Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on preschools in the Stuttgart, Germany area. We are wanting to place our 4 year old son in a German school, but am having a hard time figuring out what area of town and what school. We are looking for a good balance between academics and social (not looking for a nursery or babysitting...more for the academic side). Thanks for any help or advice! Cheers :)
Do you know yet what base you are going too? If you will be teaching at Boeblinging look in the Sindelfingen area. I grew up in Stuttgart, and lived there for almost 12 years. My parents too put us into german school, and honestly...I enjoyed it much more. As you have read, in Germany you will not find many Kindergarden classes where the already teach acedemically. Hope this helps
I don't have any advice on Stuttgart specifically, but I did want to let you know that German preschools (called kindergarten here...real school begins with grade 1), for the most part, are non-academic compared to American ones. If you want your son to learn German, the German kindergartens are ideal...total immersion and no academic pressure. We have found here in the Ramstein area, though, that not all German kindergartens will take Americans (many around here are private, and can choose to admit or not). So make sure to talk to any local kindergartens before you commit to a location on that basis.
They have a 3 day a week part-time preschool program on Patch and Panzer. There is also a full-time preschool program on Robinson Barracks. These are programs offered through CYS.
L.,
what Jennifer and Angelique have said is true. German Kindergarten (3-6 years old) do not focus on any acadmic things at all. It's a time for socialization and play. (Though I have read the other day somewhere that play is so important for kids as they learn so much and that if a kid did not have enough time to play they will lag of certain skills later on as they would have developed that during play time...) What a German Kindergarten (and then it depends on the specific school, too) does a lot more is working with crafts (use of siccors and glue and other materials) and they spend a lot more time out in their yard than I have seen other countries do (US and Italy specifically).
Having all that said what German parents do is find a Kindergarten in the area where they live as we don't drive our kids around a whole lot. Everything is done pretty much by foot. So if you end up in an area that has only on Kindergarten your kid will go there. If you are lucky you will be able to choose between a state or church lead school (protestant or catholic). They all cost the same within the county or city limits (generally about 60-70 Euro)as the government sponsors them (I read one place per child costs 6000Euro per year). In your case I suppose you would have to look for opening hours of the Kindergarten as we still have lots of them that are done at about 13.30. You would have to find something with longeer opening hours and that's where you will most likely end up with a place where a lot of kids go with German working parents.
And last but not least because he is not German the Kindergarten will only take him if they have space that they cannot otherwise fill as the Germans have a law that each child once it turns 3 has a right for a space.
If you have other questions we 3 did not hit on yet let me know--I live in Stuttgart, I have one son in Kindergarten and the other in the German School System, my husband is Army and we are station here in Stuttgart since last summer.
E.
P.S. If you decide to go with Kindergarten your son might not have certain acadmics (though you being a teacher you will be able to teach him things that you deem important, though you could just go German with you son wihle being stationed overseas) but he will learn to speak another language fluently--our older son speaks Italian because we put him into the Italian Kindergarten while being station in Italy.
