Claire's First Day at Yochien

We took the first day pictures in front of Miss Ning Ning's daisy garden, like her sisters did on their first day of school, but it was pretty sunny. 

"Claire, put your hand down."

Oh well.  ☺

The bus picks them up right outside of our house and we went out and saw the two kids get on.  I took her today so I could help her get adjusted.  We beat the bus there by a few minutes and then we got out of our "bus" (I wore a hat of Mick's in the van and told her I was her bus driver for the day!) and met the kids.  A Sensei rides the bus with the kids each day and she came right over and called one of the little girls and had her hold Claire's hand and off they went.  It felt so good to see my little Claire Bear taken care of so well!

The parking lot is a block or so away from the school.  The roads in Japan are narrow and the speed limits are really slow.  Which is good since there are no sidewalks!

Hug the fence, kids.  ☺

Then you go down a cute path and hooray!  We're here!!!!!!

We had to run last night to the YouMe Store for Claire's inside shoes.  She comes in, takes off her shoes, puts them in her cubbie and puts on her inside shoes.

Red for girls, blue for boys.

We went into her room and Sensei Ai gave Claire her smock to put on.  She started to take off her shirt, but I showed her that it went over her top.  I was really glad I was there to help her learn the basic routine!

And then she went over and played.  Because kids are kids and toys are toys.  That's a common language!

And here's something funny (to us Americans, or at least to me!)....she had to take her indoor shoes off to go on the carpeted area.  That's a lot of on and off!

But Gigi was happy to be able to get everybody's shoes out of order!  ☺

Then I wanted to show Claire the potties.  On the first floor, where the 3 and 4 year olds are, they are all Western potties.  Thank goodness. They're even small potties, which are Claire's favorite kind!  But it's still quite a routine.

She needs to come in and put on the blue shoes to go in the restroom. 

Then she doesn't wash her hands in the restroom, even though there's a sink there because there are no paper towels.  The kids all bring a towel with a loop on it (small scandal, ours didn't have a loop....need to get a few more at the YouMe Store soon) and they hang it in the room and that's where they dry their hands.  Another funny detail is there isn't liquid soap, but there is a bar of soap in those blue and pink nets below the faucet.  Lots to learn for the little girl!

Then I asked if she was okay and told her "PEACE OUT!" and she told me "PEACE OUT!"

And then she worked and worked on her fingers and told me "HOOK 'EM HORNS!"

My sweet little Claire Bear will do great!  I'm so proud of her!

 It was a short day today, but tomorrow she will go from 8:30 (when she gets on the bus) to 3:30 (when she gets off the bus).  She rode the bus home today and did great!

Way to go Claire!!!!!!!!!!