9/28/2016

A Cardboard house

7-year-old son made a small house using a cardboard last Tuesday.


This is the living room on the first floor.

He made a table, TV, sofa, room light, window, and steps.



This is the second floor.

There are some books in the bookshelf.

My son wrote their titles on each book.

There is a wash room behind the door.

The picture of a flower is hung on the wall.



He was absorbed in making this for a while.

I was really impressed with his detailed work and creativity.


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9/24/2016

Sports day

The sports day was held at my 7-year-old son's elementary school yesterday.

It was a really busy day for me because I had to prepare lunch box for my all of family members and my parents.

I had to work overtime for one hour last Friday because we had a lot of customers, so I finished working at 5pm.

After that, I picked up my son and 6-year-old daughter then went to the supermarket to buy some groceries for lunch boxes.

After we came home, I did laundry, prepared dinner, washed dishes, then prepared some dishes for lunch boxes.

I wanted my children to go to bed by 9pm because they had to wake up by 6:30am next day.

But they were still playing together after 9pm, so I was irritated to see them.

"Look at the clock! It's already 9pm. Will you be able to wake up at 6:30am? It's sports day tomorrow! Go to bed right now!"

I scolded them, then they immediately went to bed.

I woke up at 4am and made the lunch boxes.

I finished making them at 7am.

I was really tired but glad that I finally finished them.

My husband went to his school to get a spot.

He was surprised that more than 100 people were already in line waitnig for the school gate to open.

Some people brought small tents.

When the entrance gate was opened by a teacher, he said:

"Everyone, please don't run! It's dangerous!"

But most of them rushed to get a spot.


My family and parents went to his school at 9am.

It was going to rain soon, so everyone hoped that the weather would hold out until the sports day finished.

Finally, it started raining in the early afternoon.

The teachers decided to postpone the rest of the programs until next Monday.

Children seemed to be disappointed, but we weren't because the teachers had already changed the order of the program efficiently, so the popular programs which parents wanted to see were already finished in the morning.

The happiest thing is that I finished my big task, making the lunch boxes!



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9/22/2016

Happy Birthday by Origami

My 7-year-old son made a birthday cake, a candle, a present, flowers and a vase using Origami last evening.

It wasn't anybody's birthday yesterday.

I asked him:

"Why did you make them?"

He answered:

"I only wanted to make them."

I like his artisan spirit.



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9/18/2016

Piano trial lesson

My 6-year-old daughter took a piano trial lesson last Saturday.

She was surprised to listen to the piano's loud but beautiful sound.

The teacher told us that she will teach her how to read musical scores.

She also said that to be able to read musical scores is similar to being able to speak a foreign language.

I was deeply moved to hear that.

Since my daughter changed her mind and told me that she wants to continue the Electone lessons, I decided that I will let her learn both Electone and piano.

I want her to choose which instrument she wants to continue learning more after a few years.

Piano practice is really effective at improving children's technique of playing Electone.

It costs a lot of money and I know I am a doting mother, but I want to do so.

I have to work more and save money, but I am looking forward to starting the new start piano lessons.




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9/14/2016

Fifth Disease

My 7-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter got fifth disease.

First, my son got it last Saturday.

Then my daughter got it last Tuesday.

Fortunately, they didn't have to be absent from school.

We call fifth disease "Apple disease (りんご病) in Japanese because the cheeks of children who suffer from fifth disease turn red and it looks like an apple.

I thought the differences in how diseases are named is really interesting.



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9/11/2016

The Scream of cucumber

When I prepared breakfast, I found an interesting thing.

I cut a cucumber, then I found the cut end looked like a something famous.


I told my husband:

"Look! Do you think it looks familiar?"

"Oh!"

He immediately understood what I wanted to say, then he started drawing a picture on some white paper.

"This is it!"

We laughed to see his picture.

This is "the Scream" by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, no, it is "The Scream of Cucumber"!



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9/09/2016

The important decision on our lives

My parents came to our house yesterday because they attended "grandparents day" held at my 6-year-old daughter's nursery school.

The grandparents of the eldest students in the nursery school were able to join in the event.

Children played with their grandparents and they entertained them with their songs and a cup of tea.

My daughter and parents were really looking forward to the event.

And I was also waiting for their coming because I wanted to consult with my mother about my new idea.

It is about my daughter's music lesson.

She goes to the YAMAHA's music school once a week.

I had been also the YAMAHA's music school student for 32 years.

I learned how to play the Electone which is an electric organ produced by Yamaha corporation.

I have an Electone called "STAGEA", so I wanted my children to learn how to play it.

But recently, her teacher told us that we need to consider the next class because their children's beginner course will end next April.

In the children's class, they use Electone, but we need to decide which instrument we choose, piano or Electone by the time the next course will start.


I changed my mind that I wanted my daughter to learn how to play the piano.

I love playing the Electone very much, but I have been envy the piano.

There are some reasons why I am envy it.

When we play the Electone, we usually use the pre-imputed sound data.

If we don't have it, we can't play the Electone nicely.

In my point of view, I have a conclusion that playing the piano needs more musical talent and it can be more useful for my daughter's future life in every situations than Electone.

But we have to sell our Electone to buy a piano economically.

It is a tough decision for me because I love my Electone.

My daughter told me that she likes playing Electone and she wants to keep practicing it from now on.

I wasn't able to decide whether I should respect my daughter's thought or I persuade her to change her mind.

In fact, if my daughter would agree with my idea, I also want to start practicing piano with her.

I have always wanted to play the piano.

If I could play the piano with my daughter, it would be surely fun for me.

I told all of my thought to my mother.

She told me:

"I can find the answer just by looking at you. You want to try it, right? Give it a try! You already found the answer through 32 years. Your daughter likes playing the piano, right? When we went to the appliance store, she was playing the electric piano all the time while we were at the store. I am sure that she will like the piano."

I felt like I was able to see the blue sky behind the dark cloud.

I was worried that my mother might misunderstood that I regretted that I had learned how to play the Electone.

Actually, I don't regret it, I rather appreciate my mother that she made me go the Electone lessons.

I didn't have to worry about it.

My mother understood my thoughts well and she pushed me to make a decision.

Whenever I couldn't make important decisions, she always got my number.

My mother also praised my daughter a lot:

"You can play the Electone very well! But I am sure that you will be a good piano player. You always go to the electric piano department and try playing it, right? I am sure you like it!"

After my parents came home, I asked my daughter:

"Do you want to play the piano?"

"Yes! I want to try it."

She answered.

I was surprised to hear that and asked her again:

"Really? Did you change your mind? Do you allow me to sell our Electone?"

"I feel lonely, but OK. I am looking forward to practising the piano."

"All right! If you start going to the piano school, I also want to start practisig the piano. Let's do our best together! I want to practise it forever."

I told her.

"Yeah, me too!"

She smiled at me.

My husband agreed with me.

I worried that we need money to buy a new piano and pay the lesson fee for the piano school.

He said:

"You don't worry about it. We can solve it to work harder. You think it is good for our daugher's future, right? "

I am really happy and appreciate my mother and him to understand my idea.

I really look forward to our new try and hope that it would become our best decision of our lives.




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9/07/2016

Where has the typhoon gone?

I received the email from my 7-year-old son's elementary school yesterday morning.

It said that they won't prepare school lunch today (Thursday) and parents have to prepare their lunch
because school might be closed due to the approaching the typhoon.

But, when I went to my 6-year-old daughter's nursery school to pick her up, her teacher told me that they would prepare school lunch tomorrow.

I thought it was strange that the correspondence about school lunches was different in the elementary school and the nursery school even though both of them are managed by our city.

Actually, the scale of the typhoon was small, and it was already downgraded to a extratropical cyclone at 3am today.

Unless the storm warning is in effect for our city, school isn't closed.

I have to prepare my son's lunch today.

I understand that the teachers at his school just played it safe, but it was just troublesome to me.



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9/05/2016

I highly recommend this Yoga app

I wrote about Yoga in my past post : http://a-o-j-m.blogspot.jp/search?q=yoga

I like doing Yoga very much.

Before I wrote that I bought the Yoga DVD and tried it.

It was for about 21 minutes.

The contents were really good, but 21 minutes was a little long for me, so I couldn't keep doing it.

I didn't exercise at all for a while.

But when I was suffering from the epidemic conjunctivitis, I realized that I need to exercise to stay fit.

I found the Yoga app called "Yoga studio" on internet.

The reputation of the app was quite good, so I bought it for my iPad for 450 yen even though I rarely paid app.

I will get straight to the point, it was really excellent and I highly recommend the Yoga studio.


1. It provides a lot of classes and I can download my favorite classes.

2. It includes a lot of short time classes, so I can keep doing it without difficulty.

3. It tracks my class history, it encourages me a lot.



4. The narration is spoken only in English, so it is good listening practice for me.


Even I could continue using it every day for 2 weeks.

I would like to keep doing it to stay fit and reduce my stress.


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9/02/2016

Children's melancholy in the new semester

The new semester of my 7-year-old son's elementary school began on September 1.

When he left home yesterday mornig, he said:

"Oh, I'm so nervous to go to school."

I was surprised to hear that and asked him:

"Why are you so nervous? Do you have something special events today?"

"No, I only haven't got used to going to school yet. Bye mom!"

"See you."

I said to him.

I had forgot the feeling which children have at the beginning of the new semester.

After he came home, I asked him:

"How was school?"

"It was fun!"

He answered.

In fact, one of my friend told me yesterday that her daughter hasn't gone to school since September 1.

She said her daughter hadn't been able to talk her classmates at all because she had troubles with her classmate 4 years ago.

She had put up with going to school for 4 years, but finally, she refused to go to school from September.

My friend is worried about her very much and I feel sorry to hear that, but I could only listen to her story.

She said there are only few facilities where they accept children who don't want to go to school.

A lot of children who were got hurt start refusing to attend school from September.

In the worst case, some children choose suicide before the new semester begins.

I really hope my frined will be able to find the best way for her daughter with her.




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9/01/2016

My 7-year-old son's masterpiece ~ GeGeGe no Kitaro~

My 7-year-old son drew a picture of GeGeGe no Kitaro (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎) at the children's house yesterday.

GeGeGe no Kitaro is the famous and popular manga written by Shigeru Mizuki.

It is old and I also liked watching the anime when I was a child.

My children love it TV very much.

He showed his drawings to me proudly.

"Look! They are Kitaro and Ittanmomen (一反木綿 / いったんもめん)."


He cut each of them and made them to be able to connect.

This Kitaro is made to be able to attack his enemy by one of his special moves called "Kaminokebari (髪の毛針)".



 I was impressed with his idea.

I want him to try drawing and making something like this.

I believe creating something will grow children's creativity and imagination.


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