Monday, February 13, 2012

Yochien (School) Update

It looks like Kelsie and Logan both will be starting school at their Japanese yochien in April.  We were really hoping Logan could start right away, but his class is pretty full and the headmaster thought it would be difficult for him to dive in at this point.

Kurt went to the school today and came home with 6 pages of notes to share.  Apparently, their cut-off to register for this particular yochien was last November, but they are making an exception for Logan and Kelsie.  Kurt said they seemed very nervous since the kids don't know any Japanese, but also excited to have them there.

In Japan most children start attending yochien (preschool/Kindergarten) when they are three years old.  You have a choice of choosing between a private or public school, but both have tuition fees.  When we visited the elementary school down the street from our apartment they recommended a yochien to us that is fairly close to our home.  It is actually a private Christian yochien.  The kids will go to school from 9am until 2pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.  On Wednesdays they get out of school at 11:30am.  They don't have to wear uniforms, but will have shorts and track suits on Mondays for PE.  Japanese kids also use hard-shell backpacks, which we'll need to buy along with some other items they told Kurt about.  Logan and Kelsie are both pretty excited to start.

We're a little bummed that Logan can't start right away, but we're going to try to put together some sort of curriculum for them between the 2 of us for the next couple months.  Kurt's hoping to start some Japanese lessons with them to make the transition easier.

1 comment:

Melanie and Jared said...

I would be nervous starting school in Japanese too! That is very brave.

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