Football lessons and selecting a school for Sean

I forgot to include the picture of the front of our flat last week - so here it is! Our flat is on the first floor - one flight of stairs up and to the left of where they are standing (ground floor is what we'd probably call the 1st floor in America). All the buildings on our street look like this and have the same floor plan. There is a small deli, market, coffee shop and Thai restaurant 1/2 a block from us, which is wonderful! Especially when I forget something we need for dinner or we don't want to carry a carton of milk all the way from the bigger grocery.

Yesterday (Sunday) Sean had his first football lesson. The park 2 blocks from us has various sports lessons for children (including Cricket - would love to learn that sport!) and we thought it would be good for Sean to interact with other children and do something he loves - sports. He had a really good time, even though he had a hard time understanding the coach and most of the kids already knew each other. They live and breathe football over here, so we were a bit concerned that he would be really far behind other kids his age - but he didn't care. He had a great time and wants to continue. After lunch he and I met my cousin and her daughter in Hyde Park and played at the Princess Diana memorial play park - great fun was had by all!

We also decided that we needed to explore some school options. We thought there would be some 4 year old children around to play with (like at library story time or "drop-ins" - sessions for moms and kids to come and play) but he's been the oldest by at least 2 years at all of these activities we've attended. I've asked some moms and it seems like most kids go to nursery at 3 or 4 years, so they are ready for school at 5. Children have to go to school the term they turn 5 - so if a child turns 5 in March, they start Reception (kindergarden) in January. We've done alot of web research and called many places, and we didn't have much luck (no spaces available, wouldn't take him for such a short period of time, wouldn't take him because he is already 5). The only thing in our area was a nursery/pre-school that has ages 2-5 in the same room. We visited today and he liked it well enough to go back...he is the oldest, but there are some 4 year olds - mainly younger children, but I think it will work for the few weeks we need it. He'll go in the mornings (9:30-noon) and we can go on a week by week basis, so if it really isn't working out, we can leave. The school has many similarities to Bethlehem (where we were totally spoiled I now realize!) in terms of the focus on art/creativity and the children can mostly choose what they want to do. But it is in a small one room classroom and it is pretty loud and crazy with the mixed ages. They have 4 teachers for 17 children though, so that is nice. The teachers were really trying to integrate Sean into the class and introduced him to the other kids, etc I don't think they have to have a college degree - but the reality is that we are really only looking for a social place for Sean, not academic. This is also a good experience because Sean is one of the only students who appears to have a caucasian background - something we haven't had much of in St Cloud. So we'll see how this goes - we are going to follow Sean's lead with this... I hope and pray this is a good fit for him! He really misses his friends...