* recently when I look at the clock it seems to be spooky times, like "11:11" this morning.
* L turned 2m.o. yesterday - TOO fast!! Am loving every minute of him, and so now trully understand when other mummy friends say things like "I want another BABY". Me too...already, lol! I can't believe he is growing so fast.
* am feeling very blessed having found such great friends here in japan - this week I managed to catch up with several mummies from playgroup I used to go to. It has been ages since I had seen them, since we moved, and I now realise how much I miss them, but it is great to be able to meet again after 6months or so, and still have a great time.
* niku-jaga for dinner. With lots of hoku-hoku potatoes in there. YUMMO
* 2months after giving birth. I really need to stop on the excuses and start getting myself BACK. Unfortunately, not only do I have flummy to deal with, I have some serious flighs, and flarms that need blasting! I know you should never say "I will start tomorrow" but I am going to. Actually, am gonna say I am starting from July 1 - that means NO MORE COOKIES (well, not as many as I am eating now at least ;D and being serious about drinking water.) In general, we are eating ok, I think, trying to keep the vege intake up. It is really just the sweets and snacking that need to be dealt with. And I also need to start to get serious about some excercise.
* did several loads of washing today. Lots of early morning starts this week has meant that I couldn't get the washing hang out (the balcony is off the room where K and J are sleeping, so I wait until they are up to hang it out.) But with rainy days and then yesterday we left the same time as J, the laundry has been building up.
* now I just gotta fold up several loads of washing (ok, I dont mind doing this)
* then I gotta put it all away.AAAARRRRGGGGH. not my favourite at all.
* been looking at pre-schools, scouring for information. Am going to the closest pre-school for I guess what equates to a trial day/open day. Also signing up for lots of classes for K, like "リトミック”and a swimming class next week. I am not sure if we will be putting K into pre-school from next year or not. 3years of pre-school kinda sounds like a lot to me, and I am keen to keep her English language ability up as much as possible, so would prefer her to stay out of the all-Japanese schooling environment at this stage...... Anyone gone down the non-3 years pre-schooling route? Any comments?? I know she needs some kind of stimulation other that just playing with me, so I would like to find something that we could do instead of regular Japanese pre-school (maybe not every day, but 1-2 times a week). Although sometimes when she is giving me the shits with some temper tantrum or disobedience, I feel like I wanna put her into boarding school, let alone pre-school every day.
* K watching Dora, L asleep on my lap. Thurs afternoons are great!
Thursday, 24 June 2010
dotty
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I didn't want to send my kids to kindy from 3 either. I too really wanted to focus on swamping her in English as much as possible before school killed it!! Though for me just as big of a concern was bullying. Japanese like their groups and being in one is the be all and end all in many cases. I considered not sending her at all from 3 (though she was 3 and a half by April) but I didn't want her on the outer circle just because her stupid foreign mummy didn't want to do the norm!! I was honestly really scared about what the mothers and kids would do and how much she would be austrocised (?). So I made my own compromise-still it wasn't liked by many but I think it worked for us. I sent her 3 days a week to reg kindy wed-fri. That covered all my concerns-lots of English time, Mondays Eng playgroup, stimulation for her, downtime for me, in the group, mummy looking like she'll conform!! I did this for 9 months then I let her go 5 days when I knew she was ready.
ReplyDeleteMy second went fulltime from day dot as he needs the contact to build vocabularly.
Now I just wonder how all my Aussie friends keep sain with their kids at home until 5!!! Good luck!
I think finding one for two or three days would be great. We only have very old school kindies here. I put forward the 'paying the full price but only actually taking them three days a week' - but got told no. Here, you have to be 'working' to get them a place at all so then going and saying only a few days...
ReplyDeleteI couldn't do three kids at home - no way. It would drive me over the edge. I think she Kyla will love the stimulation of being round kids the same age. And you will love the mummy and baby time. I think one of the reasons both Shou and Marina went into kindy from a month before the next baby was born was so that each baby would get that 'just me and mummy' time.
Easier to find time to exercise when you only have a baby to worry about too!
I bet she already has a great English base - unlike Shou and Marina, who understand what I say but don't speak a word unless prompted. If she has a few days a week all in English then she should be able to keep the current level up?
Good luck finding a place that fits with what you want. Seriously though, one small baby at home?? The mornings and the evenings are chaotic but the daytime, oh the daytime is bliss.
3 sounded so young to me too with my first. Then the school I worked at opened an English pre-school, so she went for 3 hours each morning, for two years, 3-4. When she was 5 I started her at a typical J. hoikuen, but I had issues about naps (she didn't, they wanted her to) so I switched to 'ichi-ji hoiku' - 3 x 4-hour sessions a week.
ReplyDeleteLook up Montessori for ideas on activity stations you can set up at home, for independent play.
sorry I haven't had a chance to get back to say thanks for the comments.
ReplyDeleteachan - the 3days a week would be a great compromise, definately something I would like to find!! I was also a bit worried about her being on the out for being different (with foreign mum) so as thinking about sending her from day dot so that all the kids would know her and me, but I realised that unless we send her to the very closest pre-school, there is no guarantee that the kids she is with (and mums I am with) are going to be going to the same primary school anyway.....hmmm. So now am looking a bit further around for a pre-school that will suit our circumstances, rather than just be the closest.
Also, there is one international school that we are kinda thinking we would like to put her into from primary school (they have a preschool too, but it is about 30mins away by train, so don't know if it is really feasible). It is not a regular super-dooper expensive int. school, (it is priced more like a private school in Australia) so it might actually be doable
Rachel - Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I def. think it is because she is my first it makses it so much harder to let them go.... I lke the montessori idea. I am gonna look that up for sure. That must have been great tho, working at an Eng hoikuen and being able to have your DD there too - the best of both worlds??!? Maybe I need to get a job!?
GW - yep, K def has a good Eng base, (in fact, her J lang is a bit weird sometimes, lol) but I do worry that as soon as she is in an all J environemnet, that she will stop using her Eng....I guess I dont know how it will pan out tho, so maybe best not to worry too much about it?
It would be nice to have baby time - L is such a cutie at the moment, all cooing and smiley. And I know that K would love the stimulation of pre-school...hmmmm SO much to think about. Hoping that one of the shcools around here will somehow have the perfect solution...