this morning yoshi had a lecture, part of the adult education lecture series put on by the city. not really what i wanted to hear because he had a lecture last week (usually they're every other week), he went to hokkaido last monday and came back late wednesday, and he's going to hokkaido again tomorrow (and i just found out he'll be back late thursday!! *sigh*
he came home for lunch and after we all ate, we headed out to the youchien to sign hiro up. yep, he'll be a kindergarten student starting in november. i am really worried that he will freak out without me, but hopefully that will only last a day or two. i guess parents are allowed to come get their children during the first two hours so i might be able to go and check. or, if i'm really lazy, i could bring his bento during that time (instead of sending it with him on the bus). the bus arrives at 9:18 so that gives me plenty of time in the morning to get something made up for him.
since the youchien is so close to the sea, we went to the beach afterward. i envisioned us walking along the surf, maybe getting our feet wet, but hiro and sasha had other plans. they both got soaking wet so we had to take them back home. this was frustrating because i wanted to go to the sunlive to show yoshi some stainless steel bentos for hiro. so, with a 'naked' hiro and a 'naked' sasha, we drove home, got them fresh clothes, then headed back to the department store. the bentos seemed a touch too big for hiro, so we looked around a bit. we found a really cute elephant-themed bento (the mascot of the youchien is an elephant) which was a great size, and blue (to satisfy yoshi's sensibilities i guess) so that was productive. now i need to make a bag for it (not required, but i think it will be needed because i'll have to buy utensils seperately) and find him a spoon and fork.
we got bentos in the supermarket for dinner, and that little scoundrel tommy managed to grab a package of cooked meatballs, make a hole in the plastic, take one out and start to eat it!! hiro noticed first and asked, 'what is that?!' i think he was more jealous that tommy got to eat something than actually worried that tommy was causing trouble!
January 20, 2025
2 hours ago
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It took my DD almost two whole months to adjust to yochien, but she entered as a nensho at 3 and didn't speak a word of Japanese at that time so that might have made it more tramatic, although there were lots of kids crying and screaming at the gate for many weeks at the start of the year.
My school didn't let you come pick them up. Well, I guess you could if you really really demanded it, but they strongly discouraged it. You dropped them off and that was it until pickup time. It seemed kind of cruel at first, but they do adjust and get used to it. They yochien teachers are also really kind and understanding. Now she loves it and often complains when she can't go for some reason, but for a while there I thought we had made a big mistake.
Don't be surprised if it takes him a little longer to adjust than you think. He will be fine though. And it might be a big emotional thing for you as he goes through whatever he may go through. You will be fine too though.
he'll be going off on the bus, first day. i think i'll be a wreck. we'll see what happens when he gets home. and when i take him to the bus the next day. oh, and no japanese for him, too. and he's only just got the pee in the toilet/potty thing down. am. very. worried!
apparently, though, there will be at least one other student starting in november, so at least hiro won't be the only new kid!
I think a November start is a great idea!! Starting in April when everyone else is freaking out puts off even the keenest kids. There were kids who'd been at hoikuen since they were 6 months old crying when M started in the 3 yo class- just because everyone else was crying, too. :(
I really think it's tougher on mum than the kids though. Ganbarre!
Oh and at least Tommy grabbed something you would normally eat- A once grabbed some candied grasshopper things. ergghh.
Oh I want to see a picture of the elephant bento! It sounds great.
From a teacher`s point of view (I worked with kids aged 2.5-5) it is better if the mums say goodbye and then leave straight away (bus is good too I guess!) but we found it was always harder on the mothers than the kids. The kids would cry for 10 minutes and then as soon as their mummies were out of sight they were usually fine (We had one girl who started just before 2.5, still in diapers, and she cried everyday she came for 3 weeks then came in one day, told her mum she was fine and wasn`t going to cry and ran off to play) It takes all kids different amounts of times to adjust.
His japanese will be fine too- he will pick it straight up I am sure!
Is it still warm enough to swim in the ocean? Wow, I wish I lived down South when we were in Japan- sounds devine!
What sort of work does Yoshi do?? Travelling up to Hokkaido a lot must be tough on him and you!
i should probably write up a post for this, but the main reason i worry about hiro is that he kind of freaks out when i'm not around. and he absolutely won't go to sleep if i'm not there (not that they sleep at kindergarten (i don't think), but it's just another thing about hiro.) once he figures out i'm not going to be there, he might totally hate it. this is the boy who totally lost it when i was in the clinic with tommy and ended up staying with me every night i was there.
he's also really really shy, and the lack of japanese might make that worse. i don't know if i should send him to school in a pull-up diaper because 1) he might just go in his diaper if he's wearing one but 2) if he's in underpants he might be too shy/uncertain how to ask to go to the toilet and soil his pants anyway and then get really embarrassed. *sigh*
i am counting on him picking up japanese in kindergarten (that's why we only speak english at home) and he's got a few words under his belt, but his lack of j-go might make his shyness worse....
I can totally understand your worry, because I had a hard time, my first time around too, Illahee. Branden cried for 10 straight days when he first started yochien.My son didn't speak much Japanese at all. It was my first time he was ever really without me as well. My son would cry clinging bare knuckled at the gate crying, pleading to me, "mommy please come back" Honestly my heart was shattered. I didn't look back until he could no longer see me anymore, but I remember vividly I didn't turn around while he was watching because if I would have looked back, I would have brought him home. I cried all the way home, driving back. Tears in my eyes so much I could barely see the road while driving. I was honestly absolutely heart broken. I doubted if sending him was the right thing. I called friends in tears for support, my family in tears for support, it was a rough and horrible 10 days. However he adjusted. He ended up loving yochien, go figure. Now he is fluent in both languages. Reads and writes in both languages. It is going to be hard on you at first, as you know. And it will be hard on Hiro too at first. Just thinking about Branden's lack of the Japanese language, he barely knew 10 words in Japanese. Could he communicate with the teachers, oh man I worried about everything. I also thought he'd never catch up. Kids are amazing that way, as you know. Now B, can speak as fast and just like his classmates. To me, that is quite something. : ) Hiro will do excellent Illahee, I have watched him grow on this blog, I've seen what a wonderful sweet kind boy he is and smart too. Give it a week or two when he starts. Or more. But you both will be fine.
Noah is starting yochien in January. Things are different then with B, only because he's been exposed to a lot of Japanese, by playing with B and his friends. He can understand Japanese a lot. And can speak it as well. He's familiar with this school and the teachers. Granted I don't think, it's going to be so easy, I will just be able to roll him out of the car and wave bye, lol. But I think this time around for me is gonna be a bit easier then my first time with B. But I totally think I will be having a few tears on my hands as well. : )
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know, you've certainly got me in your corner and for support : ) You and Hiro will do fine. And I will be cheering Hiro on for starting school all the way! : ) Good night. : )
You know, I wouldn't worry too much about the toilet thing. The teachers, at least at our school and the other schools I checked out when making a decision, ask them if they need to go potty constantly. For a while the teachers kept telling me that DD had a bladder infection because everytime the teacher asked she thought she HAD to go potty. Also, having other kids around using the potty might have a good influence on him. Personally I wouldn't send him in a pullup as the other kids will see it and they might tease him about it. Our school requires you to send extra clothing, as do all of them I assume, so they will just let him change his clothing. If he uses all his extra clothes they will find him something to wear.
Really, I wouldn't worry about it. I haven't had any problems with my DD wetting herself, but there are many kids at school that do have accidents and no one makes a big deal about it.
One thing that seemed to help my daughter was knowing exactly what was going to happen everyday - in detail. We went over it repeatedly in the mornings - "first you are going to kiss mommy goodbye then walk to your class, then you will put your stuff away, then you will...etc." It got very tiring going over it over and over again, but it seemed to comfort her.
Sorry, to babble on and on, but one more thing that helped was that I went and got one of those little keychain things that you can put a picture in and put a picture of our family in it and put it on the zipper of her bag. She could go look at it anytime she was missing us.
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