Forest Glade F.C.

2 weeks ago the two boys started up at a new football club called Forest Glade over Barleylands. The club has some 22 acres of land and teams from under 5's all the way up to seniors and also has ladies teams and baseball teams. They benefit from support from local pro football clubs and even manage to get coaching sessions from Chelsea.

Currently we are on a 1 month trial to see if the boys take to outdoor football. If it all goes well then the plan will be to stop the Sunday morning Little Kickers and transfer fully to the Saturday Forest Glade. During the first week both boys were absolutely outstanding. They thoroughly enjoyed the football and listened intently to the coaches doing the entire session on their own with no help from me. The second week Joshua was even better and now no longer wants to go to Little Kickers. If you mention football club at the weekend he always asks if he can got to Forest Glade. Brandon was not as good on the second week because the weather was colder and he did not want to join in (he takes after his Mum and doesn't like the cold or wet - Joshua takes after me and just loves being outside).

Little Kickers has been great for the boys and I would recommend it to anyone with a 2 - 3 year old in order to get them introduced to football and to learn some basic ball skills. But Joshua is now at a stage where he needs so much more and has got a bit stagnant at Little Kickers. He needs that next level up, to start running around outdoors and playing proper football rather than indoor games. We may decide that Brandon is still a little young to move to Forest Glade and chose to keep him in Little Kickers a bit longer. Currently he does still prefer LK to FG., but arguably he is better than Joshua for his age at football. So if he can just overcome the cold/outdoors then I am sure Forest Glade will be a good move for him as well.

Week 1 of the under 5's Forest Glade and there was about 15 kids. They all did really good and all came off of the pitch with a huge smile on their face.

The white cones marked their little football pitch. Every kid had a ball at his feet pretty much from the time they arrived to the end of the hour session.