First Test

I am not a fan of making young kids study. I'd rather entice them to study by preparing a place which ignites curiosity and allows for exploration.

However, sometimes that is not an option.

 

The school system in Japan has a lot of testing. Some of the tests are easy or for placement purposes. Others are seen as making or breaking a child's future. There are tests to get into schools at every level (Kinder, Elm. Jr. High, Sr. High, College) and there are ways to get around the testing. One way is to get into an "escalator" school which will move a child up through the levels without requiring reapplying and retesting at each level. These schools are usually private/parochial and can be challenging to enter. They can also be expensive. However, sometimes God opens a door and it is up to us to walk in that direction.

For the past few weeks we've been working with Zilla to prepare him for his first ever test. It includes reading, writing, math and critical thing components. There is also a body movement section from what I'm told.

I've never been a fan of cram schools but trying to figure out what to study with him and how to study it has given me an understanding of why so many families pay for/trust a cram school to see them through the exam process. There are books and example tests you can buy but even those don't come cheap.

I don't know for sure, at this point, what school he will go to next year. However, I do know that my husband will need to be home more to help with homework and Mega gets jealous of Zilla having homework so I need to prepare more work for her so she will leave him alone long enough for him to study!

 

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Summer of Homework - Preschool Version

Lesson: When the school year does not end before summer there will be homework.

 

Since Zilla is not yet in Elementary School the amount of summer homework is manageable but I still am not keen on the idea of having to do homework over summer vacation. Perhaps the reason for not being keen on homework from school is that I have my own planned for him?

To celebrate the start of summer break we had McDonald's Happy Meals for lunch. The toys were somewhat educational - a flute-like instrument and a microscope in boxes that can be turned into cars - so I guess it is a fitting start to a summer of homework!

The top, right picture is Zilla's calendar. Each day he has a sticker to mark the day, a sticker for the weather, a sticker for brushing his teeth and a sticker for if he pooped. Yes, that last sticker is real. Each culture handles bodily functions differently... Other areas in the calendar include making notes of what we do each day, an interview for at the end of summer and space for pictures, tickets, etc. In a few years we'll probably enjoy looking back at the calendar so I don't mind doing it.

I don't have pictures of it but Zilla also brought home a mini tomato plant so he is to care for it and has a chart to fill out as he picks the tomatoes. Again, this is not so bad... if you are planning to stay home during summer! We will be babysitting the plant of a classmate as they are going away for the summer.

The bottom, right pictures are "gifts" from the school (if that is what we'd call them...) that Zilla brought home. There is a book, sparkers and a bamboo water squirter. The book encourages reading and the water squirter is a traditional toy btu the sparklers? They don't see to be the kind of thing that preschoolers should be carrying around in their school bag.

 

I've heard that first graders often receive a pile of homework to do over the holidays - enough for an hour or so a day - so we are going to enjoy having less homework from the school this year as we may not have the same luck next year!

 

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Early Morning Art

This week we've had a few days when Zilla was up and ready for school with an hour to spare. When he gets ready early I like to make the most of the morning hour as he is usually in a better mindset then than in the evening when he's tired. This week he filled the extra hours with art. We love our easel from Ikea because it is light weight so the kids can easily move it to where the light is right.

 

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Game Time! Memory

Lesson: Games are worth the stress :-)

Zilla is 5 years old and has a pretty good handle on taking turns and playing a game but still has times where his emotional involvement in the games makes playing together challenging. Mega is 2 years old and wants to play games but only by her rules. Little by little she is figuring out how to play with others and take turns.

Recently we played Memory together. This is a game I play well, especially when playing with young kids. ;-) However, I get very annoyed when the other players bump the cards/tiles so they are no longer in straight lines. So, it goes without saying that playing with a toddler is stressful for me! But it is still fun :-)
Playing games together is so much more than a way to pass time. Kids learn social skills, thinking skills and get to bond with each other. I love that they are truly excited for each other's successes when we play together.

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Random Inspiration

Mega is 2 years old

Zilla is 5 years old

 

Lesson: Anything can inspire creativity.

Lesson 2; watch out when inspiration strikes!

 

I try to be understanding of the kid's need to try and do various things...

I try to have items available that can be easily turned into something else with a bit of inspiration...

I try to stay out of the way and be an observer when the creative juices flow...

I try not to stop the creative process...

But sometimes it is difficult!

They are riding down the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon, facing the rivers, mountains and plains with a sometimes unwilling team of horses.

Mega made up her own gross motor Montessori style activity which is worthy of going in an album!

She lined up our milk carton boxes and then went jumping from box to box down the line. Her two footed hoping improved greatly after doing this for a couple of days!

My heart returned to normal rhythm a few days after that... You can't tell from the picture but the end of her jumping course has some hard furniture and a class door - neither of which would be forgiving if is she didn't stop at the right place. Part of the fangs of a small house...

 

While this may look like a marble run to you and me it can be so many other things like a distribution machine for ice cream ;-)

Of course not all creative endeavors are as far stretched...

Here they are filling the time before Zilla heads to school for the day with math lessons. While it all looks rather normal, Zilla's way of explaining addition to a 2 year old who can count to 8 but only really understand the numbers 1 - 4 was rather interesting!

Perhaps he should consider education as a career?

 

 

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Season for Outdoor Water Play

Zilla is 5 years old

Mega is 2 years old

Lesson: Kids are irresistibly drawn to water

 

It does not matter how early in the morning it is, how hungry the mosquitos are or how hot/humid it is outside... when there is water within reach kids want to play.

We picked up a multifaceted water and sand toy which adds some interesting aspects to the usual water experimentation. Mega is enjoying transferring water with various items (shovel, cup bucket) and Zilla is learning about water pressure, hoses and sprinklers. They are working on teamwork... sort of.

Even with new and I the resting toys, they spent the most time blowing leaves across the top of the water in a "boat race"!

 

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Pet Caterpillar

Zilla is 5 years old

Mega is 2 years old

As the weather warms up the kids feel the pull to be outside for I creasing lengths of time. With the coming of spring they have enjoyed seeing the "garden" come alive. We have a a small parking area outside our living room door which they call the backyard or garden.

They found this little "caterpillar" (I'm not sure if it is actually one but the term works for our purposes...) and put it in the bug box for observation.

They decided to take notes and draw pictures to record what they saw.

This kind of activity is something totally unplanned but because we had the tools in place (prepared environment) they were able to take the teachable moment and run with it.

They observed that Catapilly (the name they gave it) would curl up and stop moving when frightened, climbed on leaves and sticks in the box and it even stopped to munch on a leaf from time to time.

 

While Zilla was at school Mega was on observation duty and she takes her responsibility seriously!

At 6:30 this morning while I was just getting ready for the day I hear the kids outside talking about going for a walk. When I went to investigate I discovered they meant giving Catapilly a chance to take a walk!

Since they have been so engrossed with their new "pet" I gave them the book "From Caterpillar to Butterfly" to look at. We have an oversized edition which seemed to add to the reading fun!

 

One of the greatest thing about this whole Catapilly experience is at the kids have been able to do nearly everything on their own. They know where the supplies are, they worked together to figure out what would make Catapilly happy and to figure out the best way to make observations. I love that they are at this stage! It makes my job easy :-)

 

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When Inspiration Strikes...

Zilla is 5 years old

Mega is 2 years old

 

When the kids feel the inspiration to create I let them create. When the feel the inspiration to move I let them move. When the feel the inspiration to sing I let them sing.

However, sometimes it is not easy to encourage these things.

 

This evening I had a number of things which needed to get done but they both wanted my attention and help to follow two very different inspirations...

Mega wanted to be Hnady Manny, Zilla to be Mr. Lopart and me to be Kelly. She does make a pretty cute repair girl even though she is better at breaking things and making messes than fixing them and cleaning up!

Zilla had gym class at preschool today so he wanted to try to recreate what they did in class. If we had more space and a mat I wouldn't mind.

For someone who spent a few year spotting vault for gymnastics it was nearly painful to see his pitiful form but the joy he was oozing made up for it.

A stack of blocks made from milk cartons does not a horse make...

But with a bit of imagination and inspiration can make anything possible!

 

 

 

 

 

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Valentin's Time

Valentine's Day is a welcome celebration in our home.  The kids love to share the love!

One evening they took over the living room table to make cards.  

We have a hard time working at the regular table winter in because even with the heater on it is so cold in that room!  Thus is life without insulation... ;-)

 A little Valentine's making while waiting for breakfast...

 We've started using chalk to leave messages by the front gate.

A special "love-love" bento for Zilla as he had school on the 14th.  Usually my husband and I take turns making bentos but on this day we teamed up to "show our love"!

Zilla did try to convince me that because it is Valentine's Day he should stay home with his family, who he loves, instead of go to class.  Perhaps next year?

We've also been reading a lot of Valentine's books!  Here is a link to some of our favorites!

Kotoba & Sign Amazon.co.jp Valentine's Store

Surviving School Holidays

In Japan many people start their winter holiday/break time today.  Most schools also started their break this week.  We started a little earlier as we kept Zilla home from school to celebrate Christmas.

Making winter break - summer break - spring break - enjoyable may take a bit of planning but it is so much better than hearing kids fight & squabble for days!

The key two our sanity during these times is twofold - keep the kids busy (minds engaged) and give them a calendar/schedule.  Here is the calendar we made at breakfast on the first day of break:

As we go along we've added things like which room to clean that day (end of the year thorough cleaning it a Japanese tradition), dentist appointments, what we did in homeschool each day and anything special that comes up.

My proof that it works - Zilla woke up asking for Houdini Homeschool!  Any day off of school, or even half day, he usually asks the same thing. 

Why does it work?

Kids love to learn.  They are naturally very curious.  If you give them something productive to do, something that they are honestly interested in, then they are less likely to do things they shouldn't be doing or to have sibling fights. 

How did we get started?

Around the age of 2 we started out with regular activity times in the morning and after the afternoon nap.  Depending on the day these time slots can last anywhere up to 3 hours.  

I don't have a lot of time for planning & preparing activities so I try to keep it simple.  We start with some sit-down work that includes coloring, writing, stickers, cutting etc.  These activities often come from a Gakken, Kumon, School Zone or similar workbook. Sometimes they are Montessori print-outs.  The reason we start this way is because my kids will most likely go through the Japanese school system which has massive amounts of written work.  I want them to get used to doing it now.  I also want them to see how other tools can be used to enhance their written work by combining the workbook based activities with the non-workbook activities.

On a typical day Zilla, 5 yrs. old, does 2 pages in an English phonics book, 2 pages in a math book, 2 mazes or dot-to-to puzzles and a cutting/pasting activity.  Most days this takes him about 30 minutes.

Mega does some stickers and coloring/writing.  She also enjoys cutting/pasting and stickers but we don't do that every day.

After the workbook activities are finished the kids move to the activity shelf to choose something to work on.  I try to have out a variety of activities at each of their levels.  They each have a rug to lay out so they can work in their own space.

The shelf activities last about an hour most days.  I need to be available to help when they ask for help so I stay near by and only work on things that are easy to put down during that time.

If we have a special activity we may do that before the shelf activity time.  Some special activities include making holiday or birthday cards, a seasonal project or something that requires special preparation such as painting.

Another part of our homeschool is to get outside for at least 30 minutes of play before lunch.  It is often too hot in summer and too cold in winter to play outside for much longer than that.  On rainy days we'll have a longer bath time or use the small hallway for bowling, care races or hitting around balloons.

Radish Boy

There is a home delivery produce company called "Radish Boya".  The name is the Japanized version of the word "boy".

This week Zilla brought home from school a radish (daikon)  from the school's garden.  I think this picture could inspire a new Radish Boy campaign!

Since April he's brought home 2 kinds of potatos, Asian pears and this week mikans too.  His school may be in the city but they do a pretty good job giving the kids a chance to dig in the dirt and watch things grow!

String + Stick = An Hour of Fun

Zilla is 5 years old

Mega is 2 years old

As the Christmas shopping is coming together I am reminded again that kids really don't need (or even want!) expensive toys that do the playing for them.  They are much more interested in the chance to play freely using their imaginations and laughs.  

Today's "best hit" of toys was...

A string tied to a stick!

 It is a cool day but we managed to fit in an hour of play before it got dark.  I kid you not, they played with the string on a stick for most of that time!

 Zilla figured out how to make a snake...

They both mastered making circles!