It is April 2018 and it means a new school year in Japan. Kids with working parents are often sent to daycare (hoikuen) or voluntary preschool (yochien) before they start the mandatory elementary education at the age of 6 in April. Aritya was born in May 2015, therefore although he will be 3 years old this year, as of April 2018 he is considered 2. Admission to preschool or even daycare is very competitive because the application goes through the city hall. Quite often, most parents opted for private daycare to have their kids looked after when they go to work. Similarly, when I was applying for admission to daycare for my son, the application was not successful partially because I was a student and priority was given to working mothers. Now that I have graduated, and have moved to another city, we tried our luck to apply for a daycare in the new city. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. But based on some information from a elderly friend, we found out that a new daycare is bound to be opened near our residence and we appealed to the city hall to try to get admission to the new school. To our dismay, we got accepted! Interestingly, the new daycare had also facility to open up a preschool and it is conducted mostly in English. We explained our situation and surveyed if bubu could be admitted to the new English preschool and he got accepted! It is a fun daycare where kids gets to play and do some activities where the instructors spoke in English. Although, bubu is happy in the current daycare, the activities are mostly for smaller kids and there are no progression for kids at his age. Also communication is a problem and we think that we often miss out on some information on his progress and activities. He can converse in an acceptable English and we would like if he could be understood by his teachers. So we decided to start him in the new daycare from April 2018. On April 2, we were invited to join the opening ceremony of the school. We were delighted to see the new facility and all the educational and fun material prepared for the kids. Bubbly boo was very excited about the school and was very eager to meet the teachers again (he had the opportunity to meet up the teachers before hand and witnessed the progression of the new building being built for the past weeks prior to the opening ceremony). The opening ceremony was very well conducted and I was surprised how the Japanese parents celebrates the opening ceremony. The dressed up very formally! The fathers spotted the black suit and the mothers wore formal dresses or suits and ALL of them wore pearl necklaces! Upon research on the internet, I found that it is customary to dress formally with the addition of the necklace to celebrate the opening ceremony of their child education. This made me ponder, how much you can learn from a developed nation. Although all parents strive to educate their children, very often you see the whole society celebrating the education of their children. Opening ceremony of children's education is celebrated upon in Japan with parents respecting the event with formal wear- how can you not adore their culture and sense of society?
Anyways, since it is a new daycare/school, the number of students enrolled in the preschool was only 3 inclusive of bubu. That means that the 3 of them have the attention of English speaking teachers and they get to officiate all the new toys all by themselves. This is paradise for bubu - he was jumping and enthusiast about the whole situation and of course, eager about the new school. The first week was atrial period where the kids only spent a few hours in the school to get used to the facility and the teachers. Bubu seemed to be coping well so far. Next week, the kitchen will be opened in the new school which means that lunch will be prepared in the school and given to the kids. I am most excited about this because I was hoping that he will continue eating healthily for a positive weight gain just as in our house.
I am most happy to see him happy and to communicate with the teachers and be able to be understood by the teachers about his needs (his English is better than his Japanese). I hope he continues to enjoy the school as well as continues to learn some vital social skills such as sharing and caring.
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