Yochien refers to kindergarten in Japan. It is a 2 or 3 year program which most children start from age 3 {if they are not in daycare/hoikuen. If they are in hoikuen because both of their parents work then often they do special classes within the hoikuen but have extended morning/afternoon hours}. They have private and public yochiens but MOST yochiens seem to be private and from what I can tell public yochiens are usually only for 2 years. We are still debating whether to send Noah from 3 {He would be 3 yrs 4 months when he started} or wait until the following year and just put him in for 2 years. If we waited an extra year we would start the boys at the same time. Shion has nensho {first year} and Noah has nenchu {second year} as by the Japanese school year they are only one school year apart. Interesting to note that in Australia they would be two school years apart but only just- although I am not even sure about the rules in Australia now so maybe that is not the case anymore.
Yochien is 5 days a week- usually with 5 or 5.5 hours a day with a shorter day one day a week- Wednesdays in most schools I think. The reason we have considered keeping Noah at home another year is 1. Language development in English and 2. It might be easier to start the boys at the same time seeing as they are only one school year apart and I think Shion would be so bored if Noah went to school the year ahead of him. I worry that it might be hard for Noah to adjust though if all of the other kids have already been there for a year and also because at least at the moment his English understanding skills definitely outweighs his Japanese understanding. Anyway we have until October of this year to decide.
Yochien forms are released October 15th and applications are accepted 1st of November. Some really really popular places have parents lining up at 3am to get forms and hand them back in. Insane! It is just the general enrollment forms that are released those days {for the nensho, nenchu, nencho programs}
Anyway, today I walked about 2km to a yochien that I had heard good things about thinking I might get some information about their “play” program. Lots of yochiens now have play programs for kids the year before they would enter yochien {so they have to be 2 by April and then start in April or May}. Anyway this yochien is relatively new but from the local mothers I had heard it was supposed to be good although I do not know anyone that actually sends their kids there. It was up a giant hill and I pushed the double pram up the hill so it was my exercise for the day. In hindsight I probably should of just rung them {or bothered to read their website instead of just looking at the pictures!} but hey, at least I did manage to get some exercise.
Noah & Shion are already down to go to play at one yochien from this year starting in April- it is about 500m away. I have been there a couple of times and – the style is more “us” and I like that it has a montessori feel to it in many aspects. They also do not focus so much on academics but instead on play/leaning to do things by themselves {ie, life skills} and lots of outdoor and music time. Art & craft time also seems to be self directed in that they will make something but there is no “You must make this craft to look like this”.
The really close one to me is also pretty relaxed but to be honest I just don`t seem to like it as much and it might be a bit TOO close. It is less than 50m from our new house….They can also go to this local yochien for “play” as well as it is not so popular and they have several “play” classes. The yochien that is closest to my house is where my husband and his brother went.
Anyway I have heard lots of things from local mothers and mums that go to my rhythmic class. It seems that the one I visited today is quite popular and two others were mentioned as well- neither of which appealed to me because of their academic focus {and also cost. One of them is insane. It is contacted to the private school and university. Beautiful grounds and not so far away but I had heard that if you don`t go to “play” then you DEFINITELY can`t get in and the play application forms were due last year anyway}. The rhthmic mothers asked me recently which places I had the boys down for “play” and I said I hadn`t decided yet whether we would do any play or which yochien I might send them too. I think they were a bit shocked!
Turns out the place I went to today is also not accepting more “play” applications. They closed them last year in November as well. Who knew it could be so competitive? Or that you had to book six months in advance.
I have applications for one other place relatively close to me. I am not sure if we really want to do “play” at another place or not though. It is all so confusing! Even though “play” only happens once or twice a month I have rhythmic class with Noah and work at least one weekday a week as well as English playgroup once a month. I think it will be too much for me and for the boys!
Apparently if you want to send the kids to private elementary school then yochien can be a big deal and make or break for some places. We will be sending the kids to the local public elementary school so we have no problems there- they have to accept them 
. It does seem that in this area though that 50% of the mums I meet plan to send their kids to ritzy private elementary schools. I was asked recently if I was worried they wouldn`t be able to get into private junior high and high school if I didn`t send them to private elementary as well….must be getting more competitive. Shun & his brother went to private school from junior high even though they went to the local elementary school and they both got into private universities too. We would like to send the boys to private school from junior high but we are not 100% sure of that yet or anything {and have absolutely NO IDEA where!}
Anyone in Japan want to share their yochien experience? What about others in other countries- is it similar where you are?
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I am just a twenty something Aussie girl living in Chiba, Japan with my Japanese husband trying to make sense of the crazy Japanese world we live in! We welcomed our first son in December 2009 (Noah) and a second son in January 2011, 2 months premature (Shion). I am working hard at raising them to be confident, bilingual, happy kids!
i don’t know if it’s because i’m more rural, or kyushu is different, but we didn’t have to apply to enroll at yochien. in fact, we ended up going to a school that practically begged us to join (but it’s a nice yochien, i’m so glad my kids go there, even if it is really far from our house).
even though it’s a yochien, it also has a kind of hoikuen thing going on. there is a baby class, 2 year olds, who (i think) go for part of the day, but if a mom worked, i think the kids can stay all day, part of that time in ‘wai wai’ (which is after school care.)
our yochien also doesn’t have (regular) half-days. that’s nice, because it’s all uniform and the kids don’t get confused.
most yochien don’t have lunches provided, but i think that may be changing. ours had only monday and friday covered, tues., weds., and thurs. were bento days, but i think some parents complained and now there is an optional wednesday bento. this is something you need to request and your kid(s) get it every week. my husband requested this without discussing it with me, which made me mad, and the kids unhappy (they love my bento, lovely kids), but a couple of times it has been nice to not make a bento on wednesday.
sometimes i think there is too much emphasis on getting a “great” education that kids are kinda cheated out of being kids. i personally would not send my kids to a private kindergarten to get into a private elementary school to get into a private jr. high to …. yeah you get the picture. i want to help and support them in their education, but i really don’t think it’s necessary to go overboard this early in their life!
I think you make a great point about going overboard in the early years- it is hard to know where to draw the line sometimes though. I want what is best for my kids but also do not want to be pushy.
Kind of on this note {but also because Shion no longer takes a morning nap if we are home} I have laid of tot school for a bit until Shion is a bit older and can join in. While Noah enjoyed it a lot he enjoyed the one on one time more- now when he wants to play with stickers I pull some out, if he sees the playdough and wants to do that I pull that out and we try to spend an hour or more outside playing or going for a walk everyday. Most days we go out twice a day {before and after nap} except often one of the times is to the supermarket or appointment. I do plan to start up some more scheduled tot school type stuff again soon but if he is not into it then I won`t push it.
The wai wai system sounds interesting- most of the yochien around here do not after afterschool care. They do often have either English or kokugo classes that you can pay extra for but I won`t be doing either of those. Also because my area is not so rural most places do not have a bus system- not that I would need it being so close to the schools.
I have to admit I am not looking forward to bento. It seems a lot of places near here do it like your place- you can order lunch one or two days a week and make bento the other days. Noah is a picky eater but I kind of want him to break away from his peanut butter sandwich habit- can`t imagine that would go down well if I sent him to kind with a pb sandwich, some cheese and some fruit. Shion is shaping up to be a better eater but that said Noah was much better a year ago too….Do you ahve to try and make them cute? Or do your kids not mind?
We have talked about the private route- for us trying to go home once a year or more is higher on our priority list than private elementary school. If possible private junior high and high school {and perhaps put them in returnee english program if possible} but if we found a good local public school with a decent reputation then we would go that route too. From what I have heard though at the moment the two local junior highs are not that crash hot….
i was worried about bento, but in the end it really wasn’t that bad. i wouldn’t say hiro was a picky eater, but there were only certain things i put in his bento. quickly i had a kind of template and just sent the same thing every (bento) day. regulars were a boiled egg, carrot (the only veggie he ate at the time) raw or cooked, rice and edamame (because it was green lol). i also changed it up with one other protein, either meatballs, sausages or tofu hambaagu. now i put regular hambaagu. it seems a bit heavy on protein, but i figure the kids run around a lot so they need to rebuild their muscles. i never make the bentos cute, i don’t believe it’s necessary in order to tell my kids i love them. and once i started down that path i wouldn’t be able to stop! besides, i don’t think hiro cared either way. sasha would probably love cutesy bentos, but she never says anything about it, so i think we’re good. the only ‘cute’ thing i’ll do is punched-out nori (stars), but i hardly ever do that.
occasionally bento is curry & rice, or spaghetti, or some kind of pasta dish, usually left-overs, but it really is so much easier to slap in some rice, cut up a boiled egg and stuff some kind of veg in there, with either the hambaagu (which really are left-overs frozen, so are the meatballs), meatballs or sausage. if i remember to buy them i’ll put in cherry tomatoes. i also found out i can put in a mikan so that’s usually in there during the winter, too.
i think some places heat up the kids’ lunch so you have to have certain kinds of bento boxes, and not pack cold things in that bento. our yochien doesn’t do that, though.
Wow! That made my head ache just reading that! What a tricky decision. sorry that I can’t make a comment on your situation – it is so hard when you are desperate to do what is best for your kids isn’t it? Just know that you will make the right decision for your kids. Good luck!
Thanks for commenting chan- first time right? I hope we can come to the right decision for us and our kids in the end! Just so much to think about!
It’s such a hard decision to know what’s right… and as you know it took me some time to figure it out. I am VERY glad I kept sacchan at home and did not send her until now. It’s hard to think that all the other kids started last year.. I actually thought it was a bit sad that they were sent packing so soon. I loved having an extra year of mummy time and I’m glad it all worked out for us.
You guys have a tough challenge though with the boys being only a school year apart! I’d seriously recommend what I did (waiting until Noah is older) but that’s not to say it won’t be hard then too. I think it would just be much easier for you to send them at the same time when both have a little more English under their belts. Less stress for you and them I guess? But you know what’s best for your family!
As for the whole private school thing… Riki went to a few different public schools from youchien to elementary (his parents moved around a little before settling in our town) and he had absolutely no problem getting into one of Gunma’s best high schools.. Niijima Gakuen… which is actually a catholic school and has a lot of students travel from Tokyo to attend…
Yes, to be honest the only reason I would keep Noah home the extra year is because of his English- I think the yochien hours are good for a 3-4 year old and they don`t have to catch a bus because we are close so that means they will be home by 2:30 but my other concern with this is that say we like 2 yochiens out of the 6 within walking distance my worry is that if I don`t send Noah from 3 that he might not get in when I try to send him from 4. Some around here are definitely “full”….
Shun & his family are pushing to send Noah from 3 but I am the one holding out and ultimately it will be my decision {as even though they are pushing they have said that if I want to keep him home that is my choice since I am the one looking after him}
He is pretty social though and I know he would like it. Today I had to go to the one we will definitely do “play” at from April and pay the fee and I opened the gate to go in and I let Noah get out of the stroller and he tried to close the gate and say “bye bye mama”…….I don`t think he would mind at all if I left him there XD
Will see how play goes as well as his language development. Nice to hear others experiences though!
In respect to the academic side of things,out of 6 in our town,our hoikuen focuses purely on play up until entry to primary school.The other places offer focused teaching in reading,writing and numeracy from nensho.At first it worried me when DD1 started primary school that she and her hoikuen friends would be behind academically.However,it has made no difference at all and in fact the kids from our hoikuen,according to their HR teacher, are the most active in and out of class.”Play” is something that decreases with age as school becomes busier.
I definitely like the idea of play based learning or child led learning. Even the activities I do with Noah I stop doing if he is not interested or frustrated. I definitely do not want to force my kids to “study” and maybe it is selfish of me but I would really prefer they learnt the English alphabet before they started having to learn kanji!
What have you done with their English reading/writing though? Well for Annie anyway as I imagine Emille is a bit young still.
hoping i’m not stepping on toes to reply to this, but if i may….
hiro just started reading english this winter. maybe a little later than most kids (esp. back home) but it’s been almost easy. i got the kids preschool and kindergarten workbooks at costco (those pencil books with maybe 200 pages in them?) which we do for fun, not a forced thing when they are home from school. i think i started them when hiro was 3 or 4. then i just picked up stuff from costco as i found them (i love the books which use dry-erase pages) for practicing ABCs and stuff. then in the fall i got a book (how to teach your child to read in 10 minutes a day; that’s just the book i decided to get. a lot of them seem very similar) on how to teach your child to read plus some readers. the early workbooks had some phonics in it and i also did a bit of phonics with hiro but it really seemed like something just clicked for him right about the time he turned seven. it may have to do with learning to read in hiragana (oh hey, ABCs have sounds and hey, they make words!) or it just may be that most kids ‘get it’ at around that age but whatever, doing the work from the teaching your kid to read book actually worked for him. and now sasha sees me helping hiro read and she wants to do it, too. : D even tommy wants to learn how to read in english.
i really think it depends on the child, but i never wanted to push it so that my kids hated studying or learning (in) english. so far so good and i only hope i can get them to continue!
We did a similar thing with our girls. We sent them for the 2-year program so their English would be really strong before they were immersed in Japanese all day. All four of them understood some Japanese from spending time with relatives, neighbors and attending church although it was nowhere near the level of their peers but it didn’t faze them at all and they made friends and by the time they started elementary school they were at exactly the same level as everyone else.
In our area there were only 3 preschools since most people send their kids to hoikuen because they work. Only one preschool somewhat appealed to us so we sent Emi there but I was so nervous. It looked so colorless and uninviting but that preschool has turned out to be awesome. There is a good mix of structured learning time (not math or Japanese though!) and free playtime (kids running around doing whatever they want) and the preschool really prepare them for elementary school as far as the Japanese system of “doing things” which I have no idea about. So far the older three have excelled in elementary school and I think the preschool had a big hand in that.
The weird part for my husband and I is that we only made plans up until this point for our girls. We had planned to send them to public elementary school but if there was a problem then we would look into either homeschooling or maybe an international school. There were so many “what if’s” that we never made a plan beyond elementary school and Emi will be in 6th grade next year! There is a public junior high 5 minutes away that has a so-so reputation or we can pay and have her go to a private junior high but then Misaki is only one year behind her so we’d have to pay for two girls right away. I have no idea which is the better option. My husband went to public school for both junior high and high school (apparently not “good” schools) but he still went to the States and graduated with a four year degree using English and now he supports our family very well so I’m trying to decide where the line is between preparing your child for the future so they have the skills and options they need to take themselves where they want to go in their adult lives or totally missing the line and going overboard or underpreparing. It is so hard to know the future! Right now our only real goal for our girls is that they graduate high school fluent (speaking, reading and writing) in both Japanese and English with good grades so they could conceivably go wherever they wanted for college. I have Canadian citizenship so if I register them they could easily go to Australia, England or any other commonwealth country if they wanted. Or they could go to the States on their US Citizenship or stay in Japan. So many options available to them and I want them to be able to take advantage if that’s what they want.
I’m sure you’ll figure out what you want for your boys. When you send Noah to preschool you might want to consider keeping Shion home for an extra year to spend time with him, too. My “free” year with Natsuki was so much fun!
Wow your girls have a lot of education options available for them for tertiary study because of your American & Canadian citizenship! That is wonderful! Do you think they would like to go overseas later to study?
Does the preschool/kindy you sent your girls too actually officially start from 3? So it is 3 years but you can send them from 2? As I said above my concern is that I wouldn`t get Noah into kindy from 4 if I waited. I have to suss this situation out more this year.
In Australia compulsory education starts from 5 {to 15}. In Japan it starts the school year you will turn 7- so yochien is not compulsary at all which is good I think- it means traveling overseas is easier as if I pull them out of yochien I will lose money but they would not have to repeat or anything.
It is not a “definite” that Shion would start kindy from 3 but I imagine that he would get bored with just me. I do hope to do something with him by himself soon though as Noah did baby sign class, swimming while we were in Australia and now rhythmic class. I do sign with Shion at home but definitely not as much as I did with Noah- I would love to take Shion to baby swimming but I have to find a place that has daycare included so I could put Noah in- I imagine that this would be at a gym or something since my in-laws already help out with the boys when I work and take Noah to rhythmic class so I don`t want to have to ask them to help out another time.
It is great to hear others experiences. I miss your blog! Will yous start again? I can not believe that Emi will be in 6th year next year!! WOW! How are you other girls going?
I as you know plan on keeping all of my kids out of kindy until they are 4… they will only be enrolled for the 2 years. I think having them at home for that extra year will not only be great for their english but also because I think they are personally too young to be sent away every day if they don’t need to. Obviously if it is needed because of money reasons then it makes sense but that would be the only reason I will be doing it.
I have to admit though I am slightly worried about Leilah’s Japanese as we don’t see/do anything in Japanese for long enough for her to get a grasp of the language. We see my inlaws for 1 night every couple of months or so, my friend for a day here or there and that’s about it. With Leilah’s personality though I think she will be fine!!
Lots of decisions for you to make but I’m sure you will find the right one for you and your family!
PS – I like Sarah’s idea of keeping Shion at home for that extra year to spend some quality time with just him…
Yes we have talked about this before. With Leilah {and baby #2 most likely if he is a bit late} does this mean she will be almost 5 when she starts since she is an April baby and kindy starts beginning of April? I am pretty sure since you said 2 year program this is a yes.
Are the yochien near you public? I know that a lot of public yochien only offer 2 years but there are less and less public yochien around now. Is there issues with space? I think that is one of my concerns is that if i keep Noah at home the extra year, as I mentioned above, then I might not find a place from him from 4. From a Japanese point of view I would definitely want him to to do 2 years at least before going to primary. He is that later end of the school year though same as Shion so keeping him home does appeal to me.
I can understand your personal opinion about “sending them away” everyday but I also think that from a social point of view there is nothing wrong with kids going to hoikuen or yochien from younger even if the mothers/fathers do not actually work full-time. We could use the extra money but it is not a necessity and even once I do send the boys to kindy …even if I send them from 3…it is not necessarily “I need to work more” type of reason. There are pros and cons to sending kids to school from 3 or younger but not necessarily more cons than pros- I agree it depends on the family situation as well and of course the mothers personal opinions and desires.
A lot of kids I know that go to hoikuen from younger have certain skills my boys definitely do not have yet because they are at home with me. Sounds simple enough but no matter how times I get Noah to try to drink from a regular cup he much prefers his sippy/straw cup because that is what Shion uses and also what most of his friends use when out and about yet at hoikuen from 1 they train all kids to use a regular cup. I have tried many times at home but he is not interested {even if it is juice!}
If I send Noah from 3 then I will get a year at home with Shion which would be nice too. If I sent Noah from 4 then I might still keep Shion home the year but I am still so conflicted about a lot of things.
Noah`s Japanese is definitely behind his English but like you I am not too worried. He is social and communicates well with gestures anyway- in fact two of the yochiens we are considering have biracial kids attending already so it is not like he will be the first mixed kid to go through the schools thankfully!
Having been a ‘foreign’ kid in the Japanese school system (albeit in the 80s and 90s, I wouldn’t be rushing to get them into school there. I went to school in Japan from 9 until I was 15 (my parents being French and British) and it wasn’t fun. I don’t know how much it has changed, but so much of it was rote learning, there was absolutely no critical thinking and the dynamics of peer pressure in Japan don’t foster excelling if you’re bright.
Luckily my parents were both teachers so my home life was much more of an education than school was and, other than my school work, they had a fairly strict rule in the house that everything was in French or English only but they made a big effort to get hold of comics and books that I was interested in – luckily I’m an obsessive reader. I spent the last years of my schooling in Australia and school there was infinitely more enjoyable and challenging than Japan).
The advantage of keeping your son at home, as you say, is to give him a better grounding in English. Once he goes to school his Japanese will rapidly dominate and peer pressure makes a foreign language uncool (just about anywhere). Given that you’re the only parent who speaks English to the kids, their exposure to it is minimal and you will struggle to get them to keep onto it as they get older unless they are the rare breed like me with a morbid fascination for language.
I’ll offer a bit of a different perspective here and say that we sent my son at 3.5 and I almost wish we’d sent him earlier. I think having come into kindy later than most of his peers was difficult for him since everyone else was used to a much more structured environment than he was. He also goes to a Montessori school though, so that makes a difference. As you know, Montessori is very big on education starting early. I saw my son struggle that he hadn’t you know, learned how to stay in line or to sit down and have circle time when everyone else was. Dylan really has blossomed a lot since starting school and I think it has been a healthy experience for me. He just turned 4 in October and honestly I can’t imagine if we’d waited until now to send him. Noah probably seems young now — and he is — but a year from now I wouldn’t be surprised if he is ready for a more structured school environment. Kids really can thrive in a good kindergarten.
I also think it has been good for Dylan to have this year at school without his sister going. He really gets to feel like he’s the “big boy” and it is good for him I think to have this big boy thing that is his. Now we’re talking about putting his sister in the toddler class and have talked to him about how he can show his little sister the school and hold her hand on the way in and he can have a sense of pride that this is “his” school. Your two boys are very close in age but there are some privileges to being the oldest and getting to do things first and the sense of responsibility it can cultivate in them can be very beneficial.
The language is a sticking point but I honestly don’t know if that extra year would make a huge difference or not. 4 is still quite young and his Japanese will most likely overtake, or at the very least, catch up with his English no matter what, but the transition might be easier for him at a younger age. When I was teaching at the international school the younger kids really took to the all-English classes much easier while the older ones struggled. Adjusting to school will be tough for him, and adjusting to a “new” language at the same time will be tough as well. I think the younger they are the easier the adjustment is.
I’m just playing devil’s advocate here though — obviously you’ve got to do what you feel in your heart is right for your boys and I’m sure you’ll make the best decision for your family!
My younger son started full-time kindergarten (“nursery” class) in England at age 3. With a summer birthday, he was one of the younger ones, and I was worried about having him fully potty trained in time! My ILs said he was too young, but I wanted to put him in because he had been attending a class (with no mommies) 3 half-days a week, with many other local kids, and they were basically all going up to the nursery class at the local elementary school together, so I wanted him to advance with the group of kids he knew. He did really well in the full-time nursery class.
We moved here to Sapporo when he was 4, and he was in intl. school kindergarten for 1.5 years, and then Japanese kindergarten for 1 year. We had decided to send him to Japanese elem. school, and switched to the Japanese system a year early to let him get better at Japanese. We were introduced to the kindergarten by a friend, and they had space (though most kids had started 1 or 2 years before). Most kindergartens here are private, but almost all kids go to public elem. school. I don’t know anyone who goes to private Japanese elem. school. The public elems. are mainly good, and my son loves his. He’s in 6th grade and will graduate in 2 months. His English was still much stronger when he started 1st grade (despite the year in Japanese kindergarten), but his teachers and classmates have all been great. He has never seemed embarrassed about English, and reads English books (by choice) during morning reading time. He prefers that I speak to him in English, even in front of friends, as my bumbling along in Japanese annoys him a bit (he gets tired of waiting for me to say things).
Few kids here go to private jr. high. I know a few, mainly with very high academic plans. But in my son’s particular 6th grade class (maybe both classes of 6th graders, in fact), there is only one girl that is known to be shooting for a private jr. high, and to be honest, she and her family are a bit odd. The other people I know with kids in private jr. high are not odd at all… I just think it’s interesting that in his particular year group, only the one odd family is going for private. It’s just a lot more rare around here. And most of the best high schools are public. Kids aim for the best public high schools, and leave the private high schools as a fall-back position. The elevator-type private jr. high- to- high schools are good, though.
My younger son was supposed to go to intl. school from 7th grade onwards, but really wants to stay with his friends. He was pretty stressed out about it, so we have agreed that he can try the local jr. high and tentatively stay there for about 1 and 1/2 years. Our kids have no Japanese parent or citizenship so we feel their high school and college educations really need to be in English, though. Japanese elem. school has been a great experience for him!! I’m really happy with the teaching, social situation, etc., at his school.
My experience with the kindy system is a bit different, as I work, so it wasn’t a home or kindy question, but a kindy plus daycare or hoikuen question.
I will say that when my son was at home with my while I was on maternity leave with #2 it was rough. He needed more interaction with kids than I was able to provide, unfortunately. He’s a very social and gregarious kid, and had been in daycare from 7 months so he knew what he was missing. I wish we’d had the money to send him then.
I looked at all the kindergartens in my area but basically it came down to which kindy would work with us as working parents, and that cut the list down to about 2 (from 8). One, the Montessori one I had my hopes pinned on, told us that they would not accept my child since I worked. Which was kind of rude, I wish I got the chance to dump them first! Montessori apparently means Catholic in Japan, rather than Montessori method.
We have been very very happy with the kindy we chose, despite the fact that it would be easier to put our kids in hoikuen (the current daycare only keeps kids until 3). We sacrifice a lot for it, but I think it’s worth it. We didn’t realize it was a competitive soccer school, just that they offered soccer, but it has worked out very well as my son loves soccer and having a goal (being the goalkeeper for the #1 team when he’s in Nencho) has kept him focused. I also like that they read aloud to the kids everyday, there are male teachers, bentos are only required on field trip days (once a month) and they have a really good balance of free play and “academics”. They learn numeracy by helping out with lunch prep etc. Not rigorous but they get the basics I couldn’t teach them.
I say send Noah early to make friends. School days are so short he’ll be back playing with Shion before you know it.
I sent my kids to hoikuen because we both work 5 days a week. Getting in to any childcare system is difficult here. They go to the same public hoikuen and will be there until they enter public elementary school. I don’t have any qualms about sending them to public elementary school and after visiting our local one, I liked what I saw and it had a good feel to it. Most kids in our building go there, too and I know my kids have both said they want to go there. As an foreigner, being accepted as part of the local community is very important to me and my kids. I know I’ll need the support of my neighbours and friends particularly while I get use to Japanese Ed system,
Like many people, the worries begin when you start to think about junior high and beyond. Schooling here is very different from back home. Being an individual is almost frowned upon and lessons are still taught as mixed ability which isn’t always effective in making sure that kids at either end of the learning curve have their needs met. Educational philosophy is very different – if students don’t understand, it is their fault and not the teachers. As Jacques mentioned above, the emphasis on rote memorization is not stimulating and kids are not encouraged to develop opinions and be critical thinkers. This is the main thing that worries me about the education system here. However, I know that it is my responsibility as a parent to provide a balanced education for my kids. Learning doesn’t only happen in the classroom.
Japanese parents on the whole don’t actually take a big interest in their kids’ education – they merely throw money around and send them to juku to cram for tests that may or may not get them into a “good” school. They don’t seem to actively teach their kids at home. The notion that some schools are better than others is ludicrous here in Japan. Each school writes its own tests and marks its own tests, so how can we really know which schools have decent teachers and effective methods of teaching if there is no standardised national assessments like we have back home? Education is big business here. Those entrance tests cost an arm and a leg. If you can pay, you can easily resit if you fail on your first attempt. Another major concern of mine, is the emphasis on memory for test success and not on actual understanding or knowledge. This is not a concern for Japanese parents and so their school choices and expectations are very different from ours.
Then again, at the end of the day, when I think about the big picture, my husband went to public school, all of my Japanese friends went to public school and they turned out OK. I went to state school back home and look at me!
I didn’t mention the language dynamic. Double commenter – sorry.
I think when the kids were very young and just beginning to say their first words, I used to worry that they were slower than the texts books suggested. I would enter “the baby Olympics” and, I’m embarrassed to say, compare my kids’ language skills with other kids! Shock horror. I think when they were at home (James especially) they didn’t have to speak all the time because I anticipated their every need. When James did speak jibberish only I could understand him. Once you send your kids to daycare/nursery, they have to communicate with staff and other kids and so they have to speak and their language skills really begin to blossom. They both now speak English (with me) and Japanese (with everyone else – even with each other) with pretty much equal fluency. So I was worrying over nothing, but now I worry over their future literacy skills in English. There’s always something to keep us fretting over our parenting skills and our choices!
Wow, so much to think about! We’re planning on sending Jonathan at 3 so that he can get out of the house (and my hair!), learn Japanese, etc. As to where, well, obviously we haven’t a clue, lol! But Ben’s new boss is/was involved with the kindy/elementary system in Chiba after the earthquake as a consultant of sorts and has said he’ll help us however he can to work out daycare/kindy as we need. Which is such a relief!
We’ve had people ask us about what we’ll do about schooling when we get back as Jonathan will be starting Reception/Prep at that time – are we going to enrol them somewhere just in case? Well, no. We don’t know where we’ll be coming back to! I’m hoping back here of course, and with 2 brand new science/cancer research centres being built this year there’s a good chance it will be here. Kids… so much to think about!
Thank you to everyone who commented on this post sharing their experiences and wisdom. We are still undecided but we have until October to decide if we will apply for him to start the following April or not. We will see how he goes at “play” to see where things take us I guess.
I don’t know anything about Yochien, but I would just chime in and say that I just love Hoikuen for Max. They can offer him so much more than I can. I am not the tot-school type as you are.
But I have found that Max has amazing manners and social skills with other kids – he bows when he says thank you and claps his hands together at the end of a meal. This is not in the trained seal type of way, but in the “This is how we do things” kinda way and the kids just follow the examples. He loves the other kids and they are all very friendly. He loves the teachers too as they are very cuddly and affectionate with the kids. They really just let them play all day.
Plus they do a heap of fun seasonal things – eg setsubun – that we just wouldn’t do in our house. Plus lots of music, dancing and walks in the fresh air everyday. If I was at home with him every day, there would be chores to do, computers to read etc so I wouldn’t be giving him as much attention as he gets at Hoikuen. He sleeps for 2-2.5 hours a day but at home I am lucky to keep him down for 45mins-1hour. The food is fresh, healthy and a good variety – I am not a great cook so I worry that my meals are boring for him at home.
He is thriving and his understanding of Japanese is great. As an English only household, this is something else we can’t offer him.
The only regret about being a working Mum is not any sort of guilt but perhaps a sense of loss that I am missing out on all the cute and funny things that he does every day. I do rush out the door at quitting time and I am completely focused on him from then until bed time. It is our special time together as Ash is usually working. I am not sure if I was at home all day with him that we would have such special moments as the day to day stuff would get in the way.
So for Max and us, the Hoiken experience is working out great. It was a real adjustment but the good thing is that Max’s personality suits school life. You know your kids well enough to know if they would suit this environment so it is your call.