After a lot of indecisiveness (that is an understatement - the decision was torture for me), we decided to enroll Annie in nursery school at the American School in Japan's Early Learning Center (ELC), which is conviently located on the first 3 floors of our building. She's been going for over a month and a half now and she really loves it. She is in a class with 14 other kids and two teachers, Teacher Cassie and Teacher Miyuki. We love her teachers - they are experienced, highly qualified and have travelled the world. Her classmates come from a variety of diverse backgrounds - Japanese, Swedish, Korean, French, Indian and American. Annie has already made a "best friend," a little girl named Henna, and it's so cute to see them together and hear Annie talk about her. "I love Henna, she's my best friend." "I want to take Henna to Disneyland on my birthday and let her pick the Dumbo we ride in because she will be my guest."
Anyhow - in Annie's classroom (ages 3 and 4) they follow a schedule every day but for the most part the learning is child-led and play based. You can read all about it
here. We toured a few international preschools in Tokyo and the ELC is really a pretty impressive place. They also use a project approach. For example, next week the class will be taking a field trip to go sweet potato digging, which is the Japanese equivalent of apple picking in the US. So for the past few weeks Annie's class has been learning all about sweet potatoes: planting and observing them, cooking them, tasting them, reading about them, etc. While it is an American school with a US based cirriculum, there are also some Japanese cultural aspects that are integrated. Annie has already picked up a few new Japanese words and is excited for special events like a visit from Sumo wrestlers, O-Mochi pounding and Taiko drumming.
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| The best picture I could get as we walked in on the first day! |
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| It was only for 3 hours on her first day, but couldn't believe I was about to leave my baby! |
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| Lizzy had a great time getting in on the action. Can't imagine Lizzy going to Nursery School in a year!! |
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| Goodbye kisses, round 1. |
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| Arm kiss. |
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| More hugs and kisses for the best friends. |
While definitely a little sad, drop off was way less emotional than I expected. I knew Annie would be fine, but I had fully prepared myself to be sobbing. I was able to hold back the waterworks, however, probably helped in part by Annie who asked me about 17 times why I hadn't left yet. We picked her up at 11:30 and walked to bakery across the street for an after school lunch.
Joe was actually out of town for this momentous occasion, and had been gone for a week or so, so needless to say I was exhausted. I figured Annie would crash at naptime after her big morning, but neither girl slept that afternoon. See how much fun we are having together???!!
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| I wish Lizzy could get a little closer to me. |
After a failed nap attempt, we had another first: I bought a coffee drink at Starbucks!!! I am NOT a coffee drinker, I think it tastes like dirt. However, I was SO tired and desperate that I decided to try one. Full disclosure, I probably chose the wimpiest drink on the menu and I'm not even sure it qualifies at coffee (iced white chocolate mocha?). It basically tasted like chocolate milk with a shot of esspresso. Thought I would have to choke it down but it was pretty delicious and gave me a little kick to make it through the rest of the afternoon.
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| Of course, the girls got a treat, too. No coffee in their drinks, though! |
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Um, this was expensive.
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All in all, I am happy with the decision we made to send Annie to nursery school. It's been a great opportunity for all of us to meet new people and be a part of a community here in our new city.
