Preschool options in Russia include both local Russian schools and international
alternatives.
The influx of expats inspired an expansion of Russian preschool services. As a result,
there are plenty of options for expats looking for preschools in Russia.
The Russian schooling system begins at the age of six when children attend primary
school. However, many parents send their youngsters to preschools, nurseries, or
kindergartens to prepare them for the education system.
Preschools in Russia generally accept children from the age of two and a half; some
nurseries and kindergartens start from a younger age – around 18 months old. There
are many Russian municipal preschools in Moscow but are traditionally heavily
oversubscribed. As a result, there are now many private international preschools, a
popular option for expats.
Selecting a Russian preschool
If you want your child to learn in a Russian environment, your child could attend a
municipal preschool. When a place is available, your child will be accepted. However,
you will likely go onto a waiting list until space/ becomes available.
If one of the international schools is your preferred choice, there are several to
choose from. All of them teach an English or American curriculum. The majority of
international preschools have baby clubs for children around two and a half years to
help their development through the early years of schooling.
There are childcare facilities and schools for children up to the age of 17 from the
English International School. This has a choice of two locations in Moscow. Rosinka,
meanwhile, is another option with a kindergarten and after-school clubs available in
addition to a Cambridge School style education. There are many others and a
comprehensive list is featured
at www.childreninmoscow.ru or www.evans.com.ru/rent/school.
Learn more about the next step after preschool in our guide to
Russian primary schools
The British and American embassies suggest several institutions with full schooling
facilities as well as daycare for children between 18 months and four years old. Children
of embassy staff can avail of childcare from as young as six weeks. There are also halfday preschooling options for those aged three and four.
Sad Sam’s and Busy Bees are two of the most popular private kindergartens with
children taught in both English and Russian; at Little Angel’s, the teaching is more
oriented around Russian. The English Nursery School, Children of the World preschool,
and English Playschool Moscow are other English preschools popular with parents. The
latter runs a baby club and an international school for those between 3–9. Smilik is a
preschool offered by the Montessori School that is open year-round; it’s ideal for
parents seeking to balance childcare arrangements with work.
Typical day at school
Most Russian preschools are open from 8.30am until 5.00pm or 6.00pm. In addition,
some will offer a late pick-up service up to 7.00pm to help accommodate the needs of
working parents.
Teaching is predominantly in English but some lessons will be in Russian. These will
typically include counting, words, drawing, painting, music and other educational tasks
aimed at preparing the children for the beginning of their formal schooling.
https://www.expatica.com/ru/living/family/preschool-in-russia-107696/
https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1268/Russian-Federation-PREPRIMARY-PRIMARYEDUCATION.html
’ve lived in Russia, on and off, for four years, and I’ve noticed my neighbors take a
different approach to parenting than I do. Here in Moscow, it takes a village to
raise a child – and you’re part of that village whether or not you want to be. Every
time my family walks out the door, we’re being evaluated, and we frequently fail
to meet Russian standards. It turns out we disagree on bigger issues than whether
sour cream is an acceptable sauce for vegetables. Here are some of the ways to
parent like a Russian:
There’s No Such Thing as Overdressed: Woe unto the American parent who lets
her small child go out in shorts and a t-shirt on a breezy mid-60s day. You will get
scolded by a babushka or two as you make your way around town. The way I
figure it, if my kid is cold, she’ll put on a sweater. If not, she won’t. Her choice,
right?
Not according to Russians, who bundle their children up against the cold before the
rest of us have even registered the change in seasons. My Russian friends all insist
that if you don’t dress warmly, you’ll catch a cold. So their children wear
snowcaps to school while mine are still in their summer shorts.
Don’t Freeze Your Eggs, Freeze Your Babies: Russians have an unusual
relationship with the cold. Here in Moscow, don’t ask for a cold drink on a cold
day. And don’t ever sit on a cold stone step. These things are just plain dangerous,
and you shouldn’t need to ask why. (In case you do: if you do the former, you’ll
get sick. Doing the latter will freeze your ovaries.) Yet tiny Russian bab ies are
routinely dressed in snowsuits, placed in strollers, and then put outside by
themselves on porches and balconies to nap, even on the coldest winter days. They
need fresh air, you see, so their parents bundle them up against the elements and
plop them outside to breathe it all in.
When asked why they do this, my friends shrug and reply: it’s tradition. My
American friends are always looking for ways to do things better, differently. My
Russian friends are more often content to do things the way they’ve always been
done. They’ve been dealing with cold for 1000 years, so maybe they know
something.
Dance Like Everyone is Watching My daughters wanted to put on frilly pink tutus
and spin in circles during ballet class. Their Russian ballet teacher had othe r plans,
including leg lifts, stomach crunches and forced stretching. He told them —and the
other students, all under the age of 8—not to eat before class, because it made their
stomach stick out and it “doesn’t look nice.” It didn’t take long for my girls to
realize ballet wasn’t all fun and games. They quit. The Russian students weren’t
given that option.
Again, there’s the tradition: children study ballet because everyone else is taking
ballet, and they always have. Americans tend to believe that we rule the world in
pop culture; we take pride in leading the way in cinema and music. Russians take
pride in their past—they teach their children about the artists and writers who are
part of their cultural heritage. They want their children to grow up well -versed in
ballet and other outward signifiers of culture, such as poetry, theater and music.
Even preschool-aged children are expected to be able to sit through full-length
theater performances, many of which are high-quality productions tailored
specifically to children. We took our children to a puppet theater one night and
were surprised to find a full house—at 7pm on a school night. Parents brought their
children, dressed in their fanciest outfits, beribboned or wearing neckties (Rule 1
applies in more ways than one, apparently), because good theater is more important
to them than a regular bedtime routine.
Bedtime? What’s Bedtime? And speaking of bedtime: Russian children go to bed
late. A colleague of mine told me her 3-year-old stays up past 11p.m. each night,
making up for it with a two-hour nap each day at detskii sad —Russian
kindergarten. “You Americans get time to yourselves after your kids go to bed,”
she told me wistfully. “By the time my kids go to bed, there’s only enough time to
do some housework before I fall asleep.”
The late bedtime applies to children of all ages. Russian elementary students at my
kids’ school often get home after 10p.m. – they’re kept busy with after-school
language classes and sports until late in the evening. And they’re st ill expected to
finish all of their homework before they go to bed. Russians prize education, not as
a means to an end, but as the end itself. And frankly, I think they’re a little bit
intimidated by the teachers. Teachers are typically held in high regard here, and no
parent wants to get summoned to the school because their kid isn’t doing the work.
Parenting is a Group Activity Just hop on the Moscow metro and you’ll see it in
action. As a pregnant mom of a toddler back in Washington D.C., I could count o n
one hand the number of times someone offered me or my child a seat on the metro.
Here in Moscow, no child will ever have to stand on a subway car —every adult in
the car will move to make space for children (and their moms). That’s the positive
side of the Russian village.
The downside? If a babushka, a Russian grandma, sees you or your kids doing
something she doesn’t like, she won’t hesitate to tell you exactly what she thinks
of your parenting. She’ll chew you out as loudly as she can, right there in fr ont of
everyone else in the station. That’s when I opt out of the village, smiling broadly
like the foreigner I am, pretending I don’t understand a word she’s saying to me.
We American parents second-guess ourselves constantly, always making
adjustments on the fly. Sometimes I think it’d be nice to make more decisions
based on the way my parents and their parents did things. Here in Moscow, though,
I’m making up my own traditions, stealing some ideas from my own childhood,
going with my gut at other times, and borrowing just enough from Russian parents
to keep me safely within the boundaries of my new village.
Images
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Expatica. (2021, June 11). A guide to russian preschools [Photograph].
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Hicks, T.(2019, December 3). What is a russian math? [Photograph]. DFWChild.
https://images.app.goo.gl/dar2yWWf3c25cZ89A
Russian Legacy (2021). Preschool russian folk dress [Photograph].
https://images.app.goo.gl/7AG9ngFnoTrkLYRW9
Walmart Canada (2021). Cheers 60pcs/set russian alphabet carpet baby kids
education toy preschool learning mat [Photograph].
https://images.app.goo.gl/A6KAQaqaB9hiQaUs7
PNGWing (n.d.). Background Family Day, kindergarten, child, yandex, Preschool,
National Flag Day In Russia, Day Of Russian Family and Love, Educational
Institution, Kindergarten, Child, Yandex png | pngwing [Photograph].
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Care.com (n.d.). Russian day care firefly [Photograph].
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123rf. (2021). Moscow russia [Photograph].
https://images.app.goo.gl/29RDbQdwTAAs8GN26