Irvine Chinese School, Karis or Little Dynasty?

I am interested in signing my 5-year old up for some Chinese classes.  Can anyone share their experience with Irvine Chinese School, Karis and Little Dynasty?  I am looking into either afterschool classes or Chinese immersion program for kinders (Irvine Chinese School offers this).  The problem is most classes start at 2:30-3, so I will have to get off work early to drive her from the elementary school to the class (currently no transportation is provided from her school to these locations).
 
We are in Portola Springs.  Currently there is no pick up, but maybe in the future if there is enough demand.

Weekend classes are a possibility, but for now I'd like to reserve the weekends for more "fun" stuff...:)

How do these schools compare in terms of the quality of classes?  I've only spoken to ICS on the phone - they seem a bit disorganized.  Little Dynasty refused to give info over the phone.  Karis was the most helpful so far.

Are there any other Chinese schools in Irvine?
 
I've heard karis is more "fun" and less "serious" than ICS and little dynasty. From PS, I would imagine karis is the closest?
 
We're in Karis now for Mandarin immersion,  so far so good.  Like the teacher to kids ratio, think it's 1 main teacher + assistant teacher and there's only 8 kids in the class.  Once schools starts its gonna get tricky.  We're not in cypress village and would like to continue at Karis after school instead of CDC but transportation is an issue.  It all depends on demand if they can send a driver out to pick up kids.  Maybe they can pick up 'moonbaby508' from PS and get my kid as well, we're sort of on the way.

We were debating between SCCCS or Karis, thought SCCCS is too big and too many class changes during the day.  Karis is much smaller and a better atmosphere for my daughter.  Plus we kinda know the owners, so that helps.

We did an groupon intro class at little dynasty, and they showed ni hai kailan during the class, not a good impression. 
 
Bones - Isn't Karis in roughly the same location as ICS?  Off Jeffery near the 5 Freeway?  Not far from PS.

PS - Does Karis have Mandarin immersion in the fall?  I didn't see it in their program.  I probably should have sent Moonbaby to the summer camp at Karis to test it out.  She did take a trial class a year ago and enjoyed it.  What school does your child go to?

 
Yea sorry. I was mainly just comparing little dynasty and karis. ICS reminds me of the Chinese school experience I had growing up. Pass! :)
 
Haha.  That reminds me - When I talked to the receptionist at Karis a year ago, she said she didn't enjoy the Korean classes her parents made her take when she was a kid.  I hope classes at Karis are different than the more traditional language schools.
 
Karis seems pretty flexible, I see kids start for a couple weeks, go on vacation for a week and come back but only twice a week.  They're pretty good at prorating your tuition unlike the Montessoris.  I assume it's because it's still a small operation vs the other more established schools. 

@moonchild

Maybe it's not too late to do the mandarin immersion this summer?  I would call and ask them.  Oh, and my child goes to IUSD :)
 
My guess would be traditional. Easier to read simplified if you know traditional
 
HMart said:
I probably learned more kung fu than mandarin in my years at ICS. (this was many years ago, when it was back at Uni high)
The Happiness brood has been going to Little Dynasty for the past two years and their progress is pretty amazing.  When kid 2 started, he did not know a word of mandarin and after 3 months of Little Dynasty's summer camp, he could talk to waiters at Chinese restaurants in Chinese and was a big hit with strangers on our China vacation last year.  The parent of one of Kid 2's Chinese school classmate told me her kid previously attended ICS and could not even count to ten in Chinese after nearly a year of study at ICS.
 
Another thing would be at home. Speaking English or Chinese or chinglese to the kids. 
 
irvinehomeowner said:
This is America... put your kids in American immersion class!!

Not sure... but wouldn't Spanish be a better language to learn?
My kids speak Spanish too.  Bilingual is inadequate.  Almost everyone in Irvine is bilingual.
 
Back
Top