When Less Is More

A watch, a mobile phone, a set of keys, a laptop computer. What do these things have in common? Give up? At NHI Preschool the answer is that they are all made of paper. It all began a couple weeks ago when one child wore a real watch to school and another child wanted to have one too. Since there was no way to get a real watch then and there, he made one out of paper. I wish we still had that watch to measure the technological progress since that time, but as I recall it was just a pencil-drawn watch face on a strip of paper taped to his wrist.

But technology does progress and now we have paper watches in many colors with working buckles. Watch hands haven't begun moving yet, but times with special meaning are drawn on the faces--10:00 when preschool starts, 8:30 for bedtime, and or course 12:00 for lunch. Mobile phones are taking off too. First, students asked us to draw the phones for them; then they began saying, "Hey, I could do that. Let me try by myself." Like the watches, phones are advancing with straps, folding parts, images on the screen, and vibrant colors. I could write about the laptop computers and keys too, but by now you get the drift.

Children are improving their fine motor skills, time-telling ability, sense of design, number sequencing, pattern following, and imagination. All it took was some paper, crayons, scissors, tape and a little encouragement. A month or so ago I was shopping and saw a bin full of old demo phones on sale for 100 yen each. I almost bought a few for the preschool. I'm so glad I didn't. Sometimes less really is more.

Creative Listening

I love working in an international preschool. The students' various English levels and personalities come out in such fun ways. Here's a story from today.

A fifth-grade friend of ours donated several dozen of her "little kid books" to the preschool library on the weekend. Seeing the books today, our students were overjoyed and decided to write a thank you card. One boy heard "thank you car" and asked if he could write a "thank you truck" instead. Another boy, when it was his turn to sign his name, drew a big picture of a sports car (because what's a thank you car without a picture, right?).

Maybe you had to be there, but Mrs. Hiroko and I had a good chuckle over it.

Saturday Preschool

For those who missed Saturday Preschool this month, or if you just wonder what we do there, here are some highlights from today. The theme was Autumn.

Fall Leaves
(This poem was really fun with motions.)

Leaves are drifting slowly down.
They make a carpet on the ground.
Then, swish! The wind comes whistling by
And sends them dancing in the sky!



Autumn Prints with cookie cutters.

Apple Cider

This is an easy recipe for kids to follow and it teaches math, measuring skills, fine motor skills, how to be careful around a stove, and the way very different tastes combine together to make something delicious.

• 1 liter apple juice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons honey

Mix, heat, serve and enjoy!

Making apple cider. Smells good, doesn't it?

Saturday Preschool is on the fourth Saturday of each month.

Second Fall Outing 2006

For various reasons, over half of our class was absent today. The weather was beautiful, so after checking with parents, we took an impromptu field trip back to the park we enjoyed last week. Of course it was less organized this time, but the park itself provided all the fun we needed.

Tree Dwellers (Don't worry Moms; the branch they're on is only a foot off the ground.)

Jumping Rope

Five-Kid Pile-Up

Next Stop: Mount Fuji!

(First?) Fall Outing 2006

Yesterday was our Fall Outing to a very large (as in easy to get lost in) park not too far from the preschool. We played ball, caught butterflies, dragonflies and other bugs, ate a picnic lunch, and blew bubbles. It was so much fun we are thinking of adding a second fall outing in a few weeks.

Morning Circle--Outdoor Version


Bug Hunter


Girls like bugs too.


Lunch Time


Big Bubble

A True Gentleman

Recently at the park, the children have been playing something called the monster game or the bear game. It's pretty simple; one child is the bear or monster and goes roaring and chasing after the other children. From my point of view, it's a nice way for the kids to take some exercise and get the yells out while away from the classroom.

By the way, the park was resurfaced earlier this week with a truck-full of sand (seemingly insignificant detail).

Back to the game. One child yesterday quietly asked me to pretend to be the monster this time and to chase everyone. As I crouched down to pick her up, making my most dramatic monster sounds, a shower of sand came down on my head and went all through my clothes!

I was angry for a split second before I tracked the thought process of the sand dumper. He hadn't heard the girl ask me to be the monster. He was just filling his hat with the new sand when he saw this big guy grab his friend and start yelling like a freak. Without further thought, he came to the girl's aid in the most immediate and significant way he could, and for the rest of the day I was shaking sand out of my hair and clothes.

How I wish I were more like that boy. I'm not suggesting it's a good idea to pick fights or carry buckets of sand around just in case, but how many times do I see someone that I could give immediate help to, but don't? Maybe the guy sprawled awkwardly on the stairs outside the station needs help, but he might wake up and get mad if I approach him and I'll miss my train if I walk to the police box. Those tourists look lost, but what if I can't communicate with them? Or I might not know how to get where they want to go.

If the boy in the park with nothing more than a sand-filled hat,can stand up to a big monster, then surely I too can overcome some of my own apprehensions and inconveniences. We can learn a lot from children if we try, even from the things they do that initially irritate us. I've been putting together some more thoughts about how adults could benefit from being more child-like (not childish, mind you). I'll share them soon. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your stories or comments.

Sneak Preview of New Web Site

We've been working on a new web site for the preschool. The majority of the written content is up. We still need to add more photos and otherwise pretty things up. Please have a look and tell me what you think. Click here or on the title of this post to see the site. You can comment here or by writing to me at jseminoff [at] newhopeclc [dot, period or whatever you call it] jp. I'd like your input on obvious mistakes, things that could be better phrased, and content you'd like to see that isn't there.

Thanks. :)

[Edit 10/10: Thank you for your input. Our url, www.newhopeclc.jp , now points to the new site. There is still some work to be done, so keep coming back and giving your suggestions.]

New This Fall

Here is (a slightly edited version of) a letter I recently gave to the preschool parents. It outlines some of the new things we have going on this fall. Warning: it's long.

Dear Parents,

I trust that everyone had a nice summer vacation. I enjoyed our time of rest with my family and being with many of you in summer school. The fall term has begun and with it some exciting new things are happening.

Sing, Dance, Move with the Rhythm! Thursday is music day with Jiyun Kuboe. Born and raised in Korea, Mrs. Jiyun went to Shobi Music School in Japan. She plays the piano and organ professionally at weddings. She lives in Tokyo with her husband and three children. Mrs. Jiyun enjoys hula, jogging, swimming and reading.

Stretch, Shake, Roll and Tumble! Friday is gymnastics day with Mrs. Aiko. You may have seen her in the office, but did you know that Aiko Onoda participated in gymnastics for several years, specializing in floor exercises, vault and balance beam? She graduated from Fukuoka University with a degree in English literature. She combines her English and gymnastics skills in a popular weekly class for our students. Mrs. Aiko is married to Shoji Onoda (you may see him around the preschool sometimes) and has a beautiful baby daughter. She enjoys baking bread.

More Teachers in the Classroom. We are grateful to the volunteers who helped us in the classroom last term and, building on that foundation, we now have at least two teachers in the classroom all day every day.

Michiko Thicksten was born in Kumamoto prefecture. She graduated from Japan Women's University with a Master's degree in social welfare and lives in Tokyo with her husband Todd (from California) and her two children who are New Hope Preschool students. Besides her work here, she teaches at Orange English. Mrs. Michiko enjoys reading, traveling and cycling. She is in the classroom on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Ellen Yamase, an American, was born in Japan and has spent much of her life here. She graduated from the University of Hawaii and has twenty years of teaching experience. She is the mother of two teenage daughters. Some of you know her older daughter from summer school. Mrs. Ellen enjoys baking (and eating) sweets. She teaches on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Hiroko Kano (another preschool mother), born in Tokyo, received her high school diploma from Christian Academy Japan and graduated from Azusa Pacific University in California. Mrs. Hiroko has experience teaching Japanese-American and Chinese children. She worked for Duty Free Shoppers in Los Angeles before returning to Japan. You'll see her in the classroom on Mondays and in the office at other times. In her free time she enjoys bike riding, bowling, meeting people and, recently has been making our weekly bulletin boards.

Three Rs for Older Children. Our students who will enter elementary school within a year are spending time each day learning Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic (the three Rs) apart from the younger children. Reading and math readiness have always been part of our curriculum, but now we are giving "upperclassmen" a more concentrated daily dose.

Afternoon Preschool. You may know this already, but we offer an Afternoon Preschool program for our own students as well as those who attend other preschools. From April we had classes on Mondays from 3:30 to 4:40, but beginning in October we will be adding Wednesday classes too. If there is enough interest, we will even add classes on Thursdays. Please let us know if you or your friends might be interested. Of course New Hope Preschool students get a discount.

We are grateful that you chose New Hope Preschool for your child. As always, we are open to questions and input from you. Just give us a call or stop by the office any time. Here's to a wonderful autumn, full of adventure and discovery!

Warmly,

Jeremy Seminoff

Music!

Another class that began last month is our music class with Mrs. Jiyun. It's tons of fun and everyone's learning a lot (including me)!


Mrs. Jiyun at the keyboard.



Learning the notes of the major scale.

Gymnastics!

Mrs. Aiko has been teaching gymnastics since last month. Her class is wildly popular with the children. We just got some tumbling mats. Here are a few shots of the kids using them for the first time.

We started by just rolling sideways down the mat.

Then moved on to forward rolls.





















Great job!

Sorry 'bout that gap!

I dislike blog posts that begin with excuses for not posting more frequently so I'll forgo all that. Summer School, right. Sixteen children attended. It was blazing hot but somehow we survived and managed to have a wonderful time. Several volunteers from New Hope Fellowship helped out. As usual, photos tell the story best. Here is a letter that was sent to parents of children who came to summer school.

Dear Parents,

Thank you for enrolling your child in New Hope Summer Preschool. We are having a great time. I just want to let you know what we have been doing each day and what the plan is for the rest of the course.

First we are doing a unit about the parts of our bodies. Then we will learn about our families, friends and favorite pastimes. Finally, we will finish with a unit about traditional stories. All the activities each day center on that day's theme.

We try to keep things fun and challenging for children with all kinds of intelligences whether they are word-smart, number-smart, picture-smart, body-smart, music-smart, nature-smart, people-smart, or self-smart.

8/3 My Body
8/4 My Fingers and Hands
8/7 My Legs and Feet
8/8 My Ears
8/9 My Eyes
8/10 My Nose
8/11 My Mouth
8/21 My Family
8/22 My Friends
8/23 Things I Like to Do
8/24 "Goldilocks The Three Bears"
8/25 "The Three Little Pigs"
8/28 "The Three Billy Goats Gruff"
8/29 "The Little Red Hen"
8/30 "Caps for Sale"

Summer School This Week

After some time off and a nice family vacation in California, Summer School is about to start this week. Stay tuned for highlights.

Spring Term Ends

We wrapped up the first term of preschool yesterday with a mini awards ceremony. We are blessed with a great group of kids--so many personalities and talents.

Yesterday evening, we had a barbecue to show appreciation for our classroom and office volunteers. There's no way we could have come this far without them.

World Cup

We showed Japan's first two World Cup matches on the big screen at our preschool. The first game was a heartbreaker, with Japan leading until the last ten minutes or so of the game and then giving up three quick goals to Australia. Tonight's game was better, a scoreless tie against Croatia. Now all Japan has to do is beat Brazil on Thursday and there's a good chance of making it to the second round. Slim chance but anything can happen. Here's hoping!

Good Bye Mr. Roger!

Roger has been a big help as a volunteer since we began. The kids looked forward to his coming every week. Because he's moving back to America later this month, today was his last day in the preschool. We'll all miss him. Thank you Mr. Roger!

Paper Airplanes

For those who don't feel like clicking to see the June newsletter mentioned in the previous post, I'll reprint my article from it here.

Lessons in Life from Paper Airplanes

Recently our students, especially the boys, have shown tremendous interest in paper airplanes. They make them with any available time and any available paper. At first I thought it was interesting, then I began to worry that they should be spending their time "more productively," and finally I began to see that they were giving themselves quite an eduction. At least a hundred paper airplanes have been folded, flown and discarded over the past week or two. As I watched (and joined in the fun) I began to realize what wonderful lessons there are in the humble paper airplane. The following is a list of timeless truths the children have learned from folding and flying their airplanes. Of course they would express these truths in their own words if they expressed them at all.

• "A good start is half the battle." -Irish Proverb. (If the first fold is is good, the airplane has an excellent chance to fly well; if not, no way.)
• "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison, while working on the lightbulb. (By not being afraid to make mistakes, the children learned several ways not to make good paper airplanes, and in the process several ways to make very good ones.)
• "Imitation is at least 50 percent of the creative process" -Jamie Buckingham. (Starting from one of the few basic airplane patterns and improvising from there works better than folding randomly and ignoring what is known to work.)
• "Don't judge a book by its cover" -American Proverb. (Looks and aerodynamics aren't always correlated.)

And of course the children are exploring the physics of flight, improving eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills, and enjoying themselves immensely. Fortunately we have a lot of scrap paper.

I am learning from the paper airplanes too. I'm learning that children are much smarter than we usually give them credit for. They tend to know what they need to learn and to find out ways to teach themselves. Of course we need to guide their learning, and I think that one good way is to prepare an environment with many stimulating objects to explore. We do our best at the preschool to make an environment that encourages learning and exploration. I'm sure you do similar things at home. Let's share ideas with one another.

Growth and Torn Trousers

We've grown since my last entry. The obvious growth is in numbers. We now have another student and a few more classroom volunteers. The less obvious growth is in attitudes and character. I'm really proud of our students. They are kind, thoughtful, cheerful and welcoming. They have become great friends with one another. It makes coming to work a joy for me every morning (OK, almost every morning . . . unless I've stayed up too late watching soccer or 24).

I've been taking the five-year-olds aside for some Three Rs time each day. I'm impressed with their appetites, especially for reading and writing. Some of the children have been folding paper into books, drawing illustrations and writing stories. Of course they need help with spelling but it's so fun to see them exercising their creativity in that way.

Blogs are nothing if not a venue to humiliate oneself so I'll share an embarrassing story from yesterday. As background, you should know that all children are required to keep a change of clothes at the preschool. Drinks get spilled, mud puddles attack, the toilet is sometimes too far away to bother with, etc. Anyway, most children have had to change their clothes at least once. The other day, I told my wife that it would be a good idea for us to keep a change of clothes at the preschool too just in case. Alas, I didn't heed my own advice. Yesterday morning, while squatting in the office to set down a box with some donated sound gear, I heard the dreaded tearing sound of fabric. That's right, my six-year-old pants (trousers to the Brits) had finally given out in the seam and there was a huge rip up the back. This happened just as the parents began arriving to drop off their children. I kept strategically seated or with my back to the wall until I had a chance to ask a classroom helper to run to the store for me (thank you Michiko!). So to the parents and grandparents who noticed that I was acting strange yesterday morning, now you know the reason and I apologize.

Why do I embarrass myself online like this? Mostly because hardly anyone reads this blog. But more admirably perhaps is that I was taught to take trying situations and look for a lesson in them, to think about what God might be teaching me. After this experience, I began to think that maybe we adults give ourselves too many liberties. Maybe we should treat ourselves a little more like we treat children--I mean always to have a change of clothes on hand, always to eat our vegetables before our dessert (expand on that metaphor if you wish), always to apologize and to forgive quickly, and to keep a set bedtime. With that in mind, I'll put off starting that next season of 24 until vacation begins, but the World Cup only comes once in four years so there will certainly be a few late nights watching soccer in the next month or so.

If you've read this far, you certainly deserve to be among the first to see the new web site I'm working on for the preschool. We've had people tell us that with 100% Japanese on the main page, they didn't know there was any English on our site at all. The new site is very rough still but if you care to look at it, you can find it at http://newhopepreschool.googlepages.com/home. The June newsletter is here. Feedback is always appreciated, either as comments to this blog or by email to jseminoff [at] newhopeclc.jp .

One Month In

Wow! Our first month has come and gone so quickly. We are up to eleven students now (Rina is delighted that two of the new students are girls). Two volunteers are helping part-time in the classroom. The children (and I) have grown accustomed to the routine and I feel like we're moving from defense/survival mode into offense/proactive-efforts mode, if that makes any sense.

Highlights for me have been the making of our "Creation Book" and the "Book of Me" that each child wrote about himself. There was a barbecue on Saturday. We had about a hundred people show up. (New Hopers are party people!) We also had an excellent Children's Day service at church on Sunday. It was led by the youth group. Most of our students came and some brought friends and relatives. It was great fun! I love how the church, the preschool, and the community center support each other.

It's Golden Week now, so we have a few days off. I'm catching up on some projects I've been meaning to get to including this letter. It's mainly for the parents of our students, but everyone's welcome to have a look.

Funny conversation during lunch from two children trying to talk like adults:

A: That looks good. What are you drinking?
B: Water.
A: Oh. Is it home-made water?
B: Yes.
A: Home-made water is the best kind.




Happy Birthday!

Bumps and Scrapes

What can I say? We're going to run out of band-aids and cold patches pretty soon at this rate.

Dance Time

Park Time

Lunch Time

Project Time

Circle Time

First Week of Preschool

We started with eight students. Everyone is enjoying so far and we are finding our stride. I'll let pictures tell the story.

That would be our senior pastor.

Prayer Time

Try to keep those eyes closed!

The Magnificent Seven: Our First Cohort

(Edit: We're up to eight now. One more boy enrolled during the first week.)

(Edit 2: We're now up to eleven. A girl joined near the end of April and a brother & sister on May 1st.)

That Pastor Talo is a funny guy.

Look, Mom. I'm opening a preschool.

Entrance Ceremony

We had our preschool's entrance ceremony this morning (no fooling). The seven students who enrolled came with their parents. I gave a greeting and introduced the staff. Pastor Talo gave a short message. We gave the children some presents, had some hang out time and took pictures. Everybody had a good time. Monday (4/3) is our first day of classes. I'll add some photos as a separate post.

Movie Night

Last Saturday afternoon we held a movie event. We put up a big screen and projected "The Incredibles." Admission was free and we played games and served popcorn and drinks. About twenty kids came. Seven or eight were New Hopers and the others were either neighborhood kids or friends through some other context. Some random adults were there too. People from New Hope organized the games, prepared snacks, set up the room like a theater and made a fun, friendly atmosphere.

Three girls (around eleven years old) who came also showed up at church the next morning. The preschool, culture school, and church are meant to serve and reinforce one another's purposes. I saw that in action last weekend.

Snowy Day Friendmaking

We had our second Narimasu worship service this morning. I was outside shoveling snow with some kids before the service when a seven-year-old girl walked up and asked if she could help "because there's nothing else to do. " So she helped us shovel and sweep snow for a while. It turns out that she had come to our Christmas party last month and remembered us as fun people. She asked what we were doing today. We told her about Sunday School. She went home to ask her parents if it was OK for her to come. After getting permission, she came back with a book of matches "because it's cold today." We had fun at Sunday School playing games, talking, and eating doughnuts. I guess the room was warm enough because no matches were lit. Before she left, she asked me to write a nametag for her. "But you already have one," I replied. "No. I need it for when I come again next week." Who was I to argue?

English School

This is the third post of the day, but I wanted to keep them separate. Today was the first day of New Hope English Club at Narimasu. A couple students were kept away by the snow but Fuyuji, the coordinator said that he had a good start with the students who were able to come. There is a special running for three months with tickets at about a third of the regular price. We are looking for more students, so again if you or someone you know . .

Preschool Update

Oyako Club has been going really well. Because I'd been teaching one-hour classes at my other job, the two and a half hours seemed very long for the first few sessions. Now it just seems to fly by and I've been getting good feedback from the kids and their parents. It's a fun challenge to plan and run activities for kids with different backgrounds and interests.

Some of the parents have said that they want to send their children to our preschool once we start full-time in April. My target number is twelve students to start with. It looks like we may be about halfway there. Please keep this project in your prayers and if you know anyone with preschool-aged children who don't live to far from Narimasu, . . .

Morning Services

Last Sunday, January 8, we began morning worship services at the Community Life Center. I counted 46 people. Worship was great, the hula and sign dance teams did a wonderful combined performance, and I'm told the message was excellent.

I taught Sunday School. There were eight kids ranging from three to twelve years old. The older kids helped with interpreting and caring for the younger ones. We all had fun and spent about half of the time at the park. I want to start something on Sundays for the neighborhood kids too. It's not clear in my mind yet, but something with lots of games and a brief message that includes something applicable for Christians and non-Christians alike.