Today parents were invited to Kawashimo Yochien for
Sankanbi, which is an official "visitation" day. It was great to be able to get a glimpse into our little Claire Bear's day. It was amazing on so many small and big levels. You better get comfortable...I have too much to tell for this to be short and sweet!
I got there a few minutes late and the kids were singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" in Japanese. Or rather, Sensei Ai was singing while playing the piano and the kids stood on their designated squares.
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| We got there a few minutes late. Claire was up in the middle of the night, for some reason, so I let her sleep in and miss the bus and brought her with me at 9:30....well....9:35. ;-) Claire went right over to her square and didn't sing. But she has the waving and funny faces DOWN! |
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| Then they sang "ABC's" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." And continued making funny faces. And waving. |
Then they sat down for a game of Christmas Bingo!
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| Sensei Ai is such an awesome teacher. Her crafts are amazing, she was great at the piano and she prepares so much for the kids! She passed out a Bingo sheet for each child and it already had that child's name on it. I'm sure she had her A+++ game on for us, but she's A+++ always in my eyes! |
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| Whenever Claire had a match, she wanted to tell Mick, Sensei or me. ☺ |
Then it was time for an art project.
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| What I thought was really interesting here is how there was a line that showed the kids how to cut up and begin to cut out the shapes for decorating the woman's breast, I mean, the Santa face. |
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| I know learning to use scissors is a big skill that the kids learn in preschool. I went over to help Claire's friend, Emmaly, and Mick went to help Claire. Emmaly didn't mind me helping her stay on the lines, but Claire, who is fiercely independent, wanted to do it herself. |
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| They both were concentrating very hard with their tongues sticking out. :) |
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| Sensei Ai brought out the kids' craft supplies. What Claire is sticking her finger in is her glue bowl. No Elmer's containers to get all dried up at this preschool! |
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| Whew! It doesn't look like a breast anymore! :) Cute Santa hat! |
I walked around the room and admired the art and other stuff.
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| This is where Claire's work is displayed. I think the top bird is awesome for a three year old, coloring different parts of the bird different colors. My girls get their artistic ability from the Wagoner side....it's certainly not from me! |
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| There was one of these posterboards for every month, beginning in April, which is the beginning of the school year in Japan. Claire is in the top right corner of this one because that's the month she started. They were a lot of pictures that we have at home, but it was fun to see the captions (short English, longer explanations in Japanese) for the activities. One was "Plant onion seedling." |
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| This Sensei made for the kids' craft fair that we missed. I couldn't get enough of this structure! It is made almost entirely of milk cartons! The awning was brown corrugated cardboard, but I think the rest of it was paper mache'ed milk cartons! |
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| Mick says that they must send the Senseis to the United States to get a Masters in Crafts from Michael's! It was soooooo cool and so sturdy! |
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| When the kids went outside, I asked Claire to stay back and get a picture in the "playhouse" (as she calls it), she said, "Sure!" and sat down to take off her indoor shoes before she went on the square of carpet. I am SO IMPRESSED by the discipline and learning of routines here! |
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| Did I say "discipline?" Well.......she's got the routine down, anyway! ☺ |
On our way outside I took off my indoor shoes that the Yochien has by the door for the adults and couldn't resist these two pictures.
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| At the Halloween party, all of the adults just took off their shoes and left them all over the floor. A little too much chaos for Kawashimo, apparently. |
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| I mean, seriously! These are regular plastic bags, folded up nicely, origami style. Unbelievable the detail that goes on here!!!!! ☺ |
We went outside and I was the only lame-o parent who put a coat on my kid.
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| Claire went right to it! Seems they have a routine outdoors too. They work around the playground. |
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| The fun slides and bridge were first! |
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| And then over to the swings! |
And then Ryu came over and gave Claire a ride on the tricycle!
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| Right after I snapped this I heard Ryu say, "You're too heavy, Claire!" |
So they switched places!
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| We love Ryu! ☺ This picture reminds me of the scene in the movie "Elf" where Buddy is giving Papa Elf a ride on the tricycle. "SLOW DOWN BUDDY!" ☺ |
Then they went over in a corner of the playground that I hadn't even noticed before.
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| It was a beautiful "sandbox" area under this pretty pergola! |
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| I had seen pictures of Claire in the sand, I actually thought it was dirt, but didn't know where it was. The kids spent the longest time here. They really seemed to love it! |
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| Mick and I actually stood back and watched this and discussed perhaps keeping Claire here for kindergarten. It was just such an impressive day and she's so happy there! She's only three so we have another year and a half to debate it. It wasn't on the table before today though! |
Then all of the classes came out and they performed a few songs for us.
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| This was the first time Mick got to see Claire's waving/not singing in action as he missed the beginning of the day here as well as Sports Day and the Halloween Party. |
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| This was the first time I saw her being a teense naughty and turning around and clowning it up with Emmaly. Perhaps Kawashimo won't want her for kindergarten?!? ;-) |
And then the kids took off, out of the play yard gate and started running! I asked Miki, Ryu's Mom what was going on and she said it's called "Marathon" and the kids run around the loop very fast! The bigger kids do two laps while the red hats just do one.
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| Claire came home the other day with a few bonks on her face and she told me she fell... I figured out today that it was during "marathon." :( Good exercise for the kids though! |
At the end of the run, Claire and her class ran right inside, without a goodbye to the parents. They were just following routine! Sensei Ai didn't even tell them to go in. She was out in the playground talking with a parent. No trying to sneak another ride down the slide, no clowning around....I went in and peeked at them and Claire was just stepping out of her bathroom shoes, just having gone to the bathroom, and she waved to me and went into her class. So let me beat this into the ground.....my 3 year old, without instruction or adult supervision, can go for a run, voluntarily go inside, take off her outdoor shoes, put on her indoor shoes, go to the bathroom (changing out of her outdoor shoes and into the bathroom shoes) and then go into her classroom and wait quietly for her teacher....without instruction? And she intentionally poured chocolate milk on the floor a few nights ago at home while looking at me straight in the eye?????????
Forget Claire going to kindergarten there....can I come and be trained on how to be a good teacher and parent?????????
As always, THANK YOU KAWASHIMO!
