First Day of Homework

Today was a big day for Henry - his first day of many, many years of homework! As part of the kindergarten reading and writing program at his school, he will be bringing home a book each day from his reading group's box to read to mom or dad and he will bring home a letter of the day to practice writing in his handwriting book. His teacher said that this is the only year that the kids would be really enthusiastic to do their homework and she was right. Henry did his as soon as we got home.

The book that he picked today was called "Little Car." He did a great job reading his book and at his teacher's suggestion, we are working on slowing him down so that he doesn't miss words and making sure that he is understanding what he is reading. The handwriting is going to be a bit more of a challenge for us though. It took some persuading to get him to write his first letter 'e' with a pencil instead of a red Sharpie marker. Then after he was finished, he wrote "MOM LOVES IT" on the back of his handwriting book.

Shoes!

Clair has hardly ever worn shoes and this summer she's been completely barefooted most of the time. I've been thinking that as it gets colder and she starts walking that she's probably going to need to start wearing shoes so I put some on her this morning. The problem is that she thinks shoes are a toy and the minute you put them on, she's trying to 'play' with them. She had her shoes on for about 3 minutes, and I got some cute pictures.

Everyday Fun

I've started trying to carry my camera with me so that I can get pictures of Henry and Clair having fun throughout the day. Yesterday was just a normal day for us but I did manage to bring my camera with the battery charged and remember to take a few pictures.

In the morning, Clair and I went to the baby and toddler playgroup at Honmura Elementary school with my friend Chiyo and her baby Ryan. Afterwards we went over to their house for lunch. Here is a picture of Clair and Ryan playing together. He is about six weeks younger than she is.

Yesterday was also an earthquake drill at Henry's school so we had to pretend like an earthquake occurred at 1:50 in the afternoon and then head over to the school to pick up our child from their class emergency exit. In the meantime, the children sat under tables with their earthquake hoods on their heads. It was an interesting adventure for the kids and reassuring for the parents.

After school, we went as we often do to 'Step Park' which is located about a block from Nishimachi. Here is a picture of Henry and Clair swinging. I couldn't get Clair to look at the camera because she is too busy watching her brother!


Then we went to Baskin-Robbins, bought some blue and red paper for Henry, went to another playground and walked home. The kids played a little, had dinner, baths and went to bed.

It's rainy today as a tropical storm is on its way to Japan. It's expected to hit Tokyo on Saturday, so I guess we will have to play inside the next few days.

Happy Respect for the Aged Day!

Tod has noted that he has not yet been mentioned in the blog. So I will start by saying that Tod left yesterday for a trip to London and Johannesburg and so the kids and I were left alone to celebrate today's public holiday 'Respect for the Aged Day.' I thought this was a cute article about a 100 year old grocer http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080915TDY03102.htm from today's paper.

Henry had the day off of school but it was a work day for the teachers and all of the parents were scheduled for a 15 minute parent teacher conference with their kids homeroom teacher. Widi kept the kids while I was at the conference and she took them to McDonalds for lunch. Clair, our little eater, had her first Happy Meal, and of course loved it. The rest of the day was spent playing. Henry was upset that we have run out of construction paper so he colored in one piece of paper completely red and another piece completely blue to make red and blue paper for the pictures he wanted to draw. Then the highlight of the day was that both children were in bed by 7!

Update

My dad just called and said that 'everyone' is asking him when I am going to update the blog so I figured I'd better quickly jot something down to please 'everyone' (aka dad!).

I know I'm not the first person to ever have two children and a lot of people have more, but I am constantly astounded by how much work it is and how exhausted I am at the end of the day (my main excuse for not blogging and generally everything else I don't get around to doing).

Anyhow, some of the highlights of the last week have been that Henry started his first full day of kindergarten last Thursday - Yay! So he now goes 5 days a week from 8:15 to 2:30. He still loves it. The daily curriculum includes English, Math, Japanese, and Integrated Studies (Science, Social Studies and Health centered around different topics). Then once a week they have PE, PMP (like PE but focussed on motor skills), Assembly, Music, SAFA (not sure exactly what this stands for but I think it's some sort of drama program) and Library. He doesn't tell me a lot about school but is definitely learning new skills. He showed me how to hold a pencil properly and said that "the mommy and daddy (forefinger and middle finger) go in the front seat and that the children (ringfinger and pinky) go in the back." He's also been singing a song about starting to write letters at the top, and seems very fascinated that there were children from grade 5 at the assembly and "they were in kindergarten when he was born."

We're getting back into our routine of activities too. Henry is back taking swimming lessons on Friday afternoons at Spa Shirogane, a Japanese swimming school, and he started tennis lessons afterschool at Nishimachi on Monday. He's also signed up to start Sunday School in the "Angels" class this Sunday.

I'm taking Clair to a playgroup for 6 month to 3 year olds on Wednesdays at Honmura, a local Japanese Elementary school. She enjoys it. She's such a different personality from her brother. He was and still is apprehensive in groups of kids, but she jumps right in. Henry would always share if another child wanted the toy he was playing with, but yesterday an older toddler tried to take the toy Clair was playing with and she wasn't about to let that toy go! I'm also starting a mommy and me music class with Clair in a couple of weeks and will write more about that then.

Henry's Signs

One thing that Henry likes to do in his free time is make signs and hang them around the apartment. Last Spring, he labeled every room - our two bathrooms were labeled 'men' and 'women' and the laundry room had a 'staff only' sign. Occasionally I get tired of his 'artwork' hanging everywhere and take them all down and he doesn't seem to mind.

So when we had been 'sign free' for a couple of weeks, I thought that maybe he had passed through that phase. Until yesterday morning when we walked out our back door and I discovered these ...



They're reversible signs and the back of 'Welcome' says 'Clener needed. Help!' He made these to welcome back our helper, Widi, who just got back on Monday from spending the summer in her home country Indonesia. We were getting pretty desperate for help and are very glad to see her again!

He also posted this one ...

and the reverse says 'Do Not Disturb.' He likes to pretend that we live in a hotel.