"Moto"

Friday, October 16th was a special day for Juhee.

In the morning we went to SCVJCC to help babysit during their bi-weekly English Outreach program. I assist the main teacher and her preparation is amazing!

The first Friday she prepared rice, salted salmon, and brought different types of toppings to sprinkle onto rice balls. When she told me at first that making rice balls was the craft of the day for a group of toddlers aged 21mths to four year olds I was in shock. The rice was hot and sticky... How were the kids going to touch it and roll it into a ball? Not only roll it into a ball but put salmon inside the middle too??? I didn't know about the cling film. :) After helping the kids, I made my own rice balls too - for the first time! The first one looked more like a ball than the triangular shape it's supposed to be and took about 10 times longer than the teacher's but I did get better. I can't wait to make more! (I sooo regretted not having my camera with me!)



This particular Friday she prepared steamed sweet potatoes and home made play-doh. While I stayed outside in the playground with the younger kids, the older kids peeled and mashed the sweet potatoes inside. We don't normally have school-aged kids, but we did that day so had about twice the number of kids to look after. Thankfully, the main criers that day didn't cry. :)

The main craft for the day was to make little balls out of the mashed sweet potatoes and then sprinkle black sesame seeds on top. They were delicious and Juhee enjoyed very many along with goldfish. The other toddlers were saying "moto" when they wanted more so when Juhee said "more" I asked her to say "moto" and she did! HER FIRST JAPANESE WORD - MOTO! So funny that it was in a situation involving food 'cause Juhee loves to eat. She had sooo many of those little green sweet potato balls. :)

Friday was the 2nd time I went to help and like the first time, I felt like I received much more than I gave. Thanks to our move being delayed by a couple of weeks, I think I'll be able to help out one more time before we move to Dallas.