"Make & Play"

Another new experience... At Juhee's kindergarten (and apparently at most kindergartens in Japan although I can't verify this), there is an annual event called "Make & Play (つくってあそぼう). We received information on it but as it was all in Japanese ㅡㅡ; we weren't quite sure what to expect, other than that it's a family event and that you make things and then play with them.

Starting from a few weeks prior to the event, the kindergarten started collecting tissue boxes, plastic bottles, yogurt containers, toilet roll & paper towel insides (what are they called?!), cookie boxes, etc to make things with. Pretty cool, eh? Kids would take plastic bags of these things with them to school and then their teacher would take them to the "Hall" where they were all being collected in big boxes and they would sort them. A teacher came in with a few students as we finished our mom's meeting for the moms of Juhee's class so I was able to take a few pics. Sungjae got into the action too (bottom right pic) and was actually freaking out one of the older girls 'cause he kept on taking things out of one box and then either throwing it on the floor or putting it in the wrong box. ;)

On the day, there were probably about 10 different activities that you could do spread out across the classrooms upstairs and down, the big hall, and outside too (under tents as it was raining). It was amazing! The amount of work that went into organizing this event... My goodness! You basically go into which ever room / area that has the activity that you want to, do your thing, and then move on to the next one. For example, there was a room where kids could paint on really big sheets of paper and an area where kids (and parents) could sit and mold things out of clay. The "Hall", which had TONS of people in it making lots of really cool stuff like cars, planes, robots, etc had a really cool "man" in front of it made out of cardboard. It was amazing to see the kind of stuff people were making!

We started upstairs in Juhee's classroom where they had set up tables for kids to make slime. It was an easy, albeit messy one and I got to chat with a couple of the other moms from her class who were there at the same time as us. Of course, most of the other moms had come prepared and had brought a cup or some sort of container to take the slime back home in whereas I didn't. :( I had to carry it around with me in the flimsy paper cup that it was created in and some of it later ended up getting all over my bag on our way home. :( Juhee played with it a bit at home and then I threw it away. In the sewing room where you could create scrunchies, finger puppets, etc, Juhee and I got to do a bit of sewing. She created a little bunny finger puppet and a house thing (see pic). It was hard though 'cause I didn't come prepared with a pencil or markers for drawing on cloth with so I had to borrow from other moms. It was also hard 'cause the room was packed and there were lots of sharp objects (scissors, needles, pencils, rulers...) so it was hard trying to keep Sungjae out of trouble while helping Juhee complete her projects. The teachers actually ended up having to help us, which is what they're there for, but I still felt bad, well, more like inadequate. There was a room for creating costumes upstairs too but we didn't go into that one. I wasn't up for the challenge.

Downstairs, they had the room with large sheets of paper for the kids to paint on, the clay area, the room to make things out of all of the things brought from homes, a woodwork area complete with saws and lots of random sizes of wood, and a paper craft area which is where we ended up last. I wish we'd gone here first 'cause they were easy, simple projects that Juhee and I would have both enjoyed and could easily do! Juhee liked the necklace and flowers but as we got there at the end, the teacher's very kindly showed us how to make them and gave us the supplies so we can make it at home as they had to finish up. Juhee had fun making the necklace later with me at home and we haven't made the flowers yet, but hopefully we will soon (before I forget how to do it!). :)

Alas, I guess it was meant to be as we ended up meeting the Japanese mom who is married to an English man and is perfectly bilingual, the only other completely fluent English speaking mom at the kindergarten. She then introduced me to another mom who is 3rd generation Korean so speaks a bit of Korean, some English, fluent Japanese and is part of the PTA type mom's group.

It was a hard, stressful morning, completely different to what I had expected in a good and bad way. Good 'cause there were just so many awesome activities and I was just blown away at the amount of work that had gone into it (the kids were let out of school early the previous day so the teachers could prepare) and the level of creativity that Japanese 3-5 year olds and their parents have. As it was a family event, I thought that Sungjae would be able to have fun, but I was wrong on that one. I had to constantly stop him from touching things so it was really hard on him and me. I also made it more stressful on myself 'cause I wanted to go to every room so Juhee could make an "informed decision" but I think I just ended up stressing her and myself out. I really wish I had spent some time looking through the information that had been sent home but there was just so much Japanese and it was handwritten by whichever teacher was in charge of the room, so it was hard to decipher. Next year, I'll know better and be better prepared!!!