Kids in Prague

Andilek Family Centre, Prague 5

Indoor Playgrounds, Restaurants and Cafes, Activities on 08 June 2009 by Larissa

Looking for arts & crafts, music, exercise & movement or Montessori based classes for kids? How about mum’s exercise programs that you can attend with your baby? Or an affordable playroom where you can purchase drinks and a snack? Andilek Family Centre (Andilek Rodinne Centrum) is right opposite Novy Smikov Shopping Mall and offers all this and more.

Open Monday to Friday, Andilek is located upstairs in a baroque style building, left of the church in Andel. It has two very large rooms, one is set up for classes, the other is a public playroom with plenty of toys, a ball pool, couches, chairs and tables for parents to relax in. You enter Andilek from the back left corner of the building and press the buzzer to gain access. Inside you can park your pram before ascending the stairs. At reception you pay a fee of 70 CZK that gives you a full days access to Andilek’s play area, you are then able to come and go as you please (so you can go home for a nap, or head for lunch at the shopping center and come back). All staff speak English and they fully encourage families of all nationalities to visit and use their facilities.

At reception you are able to buy a range of drinks, cakes and snacks so the public playroom is a great place for mothers groups to meet up. It’s also a more affordable alternative to the children’s play area in Novy Smichov and more practical in allowing the consumption of food and drink on the premises.

As I’ve mentioned above, Andilek offers a range of classes for children from newborn age to 4 years old. Classes run from January to March, April to June and September to December each week, that’s a total of 12 to 13 classes per semester. Classes cost between 110 to 130 CZK per session and sessions last for 45 minutes, the full amount is payable upfront when registering. All lecturers are University educated and speak English. Lecturers are happy to communicate with parents and their children in English during class so language is no issue.

As the Summer holidays are fast approaching there are no classes currently available, but be assured that Kids in Prague will post the full range of courses on offer at Andilek (and their sister center Family Centre Palecek in Flora) for the September-December semester, as soon as the schedule is released.

Worth mentioning is Andilek’s Montessori Kindergarten program open to children aged between 3 and 6 years old. This runs every Wednesday and is divided into 2 x 4 hour sessions; morning (9am till 1pm) and afternoon (1pm till 5pm). Children can attend both sessions, if they do, they will be provided with a snack but you will need to bring their lunch and they will have a nap mid way through the full day. Two Montessori trained Kindergarten teachers supervise and educate the group and when we attended the center the children were happily occupied by a craft session which Lucie wanted to join immediately. The price of the Montessori session on Wednesday is 1000 CZK for the full day, for a morning or afternoon session it is 500 CZK. Space is currently available for the afternoon session, so if you’d like to ready your child for Kindergarten, this could be an option.

Andilek also offer their premises for Children’s Birthday Parties. The space is available only on the weekends and the fee is 400 CZK per hour, a cake can be arranged in advance if you wish. This fee also includes a cleaner who will tidy up after you and a receptionist who is on duty at all times to assist you with any issues, help people into the building and they also sell drinks and snacks too (although this is not obligatory). You then bring along the food and drink required and the rest is up to the kids! I’ve been to a couple of Children’s Birthday Parties at Andilek’s sister center Palecek and it seems to work very well as a venue for both parents and kids.

Andilek is a very pro-active center with many events planned, two interesting events coming up over the summer will be a Swimming Program for Children held in English. This will be a trip away for parents and kids to the Czech Mountains staying in a lovely child-friendly hotel which has an indoor salt water pool ready for use.

Another is a Montessori Program For Kids aged 3 to 7, held in Tabor with four different dates and themes available: 7 to 10 July; Geography of the World, 13 to 17 July; History and Charles IV, 3 to 7 August; Animal World and 17 to 21 August; The Human Body. The camp is run by University and Montessori certified teachers who speak English. The price of the camp is 670 CZK per child per day and the price includes full meals (2 snacks and lunch), entry fees to events, materials and field trips. Tabor is about 75 minutes drive from Prague so it’s possible to commute this distance during the camp. For more information you can contact Mirka at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Or to register contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Finally, Andilek have asked us to put the word out to find parents interested in setting up regular classes in their own native language. These classes can be art, music or movement based - it’s up to you! So if you are already meeting as a group then Andilek is offering you the opportunity to meet more formally and develop a program specifically in your native language. This way your children can be educated and bond with other children in their mother tongue. So far Andilek has English and Ukrainian speaking classes in development and as diversity is a part of their mission statement they’d love to hear from more of you. Please contact Mirka at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for further information.