playgroups in Berlin and activities for small children?

[Inca]

Hi!

We are looking for playgroups, information about restaurants with playareas for children, good places to go shopping that have playareas(like wertheim on kudamm for example), and other nice activities to do with children 1 and 3 years old! Thanks!

OK, just off the top of my head:

Dussmann on Friedrichstraße - a fab play area, nice and empty in the mornings (they open at 10).

Streichelzoo (various farm animals basically) in Görlitzer Park in Kreuzberg.

Botanischer Garten is beautiful, at every time of year. (Costs to get in, though).

Sea Life aquarium on Unter den Linden.

Lovely playgrounds in Prenzlauer Berg at Helmholtzplatz and Kollwitzplatz (latter has a huge sandpit and baby swings).

The Johanniter (?) in Kreuzberg run a Winterspielplatz (basically big space with soft play, lots of toys/trikes/cars, etc.)

St. George's second-hand English bookshop in Wörther Str. (Prenzlauer Berg) has toys and rocking horse etc.

There is a Kindercafé somewhere - never been, but I think it's called 'Klax'.

Do the playgroups have to be English-speaking? The Anglican church (St. George's in Charlottenburg) runs a Parent and Toddler Group from 10am on Mon mornings. There is a bookshop in Schöneberg called Purzelbuch which runs music and movement courses for young children (German-speaking).

There's a lot more stuff for summer.

I don't live in Berlin (any more/yet - we're almost certainly moving back next spring, though) - admylin and SSSandy are 2 MNers who do. I have a 17-month-old.

HTH!

I've been here for a year and I have hardly met any Brits or English families. I also didn't manage to find any groups to join as my 2 dc are too old for toddler groups but I think they do exist as FIT wrote, the church one at ST Georges and there are loads of bilingual kindergarten around. Sorry not much help I know, but if SSSandy is around she seems to be an expert on Berlin compared to me!

Inca, why don't you place an ad (in English is fine) in Zitty or Tip (the 'Kinder' section) (there is an English paper, the Ex-Berliner, but it's, er, not exactly aimed at families), saying how old your children are and that you're looking for things to do, maybe meet other bilingual families on an informal basis? You will probably get swamped with German anglophiles who would like their children to have free English 'coaching', but it might be quite a nice way for you to meet Germans.

You could also try the connect forum, that is a group which meets once a week in a pub to speak english but if you try their forum there might me some who can't meet in the evenings due to having kids or no babysitter (like me, can't go to the evening meet ups!) www.connect.de

Sorry, it isn't the correct web site I will look it up though.

Here it is, www.connectberlin.de, it is sort of a club for english speakers so you could meet all nationalities.

Hello inca and welcome

I second what FIT said, she gave you a good list. My advice would be to go the toddler group at St. George's on Mondays 10-12. It's relaxed, I found it friendly and I learnt a lot about where to go and what to do with kids here from speaking to other mum at the group. How friendly it is will depend on who is in the group of course. When we went, there were mostly Brits and Irish, a couple of African women, 2 or 3 Australians and New Zealanders, a couple of dads too. It's quite a mixture, a lot of people connected to the embassies but also people married to Germans etc. Here's the website with the address:
st.george's

There's another group that meet on Tuesday mornings at the American Church in Zehlendorf. You'll find mostly Americans and Canadians there and it is more structured.

The Community Services Association (American), which I think is in Steglitz, has an English language kindergarten (with mostly Phillipino staff), a library and various activities. You can get the address via the American Embassy.

Then there's the John F. Kennedy Association in Steglitz which also has a kindergarten and various activities for children:

JFK

There are an awful lot of children's activities on offer here but Berlin is huge. Whereabouts are you? We can try and come up with some suggestions for places near you. Can you get by in German? If so, the Musikschule offer some really nice activities for small children like the Musikkindergärten (singing and dancing for very small ones), the 3 year old would be able to learn music with Orff instruments which looks like a lot of fun.

Thank you both for information!When we moved here I called both the british embassy, american and the churches, searched the internet for information about playgroups, things to do. We got some ideas and we also joined groups, but as we have moved a lot and I always want to find out absolutely everything about the place we live at, I think the best thing in the end is to speak with the people who were here for a long time. Most people we met so far are new in town or not really interested in exploring, but I will check out the places you told me about!

Hi Sandy! Thanx! As soon as I sent my message, I saw yours. I was hoping to get an answer from you, the expert, as Admilyn said about you We are in Wilmersdorf close to Preussenpark, if you come up with more infos about parks, restaurants and so on!

I have these soft play centres from my list but I've never actually been to any of them.

This is near you:
pinocchio

Kids Planet
Kindercafe - Kinderdisco - Indoorspielanlage
10711 Berlin (Charlottenburg)
Damaschkestr. 4
Tel 83203545

Toka-Tohei
Bistro - Cafe + Indoor-Spielplatz
10587 Berlin (Charlottenburg)
Wintersteinstr. 22

Adventure Playgrounds (outdoor):
--------
Abenteuerspielplatz Sodener Straße
14197 Berlin (Wilmersdorf)
Sodener Str. 29
Tel 8241034

Abenteuerspielplatz Spirale
10709 Berlin (Wilmersdorf)
Westfälische Str. 16a
Tel 8616068

(This is the one FIT mentioned in Kreuzberg, bit far maybe):

Winterspielplatz der Berliner Stadtmission
10961 Berlin (Kreuzberg)
Johanniterstr. 2
Tel 6919000

Do you know Ludwig-Kirch-Platz? It's quite near you. Nice place. We spend a lot of time there, since dd's school is there. There's a playground and a lot of nice cafes about, so if the weather is nice, I tend to buy a coffee and a croissant or something and go and sit there whilst she plays. St. Ludwig has a playgroup too but they'll speak German, although I'd expect most parents would be able to converse in English. Almost all German churches run groups, it'll be called "Eltern-Kind Gruppe" and they'll have the times up on their noticeboard.

St Ludwig has 2 groups for dc aged 1-3
Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10-11.30 in the Thomas-Morus-Saal which is above the school sports hall. Tuesdays is run by Heike Engelbrecht Tel 88 59 59 0.
Wednesdays by Ursula Heise Tel 8 62 34 14

Wow, I'm amazed berlin does not have some sort of expat mums groups like these:
Paris has www.messageparis.org
Vienna has www.viennababiesclub.com

I was also amazed when we first moved here, I thought, great the capital city of Germany , this is going to be international and full of things to do and people to meet but I found a totally other scene.
Firstly we live right in the new centre of Berlin near the government area but you would think it was a smallish town sometimes. Also Berlin still seems to be picking its self up after the collapse of the wall and is still after so many years trying to organize things. They are very good at building and road works but no where near as far in everything else as established places like Vienna, Paris or London.

It's a shame I have no idea how to set up web sites. load pictures and so on. I have been thinking for a while that I should really try and put up a site for english speaking parents in Berlin. I hadn't considered having a real club though because it sounds like a lot of work, organising meetings, newsletters and so on. I would have just made it freely accessible. The clubs in Vienna and Paris you need to join and pay a membership fee for. Does sound like they do offer a lot of activities though. I like some of the ideas on the Austrian site like the flea markets with contributions going to local charities. That's nice.

Perhaps Admylin is feeling tempted?

No way, SSSandy! I think and hope that my days are numbered in Berlin! Dh is trying hard to get a permemant job elsewhere and he has atlast got an interview in England, so fingers crossed!
A Berlin parents website would be a good idea though!

You'll be sad to leave you know when the time comes! You'll get all nostalgic and be logging in to read my parents in Berlin website all day, you know you will!

Really hope the interview goes well. Is it anywhere near the Lake District? Is it a place you'd like to live?

Maybe , who knows! I might miss certain aspects of our life in Berlin, the kids can't wait to leave it all though.
Dh is going to an interview in Bristol, couldn't get much further away from the Lake district but atleast it is home ground and if he gets a job where ever it is I hope I will be able to get some info from MN as apart from Lake District and Newcastle I don't know a thing about any city or county in the UK!

Never been to Bristol, doesn't conjur up any images either. Let me know if you have any luck!

Back to Inca, Admylin can you think of interesting activities for small children (1)? Our swimming school offers baby swimming. It's a small pool, very warm. Dd goes swimming there but we never did the baby courses. I didn't really do any activities other than toddler groups when dd was 1.

Is your 3 year old learning German at all Inca?

Inca, how mobile are you? If you have a car with 2 small children OK but I wouldn't fancy the Ubahn or any public transport with 2 small ones - anyway I can understand you wanting to stay in your area, I hardly ever leave mine either (Mitte) only go about as far as we can get on our bikes.
I would try a German play group though, it would be good for you to speak German and dc would pick up abit too, most mums would be delighted to practise their english too so instant friends!
I speak German but when my parents just visited (who speak no German) we suddenly had loads of charming waiters, friendly shop assistants and even customers in department stores all enjoying chatting to us in english and saying how pleased they were to get to try out their language skills!

SSSandy, so far Bristol seems OK from what I have researched on the web - near the coast, near Wales and I even have a cousin near there so will have to dig out her address and get back in touch.

fingers crossed for you then Admylin!