High expectations, held warmly.
Einstein School opened its doors on Normandy Lane in 2008 — but our story starts in 1994, with one teacher's conviction that young children are capable of far more than we usually ask of them, and happiest when we ask.
Our philosophy
We believe the preschool years are not a waiting room before "real school." A child's mind between 2½ and 5 is doing extraordinary work — acquiring language at a pace they'll never match again, forming habits of attention, deciding whether learning is something that belongs to them. So we teach real things: two languages, real instruments, genuine math and literacy. And we do it the way young children actually learn — through songs, stories, play, movement, and patient repetition, in small groups where every teacher knows every child. That's the idea behind the name — not that we're raising little Einsteins, but that every child deserves to be taught as if they might be one.
Three decades, one teacher's vision
Director Nai-Hwa Chen has been teaching Madison's youngest learners since 1994. What began as a family preschool grew into Shorewood Family Preschool — two home locations, eight children each, and years of refining how young children really learn language, music, and mathematics. In 2008, she purchased and remodeled the building at 6426 Normandy Lane and reopened as Einstein School, bringing more than three decades of academic and music teaching experience under one roof. The curriculum your child experiences today is the product of all of it.
Small school, long shadow
Since 2008, Einstein alumni have gone on to excel across their K–12 years — winning regional math, music, and science competitions, performing strongly on their APs, SATs, and ACTs, and earning places at some of the country's most selective universities, including Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Yale, Princeton, Duke, and Harvard. We won't claim preschool did all of that. We will say this: the habits that carried them — focus, curiosity, two languages, and the confidence of early mastery — start here.
Bilingual by design
English and Mandarin aren't rival subjects here; they're two windows on the same world. Children who grow up moving between languages gain more than vocabulary — research consistently links early bilingualism with stronger executive function, cognitive flexibility, and later academic performance. That's the promise behind our name: we are an American-Chinese school, built so any Madison child can grow up in both.
Licensed and accountable
Einstein School is a licensed group child care center, supervised by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and operating continuously since 2008. Every teacher is background-checked at hiring and trained in first aid, SIDS prevention, and early-childhood coursework, with compliance verified through regular DCF licensing inspections. During school hours our doors stay locked; enrolled parents use a facial-recognition entry panel at drop-off and pickup, and every child is signed in and out, every day.