Originally Posted by Albief15

Put my 5 year old in German kindergarten as local teach said she'd need less than a week to adjust. "Kein problem...." A week later she was playing with kids in our village and having no issues, and two months later was telling us what the nice lady at the store was saying...

We did this vice taking her to base schools, as we thought that even if she "got behind" her American counterparts at home the experience would be worth the tradeoff. There really wasn't a downside--she never had any problems moving right back into American public schools up on our return.

Sadly...my dad was dying and I left Germany with just 2 years on station. My girl lost her language abilities about as quickly as she gained them. However, as mentioned--I'd immerse my 2nd grade and under kids with the help of a tutor if required. The experience for my oldest was priceless, and she has great memories to this day of her time in German schools.

Personally, I just think it would be cool to live in Germany but not have to work the 14 hour standard Air Force days and deploy 120 days a year or more. You might even have the chance to learn the language, make some local friends, and savor the experience. My fighter tour over there was unfortunately just a blur of fun here and there between deployments...