Samuel um.. Playgroup?

I don't even know what it's called. Something in Japanese... @_@

Anyway, it's like a playgroup run by the preschool that Juhee will be starting in April. It happens a few times per month on a Monday or Wednesday morning from 10:00-11:30, you must pre-register as there's limited space and there's a ¥100 per child fee. On the "to bring" list are drink (for child and mom), cap (for child for playing outside) and spare clothing.

A friend had signed us up a few weeks ago for the playgroup on Wednesday, Feb 16th, so I bundled up the kids, grabbed our bags with the "to bring" items and went on our way. As I'd learned from experience that "indoor shoes" isn't an item that goes on "to bring" item lists, I took indoor slippers for me and Juhee too. Smart, right? :)

Well, it turns out that at playgroup, no one wear indoor shoes / slippers. Sigh... You also don't need to bring a drink 'cause drinks are provided during snack time. Sigh... However, you do need to bring your own hand towel to dry your hands with after you wash your hands at the beginning of snack time. This is another one of those taken-for-granted-so-not-included-in-the-"to bring"-item-list things. Apparently, practically everyone carries a hand towel around with them. I started carrying a handkerchief around with me 'cause I heard that everyone carried a handkerchief around with them, but it looks like I'll have to start carrying around a hand towel too! I didn't have a hand towel with me so I panicked and used one of Sungjae's (wet) wipes to dry Juhee's hands with. It kinda worked. @_@ Later that day, I realized that I could have used my handkerchief or even one of the burp clothes I had in my bag. I panicked and was so focused on the fact that I didn't have a hand towel, I didn't think to even look through my bag! Sigh...

Most of it was free play time, very Montessori style, but the teacher led the kids in a few songs and told a story involving characters from a pot of oden (pic), followed by washing hands and snack time. Of course there was cute tablecloth for the tables! I wonder if this happens at all preschools??? The teacher even weighed and measured all of the kids and wrote the information down on a little piece of paper for the moms to take home!

Both Juhee and Sungjae had a great time. Juhee made a snowman that self-rights itself (simple and genius!), had fun drawing / cutting / pasting, reading books, playing with the many toys that were there, and even got to play outside for a bit before heading home. Sungjae had a great time putting everything he could get his hands on into his mouth (except for the soft baby toys, he wasn't interested in them!)! :) I actually ended up having to hold him for most of the time because he started putting small choke-able items into his mouth. :(

Almost every time I go out and meet people / attend something, I seem to make at least one mistake as we never seem to receive 100% of the information we need as there are so many things that are (culturally) taken for granted. This will probably be the case for many events for many years to come...

Lots of learning to do, just need to keep trying (and try not to get too discouraged)! :)