Schools
The first steps look good and promising, although not just easy (nothing is ez).
Miikka went to his "old" school here in Klaukkala, which was mainly a dream come true. He can easily follow the stuff, he enjoys and he's even interested in his homework. Not bad for an 12 year old boy ;-)
Onni is going to the German school in Helsinki, as this is the best option to keep up his German language skills. He's going there to the second class, as this better fits to the Finnish system and ages. The German school in Helsinki is a private school that is run in the Finnish system, just many of the lessons are in German and the kids ultimately achieve the Finnish AND the German "Abitur" alike. Very cool thing. And Onni likes it from the start; as he's got a new e-guitar, he especially looks forward to music lessons.
He now plans to become a Rock star (and has started to refuse haircuts).
Roni was a difficult one; we wanted him to go to the same German school in Helsinki, but they made some first tests and were not sure if the idea is good. Roni is rather "Finnish" - he doesn't like to talk a lot, and he never liked to talk German. And he is stubborn like a rock; so now he's also going to the Finnish school in Klaukkala, which is for sure a good option for him. Luckily they were open to take him on this very short notice...
Essi also has changed schools, she is now in Lukio ("Oberstufe"), her last 3 years in school. But that wasn't any big question now, she had chosen that school a while ago and she's happy. Funnily it's in the old building of where Lissu went to University, so it was nice to see when I drove her to school this week.
Maybe I stop now, there's more kids and more schools, but not so related to our move ;-)