I want to be....Sota's ambition

 I want to be a cook, because I can cook eggs.

First footprints are the best!

This morning we waited for the sun to warm up a little bit before our pre-schoolies togged up for a wintry walk around the neighbourhood. It was beautiful, fairly warm, with the sound of people digging their paths clear & snow melting & dripping from rooves.

Plenty of snowball ammunition, which Sota aimed exclusively at Jim :) When we got to the river, we found a new target - the frozen river itself. Icebergs to break off as we bombed it with big dollops from above. The Troll kept his head in. With Wellies on we gingerly slipped down to the riverbank and made the first footprints in the pristine snow; always the best! It was a bit deep - spare socks and a drying rack when we got back...but who cares when you're having this much fun!?

Along our way we saw bitterns, a heron, and lots of little tweetie-pies looking for food. One big kite was looking at them hungrily too!

We left a mini snowman on the bridge. He might last longer than our footprints? If it snows again tonight, we might not find him though!

See the whole set here
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34774&id=125002814212039&saved#!/album.php?aid=34774&id=125002814212039

Pre-school avatars : )

Full size avatars & beginner electricians

Apprentice electricians

 I was digging in boxes this morning before pre-school - you do that a lot when you've moved - looking for something or other, and instead found a cool bit of kit that I've never used. It's kind of hollow, neon spaghetti...with various kinds of connections to make interesting shapes with. I wondered if this might entice S away from mummy more easily this morning - worked a treat! He was so engrossed in it, mummy leaving was an inconvenience to his great tubing connecting plan! Boo hoo mummy!

Where's Morph?!

After a good night's sleep I knew I wanted to exploit the board some more (addicted!) - and this brilliant picture has me laughing still. Any fans of Tony Hart will recognise a "Morph" aspect to this shot. Classic moment, though I do say so myself. S was so thrilled with his life-size avatar he demanded a set, which he called his older & younger brothers. Naomi-sensei & I looked like slugs, and H drew two goats (not sure why!). On paper, S will not engage. Standing up & face on to his medium, imagination run riot :)

Wonderwall - A to Z at head height

Because we often have exams at the school, I don't want to plaster the walls with posters which we'll have to take down (and damage my fab paint job). While we were having lunch I realised I could probably just about squeeze our very nice A-Z flashcards across the wall, if they were on hooks. I was about half a centimetre short, but Y and Z are usually very close together, who will notice? I don't like big cards on the floor because if a kid jumps on one, they can squirt out from underneath and cause a nasty crash. They also get tatty very quickly. Head height is a very nice angle to work at.

H checks a vowel sound

The game we played? Matching initial vowel sounds of other words we know (and some new ones) with the samples left hanging up. Next time we mix up the order.

Trainspotting

MosBurger's waiting room!

Platform three at Matsumoto station, just before eleven o'clock in the morning is the place to be!

We bundled up very warmly, and toddled off across the road to stand at the bus stop - just as the freezing rain started to come down. Brrr. The kids piled into MosBurger's heated entrance while Jim kept his eye up the road to Asama onsen.

We jumped onto the back seats and enjoyed the warm ride into the city centre, passing a number of our familiar landmarks along the way - mobile phone shop, hardware store, supermarket, cranes & diggers.

Back seat gang

We took the escalators up to the concourse, and the lift down to the platforms. We found Super Azusa & Shinano trains arriving from Shinjuku & Nagoya, as well as local trains on other platforms; we waved at them as they left, then welcomed the trains going the other way as well. The driver waved to us from his perch on a Super Azusa; so did the guard as the last carriage shot past on the way to Tokyo. Brilliant!

E351 series Super Azusa - platform 2

We saw one train going through a giant trainwash, and saw lots of others (we counted twelve) waiting or being shunted around. Sota knew all the trains' names, as well as all the Thomas ones. Eleanor and Hina were keen to stay behind the yellow line! Eleanor got a stunner off the ticket barrier - walloped shut in her face because Jim had the wrong ticket. Oops - not funny for Eleanor, as it sent her flying & was a real surprise...her nose is still red like Rudolph's :(

Chilling on platform 3!

Snack time in the warmth of the bus station (we saw a spotty bus on the way back from the station - Kevin says it had chicken pox?!) where there were lots of old ladies! We had time to kill so we popped up to the seventh floor in the lift and jumped on the escalators all the way down - no window shopping! Back seat gang again back to Luna - Sota fell asleep it was so nice & cosy.

Spotty bus spotted!

A great morning's trainspotting - beats learning the alphabet :)

Sota in September

We welcomed Sota to our little coven called pre-school last Friday, and a torrid time did he have. My oh my. Never actually seen a child wail themself to sleep before. Poor lad was distraught when mummy left. AS I was the only person he knew, he was naturally dangling from my neck most of the day - only really letting go to join in a run around towards the end of our day. He promised to come back today and play with "Thomas" - train bonkers - today.



For sure we had a few tears again this morning, but didn't last long, quickly joining in with the girls in their new challenge - finding matching pictures and circling them. He quickly got the hang of that and we all settled down to a number of tricky pics!



Everyone is doing really well in their bathroom training - only trouble is when everyone decides they want to go at the same time! Bit difficult to prioritise three year-old claims of urgency! Neither do we want to rush things along - very important they get the space & time they need to start managing this function. All in all, I think they are coping very well (touch wood, OK?).

Birthday bonanza - three times three, plus one

Today we celebrated four birthdays all happening within a week, within the pre-school, and invited friends to come and join us for the afternoon. Altogether, twenty little & large ones made up our birthday bash.

Our preparations were very disrupted as Yuki couldn't join us - Hijiri caught a bug he doesn't want to share - and therefor couldn't take care of food & 'crowd control'.

Our mums stepped up to the task but a flat battery saw lunch stalled in Jusco & the cake in danger of melting; indeed we all melted with the heat, even with the extra shade we put up along the riverbank. It was impractical to try & play the games we intended.

The food did make it just in time, and we had a lovely chatty lunch with the children sharing nicely and asking for things politely. I culture shocked my own daughter eating grapes, skin & all. Why wouldn't you?!
We found relief from the blazing sun in our great big main room, teaching our visitors a couple of our favourite songs and getting mums to roll around on the floor singing "ten in the bed"/get chased around the room playing "Mr. Wolf"! The splendid chocolate cake, with a nice pink 3 on it, met with approval and stuck to fingers & faces just right!
Check out all the photos on our Facebook page right here!
Of course we had a good sing for Naomi, Hinata, Eleanor and Sota - a great big  

Happy Birthday  

What's the time, Mr. Wolf?

The Fat Controller?!

Our introductory pre-school 'warmer' class is a delicate balance between trying to do something 'useful' (actually do a bit of learning) and something fun (probably not a lot of language produced). Case in point here is a Thomas the Tank engine-a-holic; just LOVES trains, and as soon as he spied our big set would not do anything else until the entire layout was done to his satisfaction!

Obviously, the "wheels on the bus" song & dance I had in mind was tweaked, which was met with approval. Thomas snack box. Thomas water bottle. I'm prepared to bet on Thomas pyjamas too!