and we are off...

To the wilderness of Iwate for a few days. I am looking forward to seeing our old friends, most of which have never met Ebi-kun. We are also hoping to meet up with Vicky and Kathryn both of which I only know virtually, it will be good to meet them in real life.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I will see you when we get back!

So much for freedom....

There I was singing along to Linkin Park, sewing together a new dress when I get a call to say Ebi-kun had got a fever so could I go and pick him up from yochien! Agghhh. I don't drive so hubby called a taxi and explained the situation, we needed to go and come back, cost us a small fortune of course. I actually road my bike over to the doctors and took the taxi from there, thinking that would be the easiest option, except when I got there, I discovered the clinic was closed 12-3pm agghhhh. So, I left my bike at the clinic and we came home instead, he had a bit of a fever, I think he was more upset about been booted out of yochien and the fact that sensei had made him stay in the classroom whilst the other kids were outside. He didn't seem too bad so I thought we would play it by ear, he slept in my bed last night and actually spent most of the night coughing, little sleep was had by all and just to top it off, the weather is awful this morning, cold and very rainy so daddy has taken him to see the doc and I went to pick up the bike, got back cold and very wet brrrrr. not the best start to the day!

Hope yours was better!

Shopping...

I had a lovely day yesterday, Ebi-kun had his first full day at yochien so I headed into town, got myself some new trainers, nice silver and pink ones! It did take me an age to decide, I didn't really want ones with laes because I am forever taking my shoes on and off here and doing laces everytime will drive me nuts, the ones I found are slip on. Then I wandered around the shops, no one moaning or demanding to go to the toy store. No awkward toilet breaks, I could pee when I wanted to pee. I had a lovely relaxing coffee and sandwich at Starbucks, went to Uniqlo and even tried a few things on since I had no one complaining they are bored. It is a new found freedom :o)

I spotted this in the craft store, made me giggle, the picture isn't great but I will never bore of living in Japan unless they get the hang of the English language!

Ebi-kun had a great day, he had curry rice, apple and something lemony for his lunch and most amazingly he wasn't the last to finish, I can't believe there is someone who eats slower than him LOL.

Today, I have some sewing planned, a new top for me, a holder to keep all Ebi-kuns bits in one place in the car, a couple of little bags and maybe some new place mats if I have the time...

You are going to squeal over this MTD.....

I did, in the shop, squealed with delight, when I saw these bento goods, it is OK to squeal in shops in Japan, especially if you use the word kawaii (cute) along with the squeal, perfectly acceptable adult behaviour.

Are these balloons or are they mini tomatoes? Seriously,

if you are not squealing, I think you might have a problem, maybe your

kawaii meter has broken!

and little flowers, too cute....

what about these folded brollies, are you dying yet?

parma ham on the bone, these would look great on meat balls

and finally, a strawberry ring

serious cute overload and I am going to need a second drawer to keep all my bento/MTD bits in!

So, here was the finished version....

TOP - pasta, sweet beans, sausage, peas
MIDDLE - balloons, opps I mean mini tomatoes, raisins and almonds, carrot flowers, parma ham
BOTTOM - pasta, sausage, peas, strawberry rings

and there was NOTHING left, he demolished the lot!

A good read...

I have just read this post over on Sunrise Learning Lab, I am sure many of us have similar incidents that we can relate too, great post :o).

Birthday picnics...

Yes, the birthday picnic season has kicked off, with the bilingual playgroup we tend to go for picnics as the birthday event of choice, mainly because Japanese houses are not very big so having a party at home isn't much fun and there isn't the whole birthday party shenanigans that goes on in England, where I hear (via my mom, a trusted source) that bouncy castles and hot-dog vans are the way to go just now! Either that or hiring out the Wacky Warehouse, hmm.

So, we tend to just go for the picnic and we do it as a potluck, I know some people don't like the potluck idea but I love it, I love the fact that we have so many people from different parts of the world that you never know what people will turn up with. Most of the time everyone makes the effort to make something, of course there are always days when that isn't going to happen but that is OK, no-one really cares. We also started a tradition where the parents buy a book for the birthday child and sticks in the bookplate signed from the playgroup.

Of course, chocolate cake had to be included, just what you need before running round the park like a loonie and....

rolling round on the grass with your best mate.

This morning it is Ebi-kuns first full day at yochien, he will be back at 2.23pm - whoo-hoo, so I am off to town to buy myself some new trainers, that is shoe shopping BY-MY-SELF.......

In at the deep end...

Yesterday I had to go to the yochien, it was the mama circle introduction day and when they pick the class reps for the PTA. Up until now hubby has come along in case there was something important that we need to know and that I would miss, with my Japanese not being so great but yesterday it was time to go it alone.

When I arrived I bumped into a mom who happens to be a student of my friends, Madi, she lived in the US for 3 years and has great English, it was good to have someone to hang out with instead of my being a billy-no-mates. The kids went to class and the moms headed to the hall where the various mama circles showed their stuff to entice you to join up, the classes available are..

• tea ceremony
• kimono wearing
• Japanese calligraphy
• ball exercise
• Hawaiian dancing
• chorus
• flower arrangement
• how to make flowers from bendy wire (can't remember the proper name)
• patchwork
• English
• Japanese doll making

I am very undecided about the the whole thing, I would quite like to try the calligraphy BUT I can't write kanji with a pencil so what hope have I got with a brush? Another of Madi's students introduced herself to me, she has already had one kid go through yochien and her 2nd is in the final grade so she is a bit of a yochien pro, so she dragged me over to the calligraphy sensei, who doesn't speak any English. I might go to the demonstration day - maybe. Part of the reason Ebi-kun is going to yochien is so that I would have some time to work, if I join one of the circles I will miss a day of work, what with the trip too and from the yochien plus I will have to pay for the class, rather defeats the point of having him there!

Anyway.... after that we had to go to the kids classrooms to have a meeting with all the moms. The kids played and the moms shouted over the racket. First the sensei went through what we would need for the next month, all fairly straight forward and I could follow most of what was going on THEN we were all asked to introduce ourselves, which totally took me off guard. Now I can managed to do this, in front of one person or maybe two but in front of twenty ? I managed to splutter my name and that I was Ebi-kun's mom (stating the obvious there, me thinks) quickly followed by me wanting the ground to swallow me up - I don't DO public speaking in English, let alone a foreign language! Luckily, this all played to my advantage, when it came to pick the class reps, no one would step forward so they decided to pick straws, there were a couple of moms except from the post, ones that had done it the year before and a mom who has twin 2 year olds and me :o)

Once all that was done, the kids tidied up and we hung around waiting for them. It appears that none of the moms in the class speak English but a couple did come and talk to me an I explained that I can understand some of what is going on I am just rubbish at speaking, languages really are not my forte!

We finished off then Ebi-kun and I went to lunch at an opticians, yes, you read the right, it is an opticians with a cafe attached, quite an odd concept but it was a nice end to a stressful morning.

International Postcard Swap

Remember Zoe from Playing By The Book? Well she has set up and international families postcard swap, if you are interested, pop over here and have a read of what it entails. For those who are Montessori inclined, it is a good way to add some things of interest to your culture boxes.

Those who are swap addicts, I will have another one for you here in May, I have to get Golden Week out of the way first!

Some linky love...

If you read Montessori inclined blogs regularly then you might have already seen this, I had an email from Anna to say she had included me in her 50 must read Montessori blogs round up, there are some of my favourites on there and some new-to-me blogs too, worth checking out!

Working on landforms....

As well as making the volcano we also worked on land forms. We don't have a set of land forms made up, I prefer for him to make them each time, I think it adds an extra element in the learning process. First he worked with the three part cards and I was surprised that he actually got them all right first time, it has been quite a while since we have had these out.

 He decided to make an island and lake and we got out the plastic animals for added fun. Yes, that is a duck-billed platypus  and shark and a octopus in the water.

 Then in the lake there is a crab and sting-ray! This led to a conversation about the difference of freshwater and salt water and which animals live where.

 The clay was really good to work with, there was definitely a sensory experience going on there too but it did get gunked up in all the animals and trees so then it was time for a bit of PL as he scrubbed them all  clean.

A explosive afternoon....

Due to current news topic of volcanoes, Ebi-kun asked if we could do the volcano experiment again and since it was a lovely sunny day we decided to do it outside. We used some clay that we got from the yochien to build the volcano, it was built around a small plastic cup and decorated with a few trees and brave animals. Inside the cup I put in a couple of teaspoons of baking powder and some food colour then to make the eruption start Ebi-kun poured in some vinegar.

I am not sure my Auntie Jill and Uncle Colin would appreciate this since they are currently stuck in Hong Kong and...

My uncle Simon and his girlfriend are stuck in Spain (but I think they decided to head back overland) and then there is my cousin Steve who is stuck in Egypt on a rig until the next crew get there.... oh dear!

But in our corner of the world it was pure explosive fun and yes, we had to do it again and again until we ran out of vinegar!

I have also made up a PDF file with a set of volcano 3 part cards, the file has fully labelled cards, black and white cards for the kids to colour themselves, definition cards, volcano fact cards, a diagram to label and instructions on how to make the volcano, if you are interested you can get the file from here.

Introducing a bonny bunny.....

This lovely little bunny is winging it's way to a bonny lassie who will be a whole one year old soon. Well, actually, the bunny is probably stuck somewhere and will not be arriving in England on time - thanks volcano in Iceland!

Sunny days and rainbow gnomes

The snow disappeared as quickly as it came and yesterday afternoon was beautiful weather too, so we headed to the park for a picnic and play.

 I managed to whip up a little bag, I have been trying to decide on the bag style to go with this project for quite a while, this one is quite cute and doesn't take too long to make, and what is inside?

Well rainbow gnomes of course, these ones are for my niece who turns three soon, the bag opens flat so it can be play scene too.

 I have 3 more sets of these cuties, I need to make up some more bags before I list them, my nieces bag was the test bag! I am sure she won't mind :o)

I was making a new picnic blanket and this happened!

Yes! SNOW in April, what on earth is going on? This is the amount of snow we get in the middle of winter - if we are lucky. This is the neighbours garden, she spends a lot of time on it, which suits me, I get to see the pretty garden and do non of the hard work :o), they were going to build a house there since it is a double plot but her mother is rather frail and can't live alone, so I think they ditched the idea and made a garden instead.

Last Sunday we went to the park for a picnic, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, I even caught the sun, this weekend I will be pulling on my winter boots again, unbelievable.

English Flapjacks... free download

I am always amazed at the little differences in the English language and have got used to switching in American English terms such as movie or garbage when I am talking to either North Americans or Japanese that have studied American English. It is just easier for the flow of the conversation rather than stopping to translate every 'English' expression. At home we use British English and I will never use the term fanny pack *blushing at the mere mention*. It is funny how some words I never had any idea about them having a different meaning, which brings me round to flapjacks. I was chatting to a Canadian friend the other day and apparently Canadian flapjacks are more like pancakes and the expression 'Ole Canadian Flapjack' has a whole different meaning which has little to do with cooking (at least I can say I have never tried that).

So, after talking about them I started to crave one, I haven't had a flapjack for years but used to make them often as a kid, yummmm

It is an easy recipe for the kids to join in with too, just take car with the hot ingredients in the pan.
Lots of measuring, stirring, mixing and spooning practice.
So, if you want to make some, I have made up a printable recipe card like The 5 Cup Cake card. You can download the flapjacks here and the 5 cup cake here. A quick tip, if you use a silicon pan you don't need to grease it but a regular tin you will and pop it in the fridge once it has cooled a little, once it is properly cold it is easier to cut.

All in the pink....

I have noticed mood boards have been popping up all over the place, so I thought I would join the fun and since it is hanami (cherry blossom viewing) season, I would kick off with pink. I really should have thought it through first since we don't have a great deal of pink in the house and even less of the delicate cherry blossom type of pink, if I am going to do pink I tend to do PINK!
When I was uploading the pictures I spotted the last MTD picture which I forgot to post about, also a pinky theme, well the cup liners are pink...

Top - coleslaw, crackers, broccoli, avocado, pink chocolate, sweet beans and sausage and tomato in the middle.

I had an order for some bento supplies the other day and picked up the cutest picks EVER, I had to buy some for me too, there will be another MTD coming soon!

And what have I been doing with my free mornings other than scouting for pink things? I have a new blog set up, I want to get into the swing of posting on it daily before I reveal it to the world, it is Montessori themed and I am finally happy with the layout/colours. Next step is a new website, I am going to try and get the basics set up today, so noting to show you just yet....

Now that am not trying to cram everything in at the evening I decided to try my hand at crochet, I think I have mastered single and double stitch but I don't know how to finish off, so I nearly have some new dish clothes :o)

colours...

Well, Ebi-kun has settled in at yochien and has made lots of friends, all called tomodachi (friend in Japanese) he only actually knows the name of one boy! I wonder if they just go by the type of button that their mom sewed onto everything, 'I played with pink heart button and spotty red button today, dinosaur button was off sick and shiny star button was being very naughty!'

My friend came over for coffee, her kids went to the same yochien, except her youngest is now 2nd grade at junior high, most of the teachers are the same ones that were there when here kids went, good to know that there isn't a high turn over of teachers.

We haven't settled into any kind of routine when he gets home yet, I thought we would just play it by ear, he has been a lot calmer and yesterday he got out the colour tablets, they haven't seen the light of day for quite a while. He graded them all and then went on to make pictures with them.

My First Day At Yochien....

At 7.53 I got on the bus and sat near the back, behind Mana-chan.

When we got to the yochien we got off the bus and went to the classroom. I said hello to the sensei, rabbit and goldfish. Next I took off my coat and bag and put them away.

Then I played with my friend. We played bowling and cars. After playing we sang some songs, one was called 'tulip'.

Then sensei read the book 'the giant turnip' and we sang some more songs and had a toilet break.

Then I played some more with my friend and the car and we had another toilet break and then I played walking football with my friend.

Then it was nearly home time so we had another toilet break. I put on my coat and bag and raincoat and changed out of my slippers.

I said goodbye to the sensei, rabbit and goldfish. The rabbits name s choco-chan.

Then we got on the bus and went home. This time I sat in the middle.

My first day at yochien was FUN

All went well, when he got home he was 'starving' so we had lunch first then he told me all about it, I wrote down his story in a little handmade book then he illustrated it.

and..... he's gone

We were out, waiting for the bus at 7.53am, our neighbour, Tammy came out to wave him off too. He was looking a bit nervous but he was very excited, I am sure he will have a fun day. He will be back at 11.53am. For the first couple of weeks they do half days, I'm not sure why, I think once they are there they are pretty clueless about the passing of time.

So, here I am, in a very quiet house, feels quite strange. I have LOADS of things I want to do but now I have the time I can't think where to start, maybe a big cup of coffee and a list making session is in order.

Thank you for all the well wishes and food recommendations, I think with the combination of extra fibre, lots of drinks and the meds he managed to clear his system last night, hopefully we can keep it that way. He already eats prunes every day (his favourite snack) and if you ask his what his favourite food is, he will often say broccoli, we tried him with soy milk instead of cows milk for breakfast so we will see how that goes. We do consume too much cheese (although some would argue that you can never have enough cheese), so we are going to try and cut down on the cheese too - which is probably good for me too!

So, over the next couple of weeks I hope to get some new items in the shop, I bought a new lamp for my light tent yesterday and I have a number of things already made but they never made it as far as the shop! I am also working on a new project, I am not going to say what just yet, but it is Montessori related :o) and now it is time for the big coffee...

We Won...

After the trauma of Friday night it was lovely to wake up to an email from Zoe at Playing By The Book to say we had won her competition! and we got to pick which books we wanted to boot, I will show you when they arrive. I only discovered this blog a few months ago but Zoe comes up with some great ideas to go with the books she reads to her kids.

I LOVE this Barbapapa pod house and have it bookmarked as warmer weather activity, I am sure Ebi-kun would love it as a garden play house, if I can find a way to seal it.

We also got two parcels that day, a strawberry plant and jar of coffee from baa-chan and a swap parcel from Eli who lives in America but it Guatemalan so now we have some cute miniatures to add to the culture box, thank you Eli (and Stacey!).

After the opening ceremony....

so here is the rubbish part. We went for lunch, got out a DVD to watch and had a nice chilled out afternoon. Around 5.30pm Ebi-kun started complaining of a stomach ache, first we thought he might just need the toilet but that didn't work. Soon he was screaming in pain so off we go to the local paediatrician, he decided it was stomach flu, apparently it is going around, prescribed him some pain killers and other meds for the bug.

We go home, give him the meds, after half an hour of screaming he falls asleep. Wakes up about 20 minutes later and the screaming starts again, the pain killers obviously weren't working, I am suspicious that it isn't the flu, the pains started too quickly, no fever and he had been genki all day, so we decided to take him to the big hospital. By this time the pain had moved from the right to the left, I am thinking ohhh no appendicitis! The doc takes a look at him, and sends us off for an x-ray. Good news, no appendicitis but he is badly constipated, blocked all the way up. This takes me by surprise, we have had problems of this nature before but recently he has been going to the toilet everyday.

I'll skip the revolting parts, we were given more meds, told to not take the previously prescribed ones and he made it to bed around midnight. The next morning was supposed to be his first day proper but we decided to keep him at home. I didn't want him to have an 'accident' on the bus and have his first day a traumatic one and we had no idea what kind of effect the meds would have. He is OK now, we are encouraging him to drink more and cutting down on the dairy products, he gets plenty of fruit and veg and loves All Bran. If anyone has any good fibre rich recipes they would like to share, I am all ears.

Opening Ceremony....

Friday was certainly an eventful day but we will start off with the pleasant part, here he is, all dressed and ready to go. The hat is actually his winter hat but we put it on for the photo ;o)

We started off in the main hall, we got given some more bits of paper and his class hat which is a nice bright green (very happy little boy about that!). There was some official speeches made and then sent out to the yard for the group photo. Here he is lined up with his class.
And, yes, that is my son, bored of standing in a line so he started writing and drawing in the dirt, I suspect he was marking his territory since he wrote his name in Japanese and English, at least he wasn't peeing to mark his spot!
So then we had a group photo - his class included a screaming girl and a leg clinging boy, should make for an interesting picture. The sensei was very much a no nonsense type of woman and marched them over to the right spot. Then it was time to put all the bags in the right place, I tried to take some photos around the class so you can see what it is like but they are not award worthy shots, you have been warned.

This is where the towel and toothbrush and cup bag lives, each kid has their own class sticker so they hang their things on their own hook. There is a similar rack for their hats and one outside for skipping ropes and trowels.
This isn't a good shot but to the left of the woman in greys bum, there are a set of drawers, this is where all the harmonica, marbles etc. are kept. On the wall are elephants with each child's name and birthday on it. The buses to the right have the kids name so they know which line to stand on, there are coloured lines on the floor.
This is where the slipper bag, bag and smocks are kept, boys have navy blue bags girls have red.
Here sensei is doing a song, some of the kids in his class have already done a year and knew the song, the rest of them seemed clueless, I think there are 19 in the class, screaming girl and clinging boy are attached to their parents and not with the rest of them. The boxes at the front are where the renraku and library bags are kept until the days that they are needed.
The yard, there is play equipment all around the yard, the big blue shed is full of trikes and bikes and the grounds have lots of beautiful cherry trees. The handsome chap in the middle of the picture is my hubby.
This is looking further left , more equipment, the shed to the left is the clay room and the classes to the right are the first grade class rooms. You can just about make out some kids on a slide, the slide goes into the little sand pit, I think the bigger kids use the other sandpit.
I think it is fairly common knowledge that Japanese take off their shoes inside, yochien is no exception, the kids leave their shoes here and put on their slippers, the gangplank, for want of a better word runs all the way down to the toilet where they change into toilet slippers.
And finally, this is the head sensei, he is a shinto priest and obviously loves formal wear about as much as I do, he had a suit on for for the opening speech and group photo and then he was back in his jeans :o). I love the fact that there are pretty flower beds all around the yochien too.
Ebi-kun was a bit upset because he thought the opening ceremony was going to have singing and dancing but he got over it!

bags, bags and more bags.....

Well, I think we are ready, all the bags made, everything labelled with his name, class and his own button or sticker. I think this post will have different effects on people, those who have already been through it will probably be sitting there with a big smirk on their face, knowing that they have already survived the madness. Those that are not in Japan will be shaking their head in disbelief and those in Japan who have yet to encounter the yochien experience will either pack up and move overseas or vow never to have kids!

Shall we begin?

So, the first 3 bags are kept together and so they have to be the same size but different fabrics so that the child can easily pick up the right bag, they have to have only one drawstring.

The first one contains these plastic shaped pieces, each piece has to have his name and sticker on it.

This is his ohajiki bag, they are like flat marbles and yes, every one (all 77 of them) have to have his sticker on.
This stripy number is the harmonica bag, needs a gauze to clean it with.
This is bento set, these have to be the same fabric design, a bag for his cup, another for his bento box & chopsticks/spoon (this bag has to have two drawstrings) and 3 napkin/mats which have to be a specified size to fit on the tray. Of course, everything must have his name and button or sticker on it.
This is the cup and toothbrush bag, this must be different fabric and cup design to his bento cup (are you bashing your head on the wall yet?)
This is the renraku bag, everyday(?) bag. This and the library bag were specified sizes and should be made from the quilted fabric, the other bags are NOT to be made of quilted fabric. This also needs to have the word れんらくin big letters on the front plus name, class and button. They are allowed a good luck charm on the bags but only one per bag, I made some cute little felt knights ;o)
So, this one is the library bag, this also needs an inside pocket of a certain size and a hoop for his library card. This bag has to be a different design to the renraku bag!
I designed the fabrics and printed them on spoonflower and Ebi-kun decided which fabrics to use for which bags. We still have quite a bit left so expect to see it in future projects, if you are interested in buying some drop me a line, I haven't put it out for general sale yet because I want to work of some other colourways.

Anyway, here he is with all the gubbins that he needs with the exception of his class cap that we will get tomorrow.
He is wearing his hat, coat and standard yochien bag, he has another bag for his slippers, yes, they have his name and button on too. He has a smock for summer and a long sleeved one for winter and wears shorts all year round. So the things in the above picture that I haven't already gone over are... a skipping rope, castanet, crayons (each one with name and sticker), tissue pack, magnifying glass, 2 white towels, his personal towel, 2 cleaning towels, hankie, raincoat and the kitchen sink.