Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We do the Saturday morning german school, and read at least one book a night to our kid in german. He's picking up a bunch. Bonus: you could take classes too and learn!

This program sounds amazing to me. I floated it to DH for our 4yo and he thought it sounded torturously boring for a little kid. From what I recall of my own childhood (nobody in my family was bilingual and foreign languages were always fascinating, remote secrets I craved -- a real forbidden cup of knowledge for me) I would have eaten this up, but my recollection doesn't go back to age 4.

Why does he think it'd be boring? The kids seem to have fun - sing songs, play games, have a break for a snack and to run around outside for a few when the weather is nice. It's like any preschool class, really. It's not like they are sitting there conjugating verbs and trying to remember genders at 4YO! It's on the $$ side, but mine seems to enjoy it. My husband enjoys the cake that is always for sale in the cafeteria!

They also have various cultural events for holidays - christmas market, a parade for St. Martin's day, etc. that my kids have liked.

Anonymous wrote:We do the Saturday morning german school, and read at least one book a night to our kid in german. He's picking up a bunch. Bonus: you could take classes too and learn!

This program sounds amazing to me. I floated it to DH for our 4yo and he thought it sounded torturously boring for a little kid. From what I recall of my own childhood (nobody in my family was bilingual and foreign languages were always fascinating, remote secrets I craved -- a real forbidden cup of knowledge for me) I would have eaten this up, but my recollection doesn't go back to age 4.

Anonymous wrote:why aren't there any? parent's too obsessed with Spanish and Chinese?

Sounds like you are volunteering to do the work to start a charter. Good luck!

I'd think about an au paire.

The Goethe Inst had weekend kids classes at the Hill Ctr bby Eastern mkt a year or so ago.

955 million native Mandarin speakers
405 million native Spanish speakers
89 million native German speakers

Before someone drags Sela into this, I'm not saying there can't/shouldn't be a German-immersion school. If a group wants to submit a charter application and it gets approved and has enough kids sign up to be worthwhile, and does a good job educating those kids, I think it's great.

why aren't there any? parent's too obsessed with Spanish and Chinese?

Anonymous wrote:Don't Waldorf schools?

I have no idea, but there are no Waldorf charters or DCPS.

Don't Waldorf schools?

No schools offer German. I would suggest checking with the Goethe Institute in DC, which may have weekend classes for kids. I am a native Italian speaker and send my 3 year old to Italian school on Sunday mornings at Casa Italiana, and it's been fantastic for her. Good luck!

I have heard such great things about the German School it makes me a little sick with envy.

We do the Saturday morning german school, and read at least one book a night to our kid in german. He's picking up a bunch. Bonus: you could take classes too and learn!

We wanted a different language, but hired a native speaker as a babysitter. Of course it isn't the same as a parent, but every little bit helps, and we needed the babysitter anyway, so it's a win.

German School (Deutsche Schule Washington) in Potomac. Language courses offered under dswashington.com/GLC or similar. Saturday mornings, 9-11:30.

For family reasons, I would love for my kid to get more exposure to German. DH is falling down on the job of speaking to kid in German (I don't speak any). Do any DCPS or Charter schools even still offer German? We are IB for Spanish immersion and will definitely take that as I find that useful but I am really curious about opportunities to learn German for kids.