the first couple of months of kindergarten he clammed up altogether. Our kindergarten refused the support recommended by our childs speech therapist because they didn't want English spoken in their monoligual environment.

 

So he stays at home now and we're making arrangements to return to the UK.

 

There tends to be a range of reactions to Kita in German, generally if a child is developing normally speech wise they take it in their stride, but some kids don't take well to it.

[Elfenstar 1,676]

 

There is usually structure there, just heavily disguised as anarchy. ...

 

We're in the process of our Eingewoehnung period, (day 2) and luckily my husband joined me yesterday. And he said almost exactly the same thing as above. Coming from Singapore, where there is a curriculum, or a schedule of 30 minutes per activity (including snack and drinking water, etc), it was an exhausting 2 days for me. My son, well, he just played the whole time, but there is no curriculum per say, but then...

 

 

... so the kids learn almost by osmosis that certain things happen at certain times.

...the kids all sat down to have a mid-morning snack at around 10:30 a.m. It was weird. No one said anything.

 

I don't know if this is the right KiGa for my boy after coming from Singapore, where I was told he loved to walk around, even during

"lessons", that his teachers who knew the European system, said might suit him better. But he picked up language very quickly, even now his Mandarin was improving (comprehension especially) and so I felt a structure was good too, but yeah, he loves to play! It's also an open concept, some older kids from my sons group went next door to visit other kids, some were playing in the hallway, some went outside to play.

 

I guess we'll see. But it's a 10 minute walk from home. I am grateful for that.