Conexiones Institute

I would like to endorse Conexiones Instituto — a Spanish immersion preschool program. My daughter has been attending one day per week for 1.5 years. She had a little Spanish coming in but I have seen her comprehension increase by leaps and bounds. The other 4 days per week, she attends an English only preschool.
The kids are exposed to art and the outdoors all in Spanish! They are taken on an adventure every week (to a park, museum, the beach). Other days, they spend at the director (Kimba)‘s house doing art projects or exploring the oak woodland on her property.
Kimba picks up and drops kids off at a few points between Berkeley and El Sobrante. So transportation is not an issue.
Kimba is warm and loving, a native Spanish speaker, and has an outdoor education background. Highly recommend this Spanish immersion program!!!

My daugher loves the Adventuras (adventures) so much that we now attend twice a week. The kids are learning spanish in an immersion program where they are doing art projects, exploring the great outdoors, museums, parks etc. Each week is based on a letter of the alphabet. Kids have a journal and are given a little paper booklet that includes words that start in the alphabet of the week. The art projects and field trips are centered around a theme and the letter of the week. For example during the month of Oct, the letter M, making masks for dia de los muertos (day of the dead/​halloween), going to museums, watching mariachies dance.
The adventures are small groups with parent chaperones and/​or assistants. The kids spend half of the time on field trips and half the time in Kimba’s studio. They work on shared community art projects, use different art media and have a fun time. Organic lunch and snacks are provided. Kids bring something to share (fruit, veggie) side. They eat as a community. The kids age vary 3 – 6. The afternoon studio time, you can find other elemetary age kids joining for after care.
It’s a great for families who needs 1 – 2 day to compliment home care, home schooling, preschool or after school for elemetary.
Kimba also offers a trial period to see if it works for the family. She includes a shuttle service with pick up/​drop off.
My daughter is speaking so much more spanish. I couldn’t be happier so much that we are considering skipping the public school transitional kindergarten and sending her to Kimbas twice a week along with a bridge program.

I highly recommend AVENTURAS (
) to which my 3-​year old daughter has the privilege of being a part of. It is a bilingual (Spanish-​English) outdoor day camp that offers children a unique hands-​on experience of their environment that further enhance their natural curiosity and vivid imagination whilst building self-​confidence, camaraderie and sportsmanship. My daughter has been in the program since April 2013 (once a week) and in this short period of time, I see her blossom with such confidence, joy and enthusiasm. From day 1, she took home with her some Spanish words like pato and gracias, and as she becomes familiar with the language, I observe that she is more receptive to learning it and other languages too. Most of all, I love that she is simply having fun and enjoying the freedom of exploring and learning about her world. She loves every single day camp and always look forward to the next one. Every week there is a different venue for the day camp (which they get to vote on on the day itself) and this brings about further excitement and motivation for the kids. I previously enrolled my daughter to a conventional pre-​school for a summer program and in comparison to AVENTURAS, I can absolutely see the better advantages of this program — children in general are happier, inspired and adapted. Although I actually think that an amalgam of AVENTURAS and pre-​school is also worth considering esp. at a later time nearing school age. Having said that, the AVENTURAS program is very flexible with choices between 1 to 5 days of day camps with extended hours plus the bonus option of being a chaperon parent which allows you to get involve with your child’s adventure whilst learning Spanish too!!! As a chaperon parent myself, I can only say that this is truly a unique and rewarding experience for me and my daughter as we create a lifetime of wonderful memories together which I know we will never cease to cherish. I appreciate that chaperoning may not be feasible to all parents but not to worry as AVENTURAS would welcome your participation at any time. Tia Kimba, the founder and administrator of the program, is a mother herself and always helpful and accommodating with the children’s welfare first in mind. It is definitely worth looking into this unconventional type of pre-​school program if you wish for your children to be more well-​rounded, confident and candidly delightful about the simple pleasures of life that we tend to forget.

Our son absolutely loved the AVENTURAS program in SF. Kimba has a wonderful way with children, motivating them to explore and learn through engaging, creative Spanish immersion activities. She is caring and highly qualified. The aventuras program focuses on hands-​on learning through structured activities in the natural environment. We were with her program for 2 years and can’t say enough about the positive and wonderful effect it had on our son!