Kinderhaus Brooklyn German School

We have been sending my 1.5 year old to Kinderhaus for several months and I am so glad that she is there. There is such a wonderful community at this school, and her development has just skyrocketed. Neither myself nor my husband are native German speakers, but I wanted my child to have early exposure to another language and she is just thriving at Kinderhaus. The teachers are wonderful and loving and communicative, and we are already looking forward to next year at Kinderhaus!
Nov 11th, 2022

Kinderhaus is a wonderful full immersion German program that over the last 18 months has created a great community and sense of belonging of our children to classmates, teachers, staff and parents. Neither my husband nor I are native German speakers and we are very pleased with the continued progress of our 3- and 5-year old. Our oldest kid will move to start Kindergarten in September, but our youngest will continue at Kinderhaus for more small size group classes, playful exercises and hopefully Soccer class, Dance and music-led modules again - thru experiential learning.
Sep 2nd, 2020

We choose Kinderhaus, because we are drawn to the philosophy described on their website. We love the teachers, but there have been a lot of teacher turn-over. Throughout varies interactions with management, we have gotten the feeling they care more about the financial bottom line, than about supporting the teachers or creating a high quality environment for the children. The classroom equipment and toys are old and of poor quality. Considering the amount we pay for tuition, it seems like we are supporting a money making machine, rather than a genuine educational community.
May 28th, 2020

We have two boys at Kinderhaus and couldn't be happier. We love their inquiry-based teaching approach and the mix of German and American curriculum.
Jul 22nd, 2019

We are currently sending our son here, and have been with them since Feb 2021. The teachers and the families have been amazing. Our son was not speaking German fluently when he started, and within a few weeks of attending, he was speaking it very well. He has developed so well, and we love his teachers for this. I put 2 stars because the administration/management have been terrible from the beginning, and the school has been very lax about COVID protocols. They have been very aggressive about dropping mask requirements for teachers and students - every time DOH drops their requirements, they immediately follow suit. We understand that this is at the school's discretion, but it has created a very unfavorable environment with families being infected non stop every time there is a covid wave. We are probably the only family left in our class who has not gotten it (luckily). It has been very disruptive and what disappoints us the most has been the principle the school fails to adhere to, which is to keep the general community safe. They said they noticed a difference in speech development when there are no masks. I spoke with our pediatrician about this and she said that they have NOT noticed setbacks in children throughout the pandemic because of masking. And beyond that, is this really more important than keeping people safe? I understand that most people are vaccinated, which makes the risk of death and other complications lower, but is that really for them to decide? When I spoke with management about this, they were trying to sell the looming approval of vaccinations for younger populations to put me at ease - I'm sorry, but this line of judgment is very very troubling. This is just one of the many issues we have with them. In the end, when we requested a refund for the fall 2022 school year which was paid for way in advance to save our spot, they denied returning our money. We just want to get out of the school because we do not want to keep having these issues but they will not give our money back. We understand businesses have been impacted by covid, which is the reason they gave us for not wanting to return our money. But they don't implement good covid protocols to begin with when it comes to protecting your children - how does this make sense? They only implemented masking again for this recent wave when I personally emailed them the DOH memo requiring this. Until then, they kept arguing that it was NOT a requirement under the regulatory body they were following (DOH). They also talk a lot about a "Health Commissioner" who sits on their board but clearly, only cares about the bottom line. They do not do anything beyond the bare bare minimum to protect these kids so be very very careful.
Apr 25th, 2022