What’s going on

This week is incredibly hectic. Not only are we trying to pack, but we have a minimum of 2 engagements every day, and FIK is trying to get 12+ hours of volunteer work out of me (really guys, the LAST week we're in the country. not cool). This blog has taken a backseat to all the pre-departure activities. That said, here’s a quick run down of what we’ve been up to for the past few days…

On Thursday, one of our Kokko friends invited us over for a playdate/going away tea. Catie & Angela loved playing with Kaito's toys and the mom's all enjoyed a little time not actively playing with the kids.

 

Friday was Day 2 of parent observation days at FIK. Here's a photo of Catie and Anna contemplating their lunches. And then proof that Catie actually did take a few (very few) bites.

Over the weekend, we took one last trip to the mall on Saturday (I needed some last minute baking supplies before the big host family meeting here on Tuesday) and then had a fun day Sunday playing at Aiina with Anna & Mika. We attended a children's christmas music concert and then the 4 of us spent hours building elaborate towers out of different kinds of blocks in the play center.

 

This week has been filled with meetings- university, host families, etc. and going away  gatherings and a trip to Kokko. I didn't take photos of most of them, but here are a few.

The mountain was simply glorious today. Here is a shot from our front door and the view I always see after dropping Catie off at school. 

our apt is the corner unit, second down from the top floor in the orange building on the right.

Today Andy & I went out for a fancy Washoku lunch with Yuki at the very grand, Morioka Grand Hotel. here is a shot of 6 of our 8 course I'd try to explain what each dish is, but they probably wouldn't sound very good in English. Lunch was fun and the views of the city amazing! I had no idea the hotel even existed until today!

After school we headed up to say goodbye to Takamatsu no Ike and feed the swans one last time. One the way up a pheasant flew right in front of us! I'd seen the bird poster every time we went to the park, but I never thought we'd really see a pheasant there. It was cool! 

 

There were more swans than before and they were ravenous! We had a good time feeding them.

Catie running down to the lake

 

 

the gray swans were starting to turn white! They looked all patchy today.

Bye, Swans!!!

And last, Reiko picked up the photos the photographer took of us in the park a couple of weeks ago. Most of them were kind of funny. Here are 3...

I love this one!

The group shots were pretty goofy. The upper one isn't too bad, but most of them looked more like this...

I love the look Ichika is giving us!

 The big FIK farewell party is tomorrow after school, so hopefully I'll have some more photos to share after that.

Preschool Observation Day

I just returned from the first of 2 observation days at Catie’s school. Unlike many US schools, you cannot just show up when you want on parent observation days. Here, you must sign up for two 45-minute time slots, thus controlling how many people are in the school. I signed up for vocabulary class today and lunch tomorrow. (I really want to see how bad lunch really is after having Catie tell me it’s “yucky” all semester.)

Vocabulary class was fine. Catie is in the youngest group and occasionally blurts out the answer without giving the other kids a chance. The littlest student kept running around the group instead of paying attention, but she’s only 2, so what can you expect.

My mind is still reeling from “free play” time after class! When they left their lesson, the 6 children in vocabulary class had to do their “routine”. The routine consisted of the following:

1)      Use the toilet.

2)    Wash their hands (with  warm water and soap).

3)     Wipe their hands on their towel and get their cup from their bag hanging near the bathroom.

4)    Gargle 3 times.

5)     Put cup away, wipe hands again.

6)    Go across room and get water bottle.

7)     Bring water bottle to their assigned seat and have a drink.

8)    Return water bottle to appropriate spot on the water bottle table.

9)    Go across room and pull their card from 3 boxes of routine cards (they need to be able to find their own name).

10) Find a teacher and (in English) ask tell them which tasks they completed so that the teacher can mark them off.

11)  Thank the teacher (in English) and put the card back in the appropriate box.

12) Go across room to the free play board.

13) Find their own tag (a key chain-like tag with their name on it)

14) Look at the play board to see which play center has free space. I’m not sure how many kids are allowed in each area at a time, but Catie said the craft center was full, so she opted for the TV corner. Put tag in one of the pockets for the chosen activity.

15) Since Catie chose the TV corner, she then had to go pick up her chair, bring it onto the stage (the TV corner) and ask a teacher for help to put in a DVD.

Whoa. 15 steps just to have some free time watching a movie! I had no idea the kids had to do all this by themselves! I can only imagine how lost Catie was for months!

Catie’s choice of movie amused me as well. Teacher Hirako offered up a stack of movies with Cinderella on the top. Catie quickly nixed the first 3 princess movies and settled on Watch’em Work- her favorite, according to the teacher! The movie consisted of video clips of different kinds of trucks working at a construction site. That's our little girl!!!

While we were watching the movie, I was repeatedly jumped on, hugged, and shown artwork by the other children. Catie joined in too, although she did explain to a few classmates that this was HER mommy (somehow them yelling “Catie Mama” repeatedly got past her). I was so busy playing with them, that I didn’t realize all the other parents had left! Teacher Mai had to come over and tell me it was time to leave. My bad!

Catie really enjoyed having me at school. She was proud of showing me that she knew exactly what to do. I was impressed that she not only can read her own name, but the names of many of her classmates! When did that happen? I am surprised at the level of structure in the classroom. I knew kids were supposed to take care of some things on their own, but I had not realized how many specific tasks they have to complete in the correct order. Seeing how well she does with that makes me wonder how she will get along in school when we return to the US. This has clearly been an interesting learning experience for all of us!