and we're off.....

I doubt I will  get chance to log in again before we fly, so I will see you the other side of the world, Ebi-kun is super excited and driving me slightly bonkers.

Whilst we are away it looks like we might be fitting a wee trip to Barcelona in, so, do any of you have any Barcelona tips - my brother lives there so the main sights will be covered. But if anyone knows any cute shops/craft/fabric stores, please point me in the right direction :o)

cheers,

jo

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

A couple of days ago we had a big beautiful butterfly visit us in the garden which was the little spark Ebi-kun needed to show an interest, then the next day we found a chrysalis so we popped him in a bug box so we could watch him - although I think we will have gone before the butterfly comes out.

I prepared a pile of activities based on the life cycle, many of these ideas came from a summer 'camp' lesson I used to do when I was teaching, it was all based around Eric Carles book The Very Hungry Caterpillar which is a fantastic book to use as a teacher, not only does it have the life cycle there are the days of the week and the food vocab to go at too.

We actually stated off by reading From Caterpillar To Butterfly (we ordered the classroom sized book - oops!) and we also have these life cycle figures which are GREAT, we have them for the ladybird, earthworm and frog too.

Once we had read and discussed the book we moved onto the 3 part cards, although I found some to download, the picture resolution wasn't very good, and me being a bit of a snob in that area I ended up making my own, you can download the file for free here.
We talked about how the butterfly eats, then I filled these little flower dishes with 'nectar' and gave him a bendy straw so that he could drink the nectar with his probocis, he loved doing this - this is fun with a group of kids, although it can be messy!
After the nectar break we made some cup cakes so we could transform them into butterfly cakes and while they were in the oven we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then made a life cycle wheel. I prepared this, cut 2 circles out of card, one should be slightly bigger than the other. In the smaller circle cut a square out to make a window. Attach the circles together with a brad/paper fastener then ask the child to draw a picture for each part of the cycle in the box at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock, positions. They can then re-tell the story by turning the wheel.
Once the cakes were done we made lunch, here we have the mini tomato 'egg' on a leaf, a cucumber 'caterpillar', ham and cheese 'chrysalis' wrap and finally the 'butterfly' cake.
To make the butterfly cakes, make your usual cup cakes and preferred frosting - in our case butter icing. Chop the top off the cup cake then cut the top in half, add a dollop of icing to the top of the cupcake then pop the halves into the top to make the wings - these were always a favourite of mine when I was a kid.

After lunch we started making a book, again left over idea from my summer camp. I simplified the Hungry Caterpillar book and left the food items as blanks, the child fills in the blank and draws the picture. It was quite funny reading some of the Japanese kids books because they would use food that they are familiar with such as onigiri (rice ball) and dango. I did have one kid whose caterpillar only ate junk food :o) He is still working on this, so picture will have to wait.

Then we got out the butterfly alphabet cards that my mom sent, he had fun trying to put them in order, they are beautiful cards and are great to show what the wings look like up close.
Next was time for some maths, I made these counting sheets click here to download the easy and hard one.
Finally it was time to get the paints out, we started off doing the typical butterfly prints (splodging paint on one side of the page then folding it over to make butterfly wings). Whilst they dried we cleaned up and had a nap.
After nap time we cut out the favourite set of wings and stuck them to a toilet roll middle using double sided tape. Then we made a big loop out of fishing wire - when I was teaching I used wool, I don't really like the idea of fishing wire and kids together.

Thread the loop through the toilet roll with the wings on top. Two people hold onto the loop, one crouches down with their hands together whilst the other person raises  and opens their hands which makes the butterfly - fly! You can have fun making it whiz back and forth. The butterfly is a bit of a blur in the picture and please ignore all those backs, it is packing stuff that hasn't made it as far as the suitcase!
If you are looking for more butterfly ideas then Shannon the Linky Queen put together a great post with loads of related links on her butterfly post. The Holocaust museum in Boston is also doing a great butterfly project that you can join in with, click here for more details (found via the crafty crow)

Well, I really must get a wriggle on with the packing, I am not sure how much blogging time I will have when I am away so I have scheduled some posts with the things I have been making for presents, I can't show you them just yet in case the receiver sees them, but I have been a busy bee behind the scenes. Our flight is Monday but we will go to the airport the day before and stay over night to cut down on the travel time a little!

The Red Rods

So, the other day, I packed up some of the Montessori equipment so I could convert the room into a guest room, well the in-laws decided not to come after all so I then had to un-pack the guest room and got Ebi-kun to put away the equipment. 

He suddenly decided he wanted to get the red rods out, this is maybe the third or forth time he has ever got them out so I was really surprised. He needed some help to make the maze (since it was such a long time since he last made it!). After doing it a  couple of time, I gave him a small bell to walk with  - the idea being that he gets to the middle without making the bell ring.

He decided that was too easy and disappeared off, he came back with a marble and spoon.....

He's Football Crazy...

A couple of months ago hubby decided to take Ebi-kun to a football match and since then he has become obsessed, he is up at 5.30am charging up and down the living room playing footie - his desk is now a goal and blue bear is the goalie. He goes mad if his football shirt is still in the wash since he wants to wear it 24/7! So, Saturday we took him to our friend footie class, Dave is a qualified coach and runs a class for kids, Ebi-kun LOVED it so when we get back from the UK we will try and take him more often, he didn't really 'get' all the exercises and games but it was his first time he did get 10 out of 10 for enthusiasm :o)

I decided to jump on the footie bandwagon and made up a math activity using some football buttons. I wrote some 'sums' onto green card and had the answer cards on yellow (no reason for the colours, just what was handy). First he counted out the number of footballs according to the problem then wrote down the problem on his math sheet. 
All was going well until he came across two sums which added up to the same number - I deliberetly put these in. It totally threw him, he couldn't understand why 2 + 8 was the same as 3 + 7. I worked with him and made up lots of examples but he still wasn't convinced. The funny thing was, I was telling my mom about it and she had been baby sitting Ebi-kun's cousins the day before and she had been doing similar work with Declan and exactly the same thing happened, anyone else had this happen?

What's in The Bag?

I have packed Ebi-kun's rocket bag and that is about all the packing I have done! I did a post like this last time, Ebi-kun was just 2 last time we flew now he is almost 4 so the contents have changed somewhat. I think when you pack a travel bag you should think about the child you are packing for, it would be pointless for me to pack a portable DVD player because Ebi-kun would watch it for about 3 minutes yet give him some puzzles, books or crayons and he will be a happy chappie!

So, this is what I have packed, it looks like a lot but we will be in the UK for a month and will need some things at mom's to keep him amused too, plus we have a road trip planned and possibly a trip to Barcelona. 

Roll-A-Snack This is one of those pill boxes, I found a cube small enough to fit in one of the compartments then added matching stickers to the cube and compartment lids. I will have a ziplock with small snacks (dried fruit, mini crackers etc) and put something in each compartment, to play the game you roll the dice, you can only eat what is in the matching compartment, so if you roll a tiger you can open the tiger lid. The box doesn't get re-filled until all the snacks are gone. I am hoping this will last quite a while :o)
chalkboard/felt board I made this, had to order the chalkboard cloth online, I also found this hand chalk holder.
This is the felt side, I have football inspired counting objects, like the spring board plus a bag with felt shapes for story-telling or just making pictures.
LaQ I am not sure if he is going to be into these or not so I just got a small bag then popped them into a tin.
Dot-to-Dot and Mazes Ebi-kun is very much into these at the moment, so I printed a load of the internet and laminated the sheets and have a whiteboard marker for him to use with them.
Stick puzzles I saw this idea somewhere on a blog but I have no idea where, I book marked it in my brain but not on the Mac! These are mini lolly sticks, I just cut out some pictures, stuck the sticks onto the back of the picture then used a sharp knife to cut them into strips, there are 3 pictures to make but I put them all in one bag, I am mean like that!

Colouring book Thanks to Rebecca we now have some rock crayons for the bag and this book has wipe clean pages for crayons, it is somewhat Susan Striker like in the fact that it isn't a colouring book as such, it gives and outline and asks the kids to finish the picture, this page is a bento box. For those in Japan, I got it at the ¥100 store.

Toy cars as if we could leave the house without some!

new book Ebi-kun can read hiragana now, so he will be able to read this by himself.
Travel snakes and ladders picked this up at the ¥100 shop, I know he likes this game.
Story blocks I didn't have time to be painting cute picture of these so I totally cheated and just stuck stickers on them instead, he saw me make these and can't wait to play.
That is pretty much it, Space cadet will go in too, he likes to have a friend to cuddle when he goes to sleep and having something familiar when you are in a strange place is always a good idea. I will also add an English storybook and the nose cone of the rocked is filled with emergency nose bleed tissues!

This is the inside of the bag, there are lots of pockets around the edge and plenty of room in the middle, I also put in a label with our details in case he (or the bag) gets lost.

Other things I have thought about putting in were, home made play-doh, lacing cards, origami paper and paper tape, I may still change my mind...

What are your kids favourite travel toys?

Shop Closing

I will have to pull down the shutters on the shop until we get back from the UK, I will close it Tuesday, so if you have had your eye one something, grab it quick...

Hanging out with the rock stars

It has been a full on week, hence the lack of posts, sorry. The in-laws were supposed to come up this weekend so I spent far too much time deep cleaning the house only for them to cancel due to the swine flu scare - at least the house is nice and clean! Tuesday I get a message form an old friend to say he will be Tokyo for a few days, he is the tour manager with The Enemy and they were playing in Shibuya Thursday night. Of course Ziggy put me on the guest list but by the time I find out I couldn't organise a baby-sitter for Ebi-kun, I was sorely tempted to just take him with me! So instead I arrange to meet up with Zig the following morning.
So we went for ice-cream, dragged him into a prikura machine. Prikura is like a fancy photo booth, this one had a green screen and you can pick the background then when the photos are done you can use a computer to add text and stamps, very silly but a lot of fun!After that the boys fought it out on the taiko machine then we had a wander and headed back to the hotel.
The band had some promo work to do, so we hung out in the lobby waiting for them to get their act together, Ebi-kun refused to leave until he met them. They came over as lovely lads, just like some blokes you'd meet down the pub!
And here he is with the band, I think he was a bit disappointed because he was expecting them to sing :o). It was a short visit, I haven't seen Ziggy for about 11 years so we were trying to catch up in about 3 hours, they should all be back for Summer Sonic in August so hopefully we will get a chance to catch up again and maybe I can convince Ziggy to have a wee drink, it is hard to believe he was on banana ice-cream and vodka-free coke! (Anyone who knows Zig will think I am making this up!)
And of course, we couldn't leave Shibuya without a silly picture, this is one of my favourite signs ever, BBQ tanning centre, doesn't it make you want to go?

Our Montessori Home

I did a post like this a good while ago but looking back I realised that since then we have bought a lot more Montessori equipment and so I though I would do an update. 

Grab yourself a cuppa, it might be another long one...

This is the small shelf in the living I talked about in this post. We used to have books on the bottom and 2 or 3 toys on the top, now the big books have taken over... he tends to keep a couple of smaller toys on the top and it does get used as a dumping ground. To the right are his jigsaw puzzles and to the left the wooden band activity I made.

He also has a small desk (Ikea) I am trying to get him to keep all his papers and stickers in the tray but as a mad crazy artist it is usually overflowing. The little buckets were from the ¥100 store and he has one for crayons, pens, pencils and then a general stationary one. They usually live on the art shelf and he takes out the one he wants to work with.
OK, this is the guest room come Montessori room. We have 2 shelves like this, they are actually CD shelves so a bit narrow, I have to juggle quite a bit to get things on there. I will list what is on the shelf an add links to posts I have done with more info rather than try and fit it all in one post.

So, starting bottom left, we have the geometric solids, in the box is also the 3 part cards and shape cards. The binominal cube, smelling bottles, which are basically always on the shelf because he often works with them and the sewing basket are on the next shelf. Third shelf up has a pincer exercise, picking up pom-poms with pincers and putting them into an ice-cube tray. Next shelf up is a spooning exercise, spooning small glass beads into a narrow necked bottle. Above that we have the balance game, another permanent fixture; the days of the week activity and the touch boards which I keep hoping he will show an interest in. On the top we have the sensory balls (I have a post planned for making them); the colour tablets - set 3 and the wooden scales with weighs (made out of salt dough and baked)

Down the left side we have maths materials the wooden number cards and a counting activity - count the dino eggs and match clip the peg on it to match the number. Under that are some more number cards and the thousand cubes. Below them are the decimal gold beads tray and on the bottom is the number stair and and addition activity (new one that he hasn't tried yet). 

To the left of the shelf we have the knobbled cylinders, just in front are the red rods (he never gets these out) and to the right the pink tower, it is kind of hidden round the corner but it means it never gets knocked over, especially when we have friends to play.

The next section is the desk, which doesn't really get used as a desk and underneath are storage boxes on casters which also have some handy little shelves. So we have the seguins boards on the desk and on the shelves a chopsticks activity to help him learn to use them correctly, the marbles and golf tees, he loves this one, then the nuts and bolts. The next set of shelves have the knobless cylinders and the pattern cards to go with them and the bottom shelf has the mini number rods.


OK, on the end of the desk are the metal insets, the drawing board to go with it plus the paper and pencils. We have the world maps under the desk, there isn't quite enough room to build a rack to hold them so they are still in their boxes and I have to pull out the one he wants. He still can't carry one of these by himself so I suppose it is just as well that I have to take them out. On the next storage unit we have the continent folders, then the continent cards and next to that the picture matching cards and on the bottom animals to match with the continents.

This is the final shelf. The botany and animal puzzles are to the left. The starting from the bottom again, we have the moveable alphabet, the land form trays and cards, his 3D torso puzzle and human organ cards. The next shelf has colour word cards and objects to match, obviously matching colours is too easy now but he is now matching the words, next to that is a basket of natural objects and a magnifying glass, I try and mix this up every now and then (read - when I remember). The next shelf is a mixture of little objects collected from around the world, he loves to pick one and then ask me to show him on the globe where it is from, the same with our postcard collection on the top shelf. Then we have the globes and a box that I haven't used yet, it has little models on the life cycles of various insects/animals. What is left is basically the language section, sandpaper letters and sound pouches and then various activities to compliment where he is up to.

That is about it, the only other shelf is the art shelf which I forgot to take a photograph of!

I try and keep everything in some kind of order, the language activities together etc. but it is difficult with such a small space, sometimes I just have to go where there is space. I am also quite torn about how much to put out on the shelves. In a classroom most of the equipment is out all year and  so the child can work on whatever calls to them but when you have a small space to work with and only one child it is impossible but then I am always second guessing myself about what I should have out. What if the work I choose is not what is calling to him - hmm, how do you decide what to put out?

concentration

Just about sums up Ebi-kuns face on these pictures! As I tidied up Ebi-kun got some work off the shelves, first he took out this had puppet. He needed to stitch around the edge the decorate it, it was actually half done and has been on the shelf for months, I was debating with myself whether to put it away or not, surprisingly he picked it up and finished it.

Then he got the scales out, I asked him questions such as 'How many yellow weights weigh the same as one green one' and had him work it out, then without actually weighing them, he concluded that 2 orange weights are the same as one green one.
The weights got boring so he looked around for something else and the started weighing the pink tower blocks, look at his expression, you can almost hear the clogs turning :o)
When he had finished with the pink tower, the knobbled cylinders also go in on the action.

Shopping and Drinking

I had a great day out yesterday. I went down to Nippori and met up with the lovely J. from Jumping Overboard, it is the first time we have met in real life and as I am waiting at the station I realised that I had no idea what she looks like and didn't even think to ask. I do this all the time in japan, you know the person you want to meet is the other foreigner! We hit it off straight away and had scarily similar tastes in fabric! I lost count of the amount of time we both picked out the same thing or one of us would pick up something that the other had bought on a previous trip. I did buy LOADS and my back is still aching to prove it! The bulk of it was for a custom order although I did pick up some for the shop, you will have to wait to see that though because I plan to re-stock the shop when I come back off my hols.

Once I had dragged Jo round all the shops TWICE we both headed off, Jo lives about 10 mins by bike from Nippori - how dangerous would that be, we would, most certainly, be bankrupt if we lived that close!

I got back to Omiya and met up some lovely ladies who were staggering back from a luncheon and needed topping up with beer. We ended up going to Arabian Rock which was amusing. A belly dancer meets you at the door then sends you through the cave where you come to a lantern where you have to shout Open Sesame or something similar, all the tables are set in little tents and belly dancers serve you, part way through the night they have a belly dancing show, all a bit silly but it was fun.

We have the in-laws visiting this weekend and I have just found out one of my friends from Uni, the infamous Ziggy arrives in Tokyo tomorrow with his band (he is the tour manager) so I am hoping we can get together, I haven't seen him for about 10 years. It is going to be a hectic couple of weeks...

Improntu

There has been a lot of it going around this week. Wednesday we walked over to the 7/11 to buy stamps and then to the post box. Ebi-kun stopped at a patch of land to watch the ants then from the ants he discovered snails and then it was the ladybirds, he got one to climb onto his finger and he decided he wanted to take it home to live in our garden - of course the ladybird had other ideas and off she flew.

We also found some interesting shaped leaves, lots of them in fact, so will filled my bag (and I wonder why I find bits of sticks in an acorns in the bottom of it!) and when we got home we did crayon leaf rubbings, I showed him how to do this when we were at camp and is really into it now. I remember trying to show him this last year and he wasn't interested at all. I was surprised at the variety of leaves that we found on such a short walk. If I had gone alone the round trip would have taken me maybe 10 minutes, it actually took us over an hour. It reminded me of something I read that Maria Montessori wrote, something on the lines of small children being interested in the things that we take for granted and as adults we forget to stop and and really look at the things around us. Going for a walk with a small child may take you only as far as the garden gate but that small distance might take and hour. I'm sorry I can't remember the exact words or even which book it was, but you get the drift.

Thurday we popped out for some milk, and ended up in the rose garden having a picnic - I am still not quite sure how that one happened! For anyone who lives in the area, the rose garden is now open and smells divine! Each May they plant new roses and have a bit of a festival, it was busy when we went, lots of people taking pictures.
Then yesterday we went over to the town all to do some errands and decided to drop by the jidokan (play centre) afterwards, it just happened to be the 3 & 4yrs old class, so there was singing and dancing (of course I didn't know any of the songs) some games and a storyboard show, lasted just over an hour and Ebi-kun loved it. It looks like they do it 3 times a month so I will have to make more of an effort to take him. There was one mom I felt truly sorry for, she has identical triplets and they are all clingy, non of them would let go of her leg, having one clingy child would be bad enough but three! this is maybe the third time I have run into her and each time the girls are the same - I hope they let her be when they are at home.
So, we haven't really done any planned activities this week, I did remember to buy the ingredients for another of the postcard snacks so we will be making that today as for the rest of the day...who knows what might happen?

new fabric

in the shop!

To answer some questions...

I had a message yesterday with a number of questions that I thought other readers might be interested in too so I decided to answer them in a post.

I'm a huge fan of your blog because you write well and present the stories about your day with such positive energy. Yours is the first blog that made me feel that I could actually attempt a Montessori set up at home, because you rely quite a bit on home made items and take the time to explain how you assemble the work. I'm really learning a lot, thanks for sharing! 
Would you say that a background in teaching and / or a course in Montessori is essential before introducing my child to the method? 

I wouldn't say it is essential but it certainly helps. For me, doing the Montessori course really helped as before the course I didn't know much about Montessori at all, I would say the biggest help was not the actual presentation of the materials but the reasoning behind them in the first place. Things like the knobless cylinders being designed to strengthen the pinch muscles as well as the obvious learning about size. Plus the thoery side was very interesting, this book convinced me that Montessori was the right thing for us. I am not formally trained as a teacher although when I was teaching I did a lot of training courses and seminars but I have no formal qualification as such. I think that formal teacher training (non Monetssori) maybe more of a hindrance as the Montessori set up is so very different to a traditional class. This is just my opinion but I think you should set up your home with a Montessori environment in mind rather than have just a shelf with Montessori work on it, I feel it is as much about the environment as it is the Materials.

Ebi-kun has always slept on a futon (no choice in the apartment), even though he now has a bed he sleeps on the bottom with a futon. Everything he needs is at his height, his clothes draws are all his height and picture labelled, we have little steps for the toilet and sink so he can do it all himself. In the apartment we were short on space so I had a shelf set up for his snack/dinner things, these days he can just get what he wants out the draw himself and the snack shelf became the art shelf. 

When I was first starting out with this an experienced Montessori teacher told me to have a small shelf out with just 3 toys on it, the rest of his things should be put away - I thought at the time that she was a little nuts but I did as she suggested and it was spot on. I bought a small shelf, a nice one that fit with our living room, his books went on one side of the shelf which left space for one toy and the two on the top. I would rotate the toys every day or two. This meant when he woke up he had 'new' toys, when he got a bit older he would ask for a certain toy and that was fine. We still have the shelf in the living room, now the whole shelf is full of books and half the top of the shelf has his big books - encyclopedia's etc. and then there is a space for one toy, he has a box of puzzles next to it and then he is allowed one big toy downstairs at a time - may it be Lego, train set, marble run etc. Sometimes he asks to get the Lego out with the train track or whatever - again, I am fine with that. Also downstairs, he has his own little desk and chair which is where he does his drawing, it is usually piled high with 'work' and it is hard to believe that there is a desk under there I am working on sorting that problem out! I have always left his art supplies out, he started his 'art' at about 10 months and from then I made a point that drawing was to be done at the table and on paper, this took a leap in faith (OK I wasn't that brave, I only allowed him washable crayons/markers) but we have never had a crayon on the wall incident. He always had a large supply of paper, all different types and colours. Those pieces of card that come inside T-shirts and the such are handy too. Most of his Montessori equipment is kept in the spare room, you can see the set up here although we  have a lot more stuff on the shelves now!

Also, I see you've made large purchases of materials for Ebi kun, and I'm wondering how you would have dealt with the situation if he was not interested in all the work that you had spent money on. Are there any methods you use to encourage the use of some materials beyond just the initial presentation? I would be very disappointed if I spent lots on something and my son turned out not to be interested in the work at all, even after introducing it to him several times.

It was a gamble spending so much money and the cheapest way to do it was to make a big order - Montessori equipment in Japan is stupid money! I don't have all the equipment out at once, I put out what I think he is ready for, sometimes I wait for him to ask to work with new material other times I will just do the presentation with him. I did buy all the bead material yet he has shown little interest in it, when we have worked with it, I have initiated the situation. Once he has it out he seems to enjoy it though. One method I found that helped was to move some of the equipment, I actually set it up on the bench downstairs rather than upstairs and suddenly he was interested again! Another trick is to use whatever they are interested in at the time as a 'theme' so when all he interested in was dinosaurs I adapted a lot of the activities to make them dino related. He is currently obsessed with football - it is giving me a headache :o). I have not stressed about him not being interested in something, he may not have reached that phase yet. We had a phase where the ONLY work he was interested in was on the language shelf and another where he wanted to do painting all the time - I think it was the discovery of mixing colours, I like to just go with the flow.

There have been things that I have made thinking he would love it and he really wasn't into it, I just put it in the cupboard then get it out again at a different date, more often than not he shows an interest second time round.

Do you blog about all new activities? I'm asking so as to get a gauge of how many different activities Ebi kun gets to work on. 

Most, probably 80%, sometimes I forget to take pictures or just forget to blog about it. I would say, on average, I set up 3 or 4 new activities a week, maybe not brand new, sometimes an extension of what he has already been working on. We usually do some kind of new craft/art project a week and we try to do a new snack recipe or some kind of cooking. I really am not that organised, it is very much played by ear. Some of the activities I have been inspired by something I have seen on a blog or website others I take my cue by his current interests and I find getting my manuals out every couple of weeks and flicking through helps keep the ideas fresh. Initially I printed and laminated all the cards that we used but I have given up on the laminating now, since only one child is using them and he is quite respectful of the cards there seem like little point. I do laminate cards that I anticipate will get used a lot.

I have also started to try and have a theme for the week, the China and volcano weeks went really well but two weeks ago was supposed to be Brazil week and it flopped, partly because the books I had ordered arrived late so it never really pulled together, we will try again!

Finally, what do you mean when you say you wrote Ebi kun's name phonically?

So when I wrote his name I would sound out the letter, so if his name was Fred I would write and say

F 'fuh'

r 'ruh'

e 'eh'

d 'duh'

Rather than using the letters names, does that make sense?

Also Lucy asked 

I'd love you to do a post about what ebi-kun means and some of the japanese expressions

I will warn you know that my Japanese is pretty rubbish but I should be able to manage to of the common expressions...

kawaii - the most over used word in Japan, also the first word I learnt! It means cute.

zakka - small, useful, household items - zipped pouches, teapot covers, soap dishes...get the idea?

-kun - for adults you always address them with -san as a sign of respect, -san is used for men and women and usually used with the family name so you have Suzuki-san, Kawasaki-san. For kids -chan is used, -chan can be used for girls and boys and -kun is just for boys. The first name tends to get shortened, like a nickname I suppose so Emiko would become Emi-chan and Takahiro would become Tak-kun. Ebi-kun is a shortened version of our family name.

Baa-chan - grandmother

Jii-chan - grandfather

ne? - this is tagged onto the end of a sentence to make a statement into a question such as Nice weather today, ne?

A lot of foreigners end up doing this, saying a sentence in English and tagging ne onto the end!

gaijin - foreigner, more politely is gaikokujin - direct translation is outside person.

hafu - taken from the English word half, means half Japanese and half something else. So Ebi-kun is half Japanese and half English. Some people take offence at the term but as I see it, it is an adaptation of the language, I suppose it should be hafu to hafu - half and half :o) but I am not going to be able to make the whole of Japan change their language so, I just go with it. I have met a number of hufu adults and non of them have a problem with the term.
bento - lunch box

kamoboko - fishcake, can be eaten hot or cold.

eda-mame - soya beans

onigiri - rice ball, eaten as a snack or with a bento.

Can't think of anything else, if you want me to add something, let me know!

Children Of The World Coin Purses

Remember this cute coin purse? Well it went off to Julie but do not fear, you can get your hands on your own Children Of The World coin purse, they are in the shop RIGHT NOW, all different so you know you will be getting something special and unique.

Thank you!

for the Mr Men love! I have the picture up on flickr with a list if what everything is made of, click here.

And thank you for all the offers with the rock crayons, I am sorted now but thanks again for all the offers.

On a completely different note, I will be closing the shop towards the end of the month and for the whole of June since I will be away, so if there is something you fancy, you had better get in there quick sharp.

A New Find

My good friend Kate came to visit the other day, although we met in japan we are both from the same city back in the UK, it is always good to get together and crack jokes about oatcakes and the Potteries centre which no one else here 'gets'.

Anyway, hubby had noticed an ad  in the free paper for a cafe nearby and asked if I had been, I didn't even know it existed so Kate, Ebi-kun and I went to check it out. I t is called Puu and set in a bamboo wood, it looks like they have converted the bottom of their house into the cafe gallery. Going inside was like going into a grannies house, full of nick-nacks, some of which were for sale. They didn't have a food menu as such, they have one dish available a day and you have to book in advance, so we just had drinks. The staff were lovely, very chatty. The best bit though is that they have a pottery studio attached to the house and they do pottery courses, now considering this place is 5 mins by bike from my house I am VERY interested in doing this.

There were lots of interesting pieces in the garden, it was a rainy day so the pictures are not so good.

But we will be going back, the garden was lovely too, shame the weather wouldn't let us sit out and enjoy it.

MTD brought to you by the Mr Men

This weeks theme was children's literature and since Ebi-kun is quite enjoying the Mr Men I thought it would be a fun theme to do.

So in the middle we have Mr Tickle who is tickling Mr Chatterbox to the left (who has been out in the sun hence been so dark) and Mr Bump. Below Mr. Bump we have Mr Messy, one of my favourite characters and the other one at the bottom is Mr Happy, just above Mr Tickle is Mr Small, can you see him hiding in the grass? Of course Mr Bounce bounced right out of the tin...

As I was coming up with this plan last night hubby asked me why i can't get a job and get paid for doing this? I wish! Do you want to pay me?

oh nuts...

and bolts.

I asked daddy-ebi to pick up some nuts and bolts from work, all different sizes, he came back with a nice bag full but they were very oily. So the first part of this work, Ebi-kun used and old toothbrush and scrubbed all the pieces, then he left them out to dry. When they were done, I showed him how to put the separate pieces in the tray, mix them up and then try and find the match, he really enjoyed doing it.

Once he had finished he insisted that the rules was you have to line them up in order! I am thinking of making a little bench or something to extend the activity and get the use of a spanner in there. Ebi-kun asked if he needed to use a screwdriver, so I said no, you use a spanner with nuts and bolts, to which he said, Oh yes, the one like a stag beetle (waves his arms to look like a stag beetle) - sometimes I wonder how his brain works!
I now have this work on the shelf but have the nuts in one dish and the bolts in another.