We decided to enroll Rylan in a Japanese Yochien. It's goes all the way through Kindergarten and he's in the Pre-K class right now. The Japanese school year runs from April-March so we got here just in time to start on day 1. They only speak Japanese in the classroom and have staff on site that can translate if necessary but the whole idea is to immerse them into the Japanese classroom so they also pick up on the language and customs. There are other American students in his class but all yochiens limit the amount of Americans allowed to avoid them clumping together and not interacting with the Japanese kids. Most of the yochiens require these adorable uniforms, but Rylan would refuse to wear them so I was so excited to find one that didn't have any. All of his school supplies just made this school-nerd giddy! I love that every supply has it's own container or case. He has clay that went in a specific clay box with clay tools in their clay pouch. Pastels in their own cute box, etc. They're big on names too, had to write his name on everything down to each pastel inside the pastel box. He has a name tag and also a name tag for the bus. I also had to get him 4 bags!
Bag #1: Backpack for the communication pouch that has his calendar booklet and a notebook for communication between me and the school. This also houses his placemat and eating utensils for lunch. That comes home every day.
Bag #2: Indoor shoe bag. We bought him shoes for use only inside the classroom and those shoes have their own bag to keep them in while they're not being worn. That comes home every Friday to be washed and shoes cleaned.
Bag#3: Extra Clothes. This is a separate bag that has a spare set of clothes in case his gets messy or he has an accident. That only comes home if he uses the clothes in it.
Bag#4: A large bag that had to fit a huge manila style envelope that comes home on Fridays with any papers and once a once with the tuition envelope. Everything is paid in Yen cash.
The welcome ceremony was rough and he cried and mean-mugged me through the whole thing. Typical Rylan fashion. I was, admittedly, frustrated and embarrassed despite knowing this was especially uncomfortable for him. Chris eventually got him to settle and start playing with some of the other kids. The next 3 days, he had half days and last Friday had his first full day of school. They run from 9:00am-2:15pm so the full days all week have been an adjustment for him. I think it will be good for him once he gets into a routine. Of course Quinn wanted to wear a Japanese-style dress to the ceremony, thinking by dressing the part, they might think she was one of them...sorry Q, there's no hope for you to look the same, lol.
Rylan's favorite part of school is riding the bus! The bus comes every morning for pick-up and in the afternoons for drop-off just outside base. I was so worried I would have to shove him on that bus and tell the driver to shut the doors quick, but he was so excited and ran right on without a second glance back to say bye to me, you know, his mom!
We also signed him up for school lunch. When we decided to do so, the school brought a picture book just in case to make sure we knew what we were signing up for. Haha. So far, he's eaten all of his lunch every day, even though he can't tell me what he ate! The school sent some pictures home of him eating lunch, probably because they were so surprised he would eat it so willingly.
He has made a really great friend, named Ava. She's an American in the Kindergarten class. Those two sit on the bus together everyday and she's really been helping him get settled in. This is her 3rd year there and she speaks Japanese pretty well. Unfortunately she's moving next month, but at least she's been able to help him feel comfortable at the school.
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