We are home!

finding treasure in the ice block. hours of fun.

It has been 1 month since we are back. Feel that we are really home now except that our stuff from Houston is not here yet so we are living with minimal tools, furniture and alot of mess in the house. Kids have hard time adusting to new environment and lifestyle  for the first 2 weeks but they are starting to like it here. Yuta loves everythig about trains here. He likes that it is automated here he is fascinated about pressing button, elevator button, toilet flushing button, bus bell, vending machines. We go out to play one or two times a week. Most of the play places are for babies to 1 year old until we found the log house. There are so many things to play in the log house from pre walker to grade school kids. With minimal tools i have now we can only do simple activities when we are stuck at home like sand box, coloring, water transfering, clearing the yard and the best thing is studying cricket. Summer is the season for beetle and cricket.

We just got our car last weekend, that at least makes going around easier at least on weekend. I need to get my japanese driving license which everyone said is "difficult" and expensive. but i know i need to get that.

Here we come Yokohama!!

We are ready to go. We just got everything moved out yesterday and it feels so quiet in this house suddenly. the only thing i have is 2  matresses, some dishes and this computer to keep us here till monday when we move to a hotel. 

After the months long preparation, farewell party with friends and in school, alot of explanation I think Yuta understand and acknowledged well of our moving by now. he didnt cry or feeling frustrated anymore when the mover came and take away all our stuff yesterday. but he still asked where is our big car.

We will be moving to Yokohama after all the consideration of facts and matters. It seems like a good place and more foreigner friendly place to live.

Few days to living houston, we have a rally of get to gather playdate, good bye party and luncheon. I think the kids are already worn out with the running around and not eating proper meal. After 3 years here yuta still doesnt eat french fries, eat burger and doesnt drink soda, which is definitely a good thing but is difficult when you go out.

im so looking forward to board on the plane by now. hectic months ahead before we can settle down again.

The Seven Continents

The seven continent!! We have sing the continents song alot and Yuta is getting quite familiar with names of the continent. I made him a place mat with the map earlier and wanted to make this for so long until last week. Instruction to make this from here. I used the remaining foam board i have from making the sandpaper letter. make a few flags with name of continents. I also make extra flag for Japan, Malaysia and Houston. This is also to explain about our up coming moving, to give him an idea that we are moving from 1 place to another destination. He remember name of continent by their colours. With the extra flag he can see, Japan and Malaysia is in Asia, the yellow zone. Later im going to introduce, who (friends and family) is is which continents

Beginnig Sound

The classroom is officially closed. For now most of the work will be done in the kitchen either on the dining table or on the kitchen floor. We are concentrating on working with language for the past month. I see Yuta is resisting on Math so i have stop working on mathematic for a while. We are working on beginning sound and a little bit of CVC words. I pick up books like cat in a hat for him to read. He is happy that he could actually read words from books. Im not an english native speaker and i do not remember i learn english by phonic system, infact i dont even remember how i learned english. i remember we were asked to read and do alot of comprehension. Teachers will get us to read aloud in the classroom. Now that i have to teach my kids english, i have to depend alot on reference book for guideline. After CVC words, what should i go next etc. Living in a basically monolingual country, im worry that he will lost his english once he goes to public school so, determination comes along way. It is also a fun thing for me to "relearn" the language. 

On a side note, i made that set of sandpaper letter. This is one of my earliest montessori homemade. It took me 3 months to complete this. unbelieveable. The sourcing for material is the most time consuming. I tried a few material and dont find it quite suitable and at last i settle for foam board. I dont even sure what i made is correct. I first started making them with instruction from Teaching montessori in the home by Elizabeth G. Hainstock and later when i read Basic montessori learning activities for under five by david.gettman, it says thre is no letter "q" in the sandpaper letter.I should go check in Yuta's classroom of the real thing.

With all the time spent and the cost of material were not as cheap as i though i dont know how justifiable is making montessori material at home but they work well so far and im happy with my accomplishment.



Sweeping

Sweeping object to the designated area. This is the classic montessori practical life activity. Yuta decided he wants to try with the real broom after a few times trying with the toddler size one. He let Ai to have her chance to work with the toddler size broom this time.

montessori method

I immediately wanted to blog about this after i watch this video. It is an awesome video explaning how montessori method is different from conventional school education system. It brought alot of insight for a person who do not know alot about montessori method but would like to practise montessori method with her children. I can see a whole lot of difference and impact montessori method has on yuta after attending montessori school for 2 years. I quickly spotted these differences and improvement just after 3 months he attended the school. From then on i have a very strong urge to read and know more about montessori system. I remember i read from an article saying that parents should practise montessori method at home and not only sending them to montessori school. and so i want to supplement my children with this system eventhough they will be going to the public school later on. A comment in this video made me sad that i can no longer to afford sending my children to a montessori school. Im not saying that conventional school is all bad and kids dont find success in public school but is sad that you have to let go the which best system that worked well for your kids. I did a few search about montessori school in japan but i found only a handful of result and it just shocked me that one of the montessori school is a international school and there will be no way that we can afford the fee. Most of other schools dont use the name montessori but "international" or english school but even that it cost a bomb to us. When financially not allowed i will have to go back to work , and im not sure if i can even supplement them with just 1 hour of home education. I have asked a friend of mine why home schooling is getting so popular in recent years in america and she told me many parents dont agree and dont trust the school system anymore and prefer to educate their child by themselves but again, she said not all family can afford to homeschool due to the costly homeschool material and level of education of the parent(s). Im not crazy about montessori method but im using it as a guideline to help me help my kids learn but i have many friends and people that dont really agree with me. A friend said "you dont have to teach them shape, discrimination of size, colours, they will sure know them later on, so what is the fuss". All in all, i like montessori method and think it works well for me and my children.

Volcano

Thought this is not a successful volcano model. I have limited vinegar in hand. Could have made a more impresive one next time.