Alexandra Kol fulfills a dream by opening her Kindergarten in San Diego

Twenty years were needed for Alexandra Kol to realize her dream: to open her own preschool. The Lyon teacher made it happen in San Diego, in southern California, on September 1, 2020. Named La Maternelle, this school welcomes children from 3 to 5 years old, before they enter the school. first grade (CP). “I am thinking about opening registrations from the age of 2, I have a lot of requests”, she admits.

Alexandra Kol offers an immersion in French. “Experts repeat that before the age of 5, children are very receptive to hearing, they learn a musicality that will be useful for learning other languages”, boasts the mother of two. But no need to have French origins, or even bases, all nationalities are welcome. In addition to learning the language, she follows the French curriculum and offers many Montessori workshops, games and manual work to the six students already enrolled.

A greater need for private kindergartens in the United States

To achieve her project, with the support of her husband, Alexandra Kol had to expand her CV. In addition to her diploma from the IUFM, she obtained teaching and management units on American soil.

In addition, she reorganized her house in Pacific Beach to transform it into a school: a living room was redeveloped into a reception room for children with games; a library was installed, as well as a classroom. The strong point of this school remains its exterior: children can play sports on the synthetic lawn installed for this purpose, as well as have their lunch under the pergola.

His idea of ​​opening a kindergarten dates from before his expatriation. “The procedure, although long, is simplified in the United States: you only need to obtain a Large Family Care License to accommodate up to twelve children. And, unlike France, there is no public school from 3 years old. There is therefore a need for daycare or preschool ”, admits the passionate. Everything fits together when she emigrated, in 2015, to follow her entrepreneur husband to Santa Barbara, before arriving in San Diego for a position in a French school. “I was not convinced by their too standardized pedagogy”, explains the young forty-something.

The period is obviously not ideal but the pre-schools are authorized to open, by setting up a complex sanitary protocol with the use of an air purifier, the daily cleaning of the games with a UV sterilizer, the wearing the mask inside and the passage of a hydroalcoholic gel mist sprayer every evening. The only drawback: she can no longer transmit the wolf of Auzou, the school mascot, from household to household every weekend.

Once the crisis has passed, and if the promising beginnings are confirmed, Alexandra Kol plans to open other kindergartens on American soil. “With my personal touch”, she insists.