Petits Confettis

My husband only spoke to our daughter in French since birth, but she responded to him only in English. We enrolled her two days a week at Petits Confettis the beginning of the school year. After the first week, something clicked! She recognized whom to speak French with and whom to speak English with. Her father’s delight to hear his daughter speak to him back in his native tongue was priceless, beyond words. It truly warmed his heart! Eventually, we switched our daughter from 2 to 5 days a week program.
The teachers (Catherine, Stephanie, and Florence) are so amazingly patient and caring with the kids. They held them when they needed comfort, gave them choices when appropriate, stayed firm as needed. They also make sure to know the temperament of each child so they could address potential issues that could surface properly as needed. For example, my daughter is a sweetheart (but, of course!). However, she also has a stubborn streak so when she puts her foot down… well… Her teachers recognize this and would give her options and gently remind her that she is a wonderful little girl! As an example, she refused to put away toys cause she didn’t play with them. She was gently reminded that helping is caring. She could help put away just two pieces of toys cause she’s an awesome helper!
The teachers also keep you informed of what’s going on in the classroom with the monthly newsletter. They also talk to you as a parent before or after school if there were any concerns that happened during class. The staff also responds quickly via email or phone.
As a parent, I’ve been blessed to have the added perk of being a part of such an amazing group of parents! The school is right next to a park where the kids (especially my daughter) always prefer to stay and play after school! I got to meet and make friends with some of the most down-​to-​earth parents, forming a truly fabulous Petits Confettis Community!

J’aimerais recommander la maternelle/​preschool des petits confettis a Los Altos car j’ai rarement été en contact avec une maîtresse d’une telle qualité et maîtrisant parfaitement la pédagogie pour les enfants de cet âge.
Mon petit dernier y est depuis 2 ans et nous regretterons infiniment sa maîtresse Catherine lorsqu’il rentrera en K l’année prochaine.
Catherine est de loin la meilleure maîtresse qu’un de mes enfants ait jamais eu et Oscar est mon petit 3ème :)
Cette semaine est la semaine d’appréciation des maîtres et maîtresses et je voulais en profiter pour lui faire part de ma reconnaissance.
Elle est passionnée par son métier et adore ses élèves. D’une gentillesse a toute épreuve!
N’hésitez pas à contacter les petits confettis pour plus d’infos. Ils leur restent je crois quelques places pour la rentrée ²⁰¹⁵⁄₂₀₁₆. En plus à partir de l’année prochaine ils proposent des journées complètes :)

There are the obvious reasons to love this school such as low student: teacher ratios (1:8), native french speaking teachers, 100% of conversation in french unless the child really doesn’t understand, and reasonable tuition. The less obvious reasons are the ones that make me always say, this school is magical. The crafts are unique (pinecone skiers, foam ball snowmen for example), the approach to teaching, the emotional connection, recognizing the importance of play, letting kids try to work things out before intervening, also the way they assess progress, gosh there’s just so much to love. We attended for 2 years and also did the summer camps, which are just as amazing as the school experience. I can’t say enough good things about this school. Highly highly recommend for your tiny human whether you speak french at home or not.
Editing to add: we do not speak french at home and while it took our daughter a little while to get into the swing of things, she thrived. The teachers really took the time to ensure she was participating in all aspects, showing her what to do when it was clear she didn’t understand.

My youngest son went to Petits Confettis for 2 years, and he absolutely loved it! We are a French speaking family, but our son was born here and mainly speaks English, so we were looking for a program offering an exposure to the French language, as well as a good balance between academic curriculum, social skills development, creativity and fun. This pre-​school fully met our expectations! Our son was very proud to regularly bring home his «portfolio» of everything he had done — drawings, worksheets with numbers and letters, pictures of the numerous events he did in class (Halloween, Galette des Rois, science experiments, etc.)… The school also organized several events during the year for the whole family to attend, like the end of year show, which was nice to meet other families. The small classes and the teacher/​kids ratio allowed for a personalized approach for each kid, and the teachers were always available to give us an update on our child’s progress. Catherine in particular is amazing! She was my older son’s teacher in another school several years ago, and we felt incredibly fortunate to have her as our teacher again. She is very attentive, caring and patient, her passion for her work and her kids is extraordinary, and her positive energy is incredibly contagious!
In summary, we have nothing but positive memories associated with Petits Confettis. Seeing our son’s big smile every morning and his eagerness to run to school (literally!) was so heartwarming! He started Kindergarten this past Fall, and for several weeks he kept telling us how much he missed his «old» school, teachers and friends… I would confidently recommend this preschool if you are looking for a serious bilingual preschool offering a well balanced education program.

We have really enjoyed Petits Confettis school at UME place in Menlo Park this year! Our daughter has grown in her French language skills, social skills, and even an interest in science! We love the small classes, close attention by teacher Nadia, she is always enthusiastic and shares her deep love of early learning and French language and culture with the students. We feel she treats each child as an individual and cares greatly to help each to reach their full potential. It it truly amazing to see how much French the students learn. We were lucky enough to have lived abroad in France with our daughter, and enrolled her in this program to maintain her French skills. We are overjoyed that not only did she maintain the French, she improved, she has an amazing accent and is quick with vocabulary. We would highly recommend Petits Confettis and teacher Nadia to anyone looking for a high quality French immersion preschool experience! The program follows the French curriculum with an excellent mix of language skills, play, social skills, art, movement-​based learning, and science.

This is my first Unilocal review, but I feel strongly about the Petits Confettis program and would like it to receive the praise it deserves! We are non-​native speakers and so French was a new language for our daughter when she started the program at age 3 ½. She has learned a great deal of vocabulary through the singing of songs, weekly themes and beautiful art projects. Teacher Nadia is lovely and warm and has wholly embraced our daughter in this new language adventure, realizing it is challenging for her while making it fun with performances, yoga, outdoor and trampoline play. Even having lunch together is an educational process for the children because they are building vocabulary while learning simple conversion at meal-​times. The class sizes are small which is very nice for our daughter. The French system is not simply «play-​based,» which we appreciate. Piaget methodology challenges children to learn to write, read and discuss science (even health and hygiene) — all in French. We plan to continue with the program next year. We feel lucky to have found such an enriching program and stellar role model in Teacher Nadia! Merci!

I love Petits Confettis! My daughter is in her second year here and she loves her teachers and classmates. We do not speak french at home, we are all anglophones, but in spite of that we are impressed with the french she has learned so far. She is always correcting our accents when we attempt to speak french. The teachers are all wonderful, attentive and warm. Catherine has been very helpful in giving me resources to help me reinforce some of the french at home. I wish they offered Kindergarten, we will be sad to leave at the end of this school year.

Our child had an awful experience in Petits Confettis. This school does not help children who are not French/​English bilingual already. Since they are so focused on the academics, teachers treat english speaking students like a burden in a class and scold them bitterly. Especially, Helen, the owner, appears so ignorant in early childhood education. Unless your child is already in a french native speaking environment at home, parents should be very careful to put their child in this very unbalanced program.

My four year old twin boys have been in this school for two years. My husband is French so we were looking for an environment in which they could strengthen their French language skills while also learning preschool basics like fine motor skills, group activities, pre-​reading, and math skills.
It’s really been a great school for the kids. In the two years they’ve been there, they’ve shown great improvement in all of the above areas. They love going to school and have made many friends there. Both the kids and us, the parents, adore the teachers, especially Catherine.
I will say that the morning-​only schedule is tough for working parents. We made this work by having an au pair who could pick them up from school and stay with them for the rest of the day.
If you’re looking for a bilingual French education for your young kids, definitely consider Petits Confettis.

I put a few reviews on the french website mamans yahoo gr but never on Unilocal.I do it today because the school deserves that. My kid loved to go there and we were a little sad when we moved. They are very professional and psychologist. My son was very comfortable and wanted to stay there when we left him for the first time. When we moved around San Francisco, we couldn’t find a school of the same quality, except the lycée francais .It was the same about the doctors, so I think the bay area serves better his customers and and I don’t know why. maybe because people have a lot of money and don’t hesitate to go elsewhere if there is no satisfaction.

Great new French Preschool in the bay!