What a parent learns at a Japanese kindy

When bub first started pre-kindy at a Japanese school, I had not done any research beforehand. I just turned up at the school, and felt immediately embarrassed by the lack of bags I was carrying. Bub's $19 monkey bag from Kmart was large enough to fit everything he needed for school - we were told to bring some snacks (fruits only), a drink bottle (they called it "sweet-toh"), hat, a parent/teacher communication notebook, and a list of stationery for writing/art lessons. And the usual spare set of clothes, diapers and wipes (yes, bub isn't toilet-trained....yet). If you can fit everything into one bag, why bother carrying five different bags right?

I was wrong.

The cute little Japanese kids had a snack box (which their parents wrapped in a handkerchief and they hand-carry), a bag/box for the stationery/paper, and their normal bag with all the other essentials. They also bring their own pillows which they use to sit on the floor.

They even have to bring the pillows home and back again each day. The school had dodgy spare pillows which bub used, hence I decided to just buy a new one for him. On Sunday I went shopping with bub. I was planning to go to IKEA to get the stationery/paper box which most of the kids were using, but I was short of time. There were similar ones sold at Kmart, but the designs were very plain and it only comes in dark purple, dark red or black. What dull colours! I wanted something lighter like beige, or any of the other pastel hues. I was debating whether to get the fierce coloured ones at Kmart, when I decided that I just must drive down to IKEA, next week! For now, we'll just make do with what we have.

When bub arrives at school, we first sign-in. Then bub places his hat in the hat-bag, and his water bottle in the sweeto-bag. They play with toys for the first 15 minutes before starting lessons. Lessons start with a bow and a polite greeting. Last Saturday, they also learnt to introduce themselves and talk about their likes/dislikes, which you can see in the short clip below.  I realised that the Japanese have a song for everything they do to keep the children entertained and interested. The sensei played on the organ and sang a song about ice-cream, and then the kids made an ice-cream cone on paper.

During snack time the kids would eat their fruits, and the sensei would sing yet another song which was similar to the "I Spy" game. The sensei would say a fruit name at the end of the song, for example strawberry. Whoever had a strawberry would quickly pick the strawberry from their snack box and show it to the sensei. It was a fun way to learn the names of the fruits.

They children also have a 15 minute play time outside at the playground. Before going out, they must wear their hats and hold each other's hand. The older kids would also help the younger kids to put their hats on without being told.

The playgrounds which I normally take bub to do not have sand. However, the playground at the school had sand. It had also rained that morning, so you can just imagine how dirty the sand were. However bub totally enjoyed playing in the sand. The older kids would climb up the ropes, and the younger kids built sandcastles or dug holes in the sand with a shovel. Last Saturday bub was shoveling the sand when he saw the older kids swinging and hanging from the ropes and quickly abandoned his shovel to join the older kids. However, he was still small and short, so he couldn't reach for the ropes.

Hence, he made do with the mini version of it.

It was really hard and he wasn't able to climb from one triangle to the other as his legs were still too short for it. I kept trying to re-direct him to the shovel, but he ignored me and stayed with the older, and "cooler" kids. When the older kids climbed through the triangles into the centre of the dome, he blindly followed them. Sigh..

When we went back into the classroom, the kids sang more songs and learnt to write "rabbit" in Japanese. They also learnt about the number "19". When school ended, the kids bowed again and said "sayonara" to the sensei. They were so polite and well-mannered. Tokuro just stood indifferently. Hopefully he'll learn by copying the older kids, like how he copied them at the playground =)

The sensei had advised me to learn to write bub's name in Japanese, as I needed to label all his personal things for identification purposes. Not only did I learnt so much about the Japanese culture that day, I even had homework!

View on Youtube: http://youtu.be/5BZlA61YCRE

Have a great week ahead!