Kinderhaus

Our son started with Kinderhaus when he was 2y and 9mo and he just graduated last week. His primarily language was Japanese before Kinderhaus, but after a few weeks there, he got so confident in speaking German and I have a hard time reversing the course. To acquire a language, I think the environment is the most important element. It is a small institution and there are only 12 kids at max, but usually 3 teachers are there to take care of them. Great kids, teacher ratio. No wonder kids learn the language so quickly. Not only the teachers are caring and dedicated, the kids there are all so sweet. He gets a healthy peer pressure from other kids too to use German, be kind to each other, and eat healthy organic veggies and fruits as snacks.
My husband was on the board and we both really enjoyed working with other parents. Most parents are interracial marriage and the kids are learning a lot about different cultures and are guided to be respectful to diversity. True San Francisco school!

We have been at KinderHaus for two years now and our children love it. The teachers a wonderful and the community could not be any better.

KinderHaus is a wonderful institution in San Francisco that initially started as a parent run co-​op, then got licensed as a preschool in 2005. Small class sizes, native german speaking teachers, a great parent community that is really diverse and spans the whole spectrum of German speaking folks, including Swiss and Austrian. My daughter has really blossomed here, made a ton of friends and her German has taken off! She’s become truly bilingual, speaking to english speakers in english, switching seamlessly to German with the teachers and pals. She’ll even speak German with me even though I am an adult learner of the language… Most importantly though, she is happy here and the teachers are wonderful.

My daughter loves Kinderhaus– the teachers are so good with her and recently provided us really thoughtful and helpful feedback at the year-​end parent teacher conferences. As many others have said, my daughter (2 years, 9 months at the time) made a huge leap in her German speaking within a couple weeks of beginning to attend Kinderhaus– her father is a native German speaker and I also speak some, but finding a use for the language in communicating with her peers made a huge difference for her. She already understood German well, but now will usually speak it back when we speak it to her (if she’s in the mood to be cooperative– she is a 3-​year-​old, after all!). We are so glad we have the opportunity to have our daughter at Kinderhaus and would definitely recommend it!

Kinderhaus is the only German immersion preschool in San Francisco. My daughter goes two days a week, and her German has jumped from understanding only to talking back in German and even dreaming in German (she talks in her sleep) in the few months she’s been there.
While we were originally drawn to the school mainly because it is a German immersion program, I am deeply impressed with the quality of the program, the teachers, and the community.
Kinderhaus used to be a run as a co-​op, but it is now a regular pre-​school. Parents are still required to help out (serve on committees etc.), but no more than in other preschools. There is a culture of participation which I haven’t found elsewhere.

Excellent pre-​school with an international perspective. Whether you’re a parent with German-​speaking background, or you simply want your child to experience a multi-​lingual immersion environment — you should check out Kinderhaus.

Ok, let’s be real here, the facilities there are in the basement of an old church, not adequate for preschoolers, cold, dirty and just set up behind divider walls in a big room! Parents also have to bring lunch to school for their kids because they don’t have a kitchen there. In addition it is substantially more expensive than other pre schools, but it requires more involvement than others as well such as cleaning, setup. Additionally, the staff is nice but they are not proper pre school teachers, they are constantly struggeling finding adequate staff because most staff have their own kids who are older who have to go home at lunch taking care of their own kids often leaving the school short staffed in afternoons at the expense of the group at large. Additionally, the gate situation there is just pathetic, you have to honk in order to get into the parking lot often waiting there for several minutes until you get noticed inside and someone opening the gate, getting angry stares from pedestrians for blocking the sidewalk, really pathetic!

So excited to have found this school for my three year old. It’s been the perfect introdcution to school for him– fun and caring teachers, a cozy and nurturing environment, and a great group of children and parents. My husband is Swiss and I’m so happy to have found a place where my son can practice speaking German. I also love that it’s a co-​op and I can participate and experience this new phase in my son’s life.

Ich liebe Kinderhaus! This is about as far as my German goes, but not my daughter’s! She has REALLY blossomed at this small, fun and caring preschool. Since it is a co-​op, there is a lot of parent involvement and parents do have to volunteer in the classroom, but I really enjoy experiencing all the fun stuff my daughter gets to do: art projects, German songs and books, garden projects, science-​related projects and much more! All of this is guided by two wonderful and caring native-​born German teachers. My daughter and her father now speak exclusively German to each other — thanks in no small part to KinderHaus!
Danke Kinderhaus!