In Germany & in a mess with kindergartens and schools - advice appreciated.

[zwolfy]

Sorry this is long - trying to give context:
We moved to Germany 5 months ago and have 2 children 4 and 2.5 yrs. I had a couple of months notice before we moved and found a kindergarten for the oldest to go to - just by looking on the internet at their website and some help from a German lady. My DH visited and said it was nice but big (140 children). After a period of being unsettled, the eldest now appears fine at the kindergarten and has made friends. However the class she is in is only mornings - finishes at 12.30pm. The classes downstairs can be all day but there are maybe 100 children downstairs and it is quite overwhelming, a bit chaotic and I don't like it. If I wanted them to stay at kindergarten longer they would need to move downstairs. So I have looked at another kindergarten for next yr where the eldest could go and the younger one could start at the same time.

My husband works long hours and is never home for them in the evenings - the youngest is with me all day (not found it possible to find a group for her to go to - everything is full). so I have 12 hr days, 5 days and week and I find the afternoons hard - from 12.30pm I have both of them and need to keep them occupied all afternoon. I get no time to myself now and feel I need it - one thing I want to do next year is go to german classes during the day.

After kindergarten there is school - neither of us are German and I we don't know how long we will live here - I hope at least 5 yrs as I don't want the children to go through the pain of learning a new language to lose it all because we move on. depending on how we settle (and husband's work) we could be either longer. However I think it would be good for the children to be educated bilingually from school age. But the international/bilingual schools seem to be oversubscribed so I need to apply now for kindergarten and school so that I can hope to get the eldest a place at 6. So that could mean another move.

I feel in a mess about the whole thing.

There is a v good website called toytown Germany. The forum there will answer some of your questions. Also you could post a message on kids go website but it I'd in German so you might need help from a friend!

Hi Zwolfy

There is a living in Germany and Austria thread - come and say hello!

Whereabouts are you?

I live in Bayern, in the countryside, and have a 6 yo in the first class at school, a 4 yo at KiGa and a 7 month old. In my experience KiGa (and then school) is generally mornings only, with afternoon places limited - our KiGa asks you why you want one and you have to apply in Jan for the coming Sept, although sometimes they come up mid year.

If you use Toytown do a search before posting a new thread as there are a lot of officious types (mostly men posting from the office I think...) who will take great delight in jumping on any post that is on a topic they saw posted before, perhaps in 2002, and state pompously "the search engine is your friend".

My dd is doing well at the local German Gründschule - dh is German but we speak English at home and it is 100% me who supervises homework. We don't socialise much with ex pats due to our rural location, so I think the fact the kids speak only German outside the house and with all their friends is a big influence, as well as having done 3 years of KiGa (dd did 3 years of 8.30-12.30, from the week she turned 3 (handily in Sept) til the July before turning 6).

Have you got any specific questions we can help with?