Kindergarten in Budapest - do you know how those are?

Hi Monica!
My name is Sandor. I don' know exactly these kindergarten, but they seem to be OKE:) Sorry, my english not too good. So, I guess you to visit both kindergartens and have a talk with prioress. I'm sure both of these places is very good and they are going to look after your child. Are these private places?
Do you have to pay some money for it? My daughter goes to a  private kindergarten in every days and she loves it. This is quite expensive (70.000 Ft/mounth) but the life is hard:)

And finally you can sure in that, people are very kindly and helpfully in Hungarian.

The Habakukk kindergarten is looking better:))
Have a nice day!

Sandor
zaphoddd@gmail.com

Monica, just curious: why German? I would expect it to be simpler to find an English speeking kindergarten.

Sandor's post reminded me that private kindergartens are not necessary all-day, every-day like state kindergardens, but to keep the costs reasonable you can make arrangements to go on certain days of the week only. (Not sure how that works out for kids though: mine had problems adjusting to weekends and back when they were 3-5 yo...)

Sandor, welcome to the forum, and thanks for sharing!

Helló!

Thanks, I must to learn na diimprove my english, because it is not too good. And here  I can it. So, I guess, Monica is looking for a "German" kindergarten because they come from Munich:)
Disadvantage: Even if there is holiday (about 3 weeks) in kindergartens you have to pay. But if your child is there 8:00-13:00, then you pay half price:)
Advantage: 13-15 members in all team. They are learned. Children are in good hands:)

Have a nica day!

sandor

monicap wrote:

Hi,
my name is Monica, I'm Italian.
I'll be moving to Budapest in October with my family.
We are now in the decision making about German kindergarten for our kids - we seem have possibilities about Habakukk or Heidi - I would really appreciate if any of you have experiance and would spend couple of words on either one.
Are you happy? what are the things that don't make you happy there? do you know someone's kids enrolled and what they think.
It would be terrific!!

Thanks for now.
Monica

Monica,

You can try and send your kids to a state funded GERMAN language kindergarten if you want. It's difficult to get in anyway, and you've probably missed it now for October, but there are quite a few of them around. The ones I know about are in Torokbalint, one in Budakeszi and one in Pilisvorosvar (these are villages with substantial "German" residents). I think you will have to live in one of these places to get them in and even then, it's not certain you will be able to. Demand is very high (even though kindergarten is compulsory from aged 5).

On the other hand, you do not say how old your kids are and if you want actually babysitting really (even if it's in a kindergarten) or a proper kindergarten for the year before going to school.

But in any case, the other contributors are right, an English speaking private kindergarten is a lot easier than a German speaking one.

Thanks to all. Yes, the reason we are looking for a German kindergarten is because we're half German. The other half, me is Italian, but we prefer to stay with the German system. Our kids are 4 and 2.5.
I'll check out those places - thanks to all!

Monica

monicap wrote:

Thanks to all. Yes, the reason we are looking for a German kindergarten is because we're half German. The other half, me is Italian, but we prefer to stay with the German system. Our kids are 4 and 2.5.
I'll check out those places - thanks to all!

Monica

I think you will not get your children into the state funded German speaking kindergarten. The compulsory age is 5 and it is a lottery for ages below that.

Having just been through this with our daughter, if you are at home (not working) then the chances are even lower and your chances get worse if you have another younger child (since there is yet more reasons you are at home already).

If you have money, the best thoughts are the private kindergartens. It's all very expensive! Try Pester Lloyd (the German newspaper for Hungary and Eastern Europe). I found the following information there (look for Kindergärten obviously):

http://www.pesterlloyd.net/budapest2009 … abisz.html

There's also the Budapest Sun English newspaper. You can find it here:

http://www.budapestsun.hu/

Cara Monica,

Have just been working on a similar task for a client. Here's the map with the basics about the German preschool facilities in Budapest:
http://tinyurl.com/german-preschools-budapest

N.B. Left out Heidi that is in Pilisszentiván, a good 30 min drive out of the city and Pest side options, as my client is living in district 11.

Buona fortuna,

Dez

Ciao Dez, thanks so much for the visual!
I could not find though the Zsebibaba phone number or for that matter any website - I missed it completely - do you have a contact I can refer to?
again appreciate your help!
Monica

Ciao Monica,

Prego
Here's the phone number for Zsebibaba +36 1 275 8872. No website though. (gave me a good idea, so I'll include phone numbers and addresses for each ones now).
Let me know if you need more help, it's pretty close where we live but it shall not be a problem to reach them at all.

(Side note: my client has visited Habakukk apparently in the meantime but he was not so impressed, seems he'll like Kinderclub. Only it's a bit of waiting until 23 Aug.)

Is the commuting from you new home to the kindergarten an issue or just the quality of the kindergarten.

Cheerio and buona fortuna,

Dez

No idea yet - have got to find a home as well - my office is in district 2. I wanted to nail down KG, so to know where to look for a house.. In the meantime I sent a mail to naturkind and the Z*something - will see what they come back. I'll go see the Habakuk next week.
I'll let you know how it feels to me.
I tried calling the Z* kg with that numbers (had found it out of lack..) but for me it does not work..I get the message - wrong number.

ciao,
Monica

Double checked and in fact I have reached them on this mobile: +36 30 609 60 65
Thanks for pointing it out !
Also, my next week is pretty slow = ready to have a coffee and discuss anything you need help with.
Ciao,

Dez

Hi Dez,
I figured why could not find anything in internet about that Z* kindergarten - the name is a little different - it is ZSEBIOVI - there is a website www.zsebiovi.com - hope it helps.
As for next week - I need to figure with my company what they've arranged - thanks for all your help so far.

ciao

Grazie Monica,

You're good at hunting I see! Especially, as their webpage is in Hungarian (only GoogleLanguage might help a bit).

Would not like to intrude into your employer's systems, especially if they have a complete relo package waiting for you

Still if you need a second opinion on anything I'm here to help.
Ciao,

Dez

My name is Barbara and I am a student of English Language in Poland. I am going to write my diploma about teaching English to very young learners. I will compare classes of  English in kindergartens in different countries. That is why I would like to ask you for help. I would like to contact somebody who teaches English in kindergarten to gain required information (filling in form). Could anybody help me?

monicap wrote:

I figured why could not find anything in internet about that Z*
(...)
there is a website www.zsebiovi.com

Sorry, I cannot withhold a side comment on the name so confusing to you 'Zsebibaba'...
this is sweet little 'Roo' from the translation of Winnie-the-Pooh (hung: Micimackó) by the ingenious Frigyes Karinthy. Word goes around (in Hungary!) that the translation is better than the original... I am not close enough to native in English to judge that, but the translation is full of word creations which seem not to be present in the original - not surprising if Karinthy is involved.
E.g. Zsebibaba comes from 'zseb'(pocket), and strictly means 'pocket(y)baby', or, in a less mirrory fashion: 'Taschenpüppchen'(we are speaking about german anyway).
'Micimackó' is more difficult to translate back as it is just a play with the sounds of 'Mackó' i.e. bear.

http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zsebibaba

Hey Monica. I'm Brandi. I am moving to Budapest in December. We have done a lot of research on schools. ( we have a 4 yr old) check out The English Garden. We will be enrolling our son there when we arrive. My husband is from Budapest so he is very fimiliar with the distric. Also, it's very affordable. Good luck!

Hello Brandi Szucs and welcome on board!!

Thanks for the information, but the initial post of Monica dates back to 4 years ago

Regards

Kenjee

Hi! Do you know some English daycare that are not so expensive!?

My husband and I really like the English Garden. It's very affordable. If I remember correctly, it's 750 euro a month. And the great compared to the American schools.

Yes, it might be great but it still expensive if you consider that standard of living in Hungary, in other words that could be a nice salary of some employee, with all respect. I should earn 5000 euro to pay a 750 euro/month just for daycare...beside if you have 2 or 3 kids?

Best regards

I understand . But, check with them to verify the cost. They also have a part time price as well.

gorgobudapest wrote:

Hi! Do you know some English daycare that are not so expensive!?

You could send your kids to a Hungarian kindergarten/school.  It's more or less free. My kids go there and it's quite internationalised and my kids absolutely love it.  I believe, there is one state run English language school (not kindergarten). I think there's a German one somewhere too.

Thank you for reply! So there is a English state school for free, at least is good to know that one will not pay school forever. Day-care where they speak hungerian could be not a great idea for my kids since they ready are confused with Italian, English and Swedish...

gorgobudapest wrote:

Thank you for reply! So there is a English state school for free, at least is good to know that one will not pay school forever. Day-care where they speak hungerian could be not a great idea for my kids since they ready are confused with Italian, English and Swedish...

I cannot remember the name of it.  It might have been one of these in this list: Schools

But I asked Mrs Fluffy about it too as she's a native.  The one I was thinking of was District II School (English). There was some reason why we did not consider this school further  but I don't remember what it was. I do not think it was fee paying.

BTW, my kids are bilingual in Hungarian and English so they have an advantage locally to access state schools but kids are highly adaptable and they'll learn Hungarian quickly enough.  If your kids are already talking 3 languages, doing another one will hardly be any effort at all!   In our local school, we've a real mixed bag of nationalities with kids with foreign speaking parents -  British, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and folks from Africa.

Thank you Fluffy! I am very grateful of your mail and your effort into it. I will consider it to search the right daycare...

Bye

Does the Hungarian school teach in English at all?

Brandi Szucs wrote:

Does the Hungarian school teach in English at all?

Yes, but I am not sure exactly what the idea is.  I think it was intended to get people fluent in English at an early age rather than kids who are bilingual already.  Mrs Fluffy seems to remember this school as wanting some fees. I'll ask her to read the web pages.

In the meantime, you can read this:

School background in English

Brandi, I can see your family name is Hungarian. Maybe this means you can use a relative to translate the pages or phone the school?

fluffy2560 wrote:

I'll ask her to read the web pages.

Google Translate is still fairly inaccurate and inconsistent in Hungarian to English, but it can at least give the "gist" of the information.

Yes, my husband is hungarian

klsallee wrote:

....Google Translate is still fairly inaccurate and inconsistent in Hungarian to English, but it can at least give the "gist" of the information.

Yes, indeed Google Translate does sometimes work to a degree. 

I do find it quite strange the Bilingual School in District II that promotes itself as English/Hungarian does not have a parallel set of English language web pages. But it's probably short of money like most of Hungary.

Brandi Szucs wrote:

Yes, my husband is hungarian

Best if he has a look to investigate. 

It's definitely a lot cheaper (i.e. almost free) to send your kids to the Hungarian school than use the private system.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I do find it quite strange the Bilingual School in District II that promotes itself as English/Hungarian does not have a parallel set of English language web pages.

I don't find it strange at all. I find many topics in Hungary making "claims" that are not really fully true or accurate. In my opinion, a lot of marketing in Hungary is "snake oil". One can not expect regulations or consumer rights to help you here as much as elsewhere: you have to think and act for yourself here with a buyer beware attitude.

I even have a recent post in my blog about this topic.