Choosing a local elementary school

It's the middle of the night. Or maybe I should say: it feels like it's the middle of the night. I think in reality, it's early morning. I have been enjoying a new phase of kids sleeping through the night. I was getting medicine for kids and moving about and suddenly 4:30 turned into 5:00 and sleep escaped me. 

In September my Little Man will start elementary school (sort of like 1st grade).

Local school has been a great place for him to learn language, understand culture, get a good math basis, work hard and make friends.  It's not always been easy (a learning process) but it's been good.  

I've looked at 8 first grades so far. I'm hoping to find a school with under 40 kids in a class. 

One school close by is a boarding school. I didn't realize it until I went to the office. The woman explained the fees and dorm room set-up. It's the nearest school: about a five minute walk away. But the 6 and 7 year old kids only go home once a week. Classes there last from 7:45am till 7:15 in the evening. All of those factors and the bathroom smell (it was very pungent) were clear indicators that it wasn't the right place.

Most first grade classes here have upwards of 60 kids in a class.  Second grades and up have 70+ kids in a class. Can you image 60 six year old's behaving and listening to a teacher? I don't know how they do it and learn. Most schools get out about 3:30 /4:30 but parents often sign kids up for extra classes. In that case, kids get home around 6:00 ish.

I ask kids all the time whether or not they like school. I ask girls, boys, big and small kids. The standard response is that they like it. 

There are two schools with about 30 kids in a class that I'm considering. I applied for one. The headmaster told me there are so many families that want to send their kids so the headmaster wants to have his pick of children. He warmly welcomed us. Maybe it will be the school our little man goes to next year. We'll see.

I'm grateful that local school has helped my boys learn how to make friends in this social context  (we don't have foreign kids around us so we connect locally) and to relate with others and feel at home in a different country. This next year will be a new challenge - finding the how's and when's of doing our English work, new teachers, expectations, etc.

The boys are all awake now. It was nice to have a few quiet moments.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping and reading.