Mom Teacher Meeting

Here, they're not called Parent Teacher Meetings, they're called Mom Teacher Meetings. They're not in the evenings, they're in the afternoons. And no, dads are not expected to take time off to be there. Involvement in school is very much part of a mom's job although it is becoming more of something that dads are expected to get involved in now too.

The mom who usually translates most of the letters from Juhee's preschool forgot to tell me about the Mom Teacher Meetings so I a~lmost missed it! I was grateful that the mom at the same preschool bus stop mentioned that she was going so I could look into it. Juhee's teacher was very understanding and scheduled a last minute meeting for me even though registration for the optional meetings ended weeks ago. So on July 12th, with the Chu family (from San Jose, CA) babysitting our two, I rushed off to the meeting (Peter was at his school downtown).

I didn't understand everything that she said, but it was nice to kind of chat with her and (try to) discuss a few things. One thing that Juhee's teacher was concerned about was Juhee's stress levels. She said that there would be times when something would happen with other kids and Juhee would try to tell her what happened but she just couldn't understand. She could see the frustration that Juhee was experiencing in her not being able to communicate in Japanese and her teachers not being able to understand her English. Of course, this news broke my heart. :( I knew she having language issues but wasn't sure of the details... She was very happy to hear that Juhee looks forward to going to preschool everyday because she enjoys singing and dancing / hand-motions and playing outside. There are still some things that Juhee's not used to - like having to use indoor shoes, putting them on the shelf above where her outdoor shoes go (in the pic, guess who's shoes are the only ones not in the right place), taking home her hand towel and gargle cup everyday, etc - but she's learning.

It was also interesting to be able to visit her classroom again. One of the things that was really interesting was to see what the kids make out of all of the "trash" that the school collects. Here, I never throw away milk & juice cartons, yogurt cups, egg cartons (sold here in packs of 10 eggs btw, not a dozen), plastic drink bottles (called "PET bottles"), toilet paper & kitchen towel roll insides (ha ha sorry can't remember what they're called), and cereal & snack boxes because I can send them to Juhee's school and the kids make things with them. Pretty cool, eh? The various items are sorted into two baskets in one area of the classroom. One of the things that they made were fish out of styrofoam egg cartons which they taped paperclips onto to make into a fishing game using a stick & a piece of string with a magnet attached to it. Another thing that they made were lanterns out of clear plastic dessert cups, string, and origami as well as toilet paper roll inside versions too for the "Summer Festival". The kids also enjoy making robots, vehicles, etc out of the boxes, yogurt cups, etc.

Another interesting thing was to be able to hear about and see what Juhee enjoys doing during her time there. She loves playing house and making pizza. I was so surprised to find out that they actually get to make and "bake" their own pizza! It's a montessori style school so I guess for the kids that want to, it's an option. Juhee loves baking pizza so I'm sure she would have wanted to take part. I'm sure even in something as familiar to her as helping with pizza (Pizza My Heart pizza making playdates in San Jose and sometimes at home), she would have had to wait and observe to find out what to do. But as soon as she figured it out, I'm sure she would have had a ball! :)

Juhee's teacher also showed me the book that she'd recently read to the class. It had both English and Japanese and she read it in Japanese but then said some of the words in English too for Juhee. She said she asked Juhee if she knew what the word "war" meant (assuming that she wouldn't know it in Japanese) and Juhee nodded her head. I told her there was no way that Juhee would know the word war. I don't think there are many 3 year olds that would! Anyway, I asked Juhee's teacher if I could read the book to the class in English sometime and she was very excited. :)

One big difference in schools here is that teachers work for much longer hours and they do things that teachers in the US would probably never dream of doing. Things like cleaning the whole school, working on Saturdays and Sundays, just to mention a few. After my meeting with Juhee's teacher, I saw two of the other teachers cleaning cubby-holes in their smocks so took a quick picture. They thought it was slightly embarrassing and very amusing that I thought teachers cleaning the school to be picture worthy. (The teacher on the left is actually a member of our church, one of the few Christian teachers at Juhee's Christian preschool.)

Hopefully at the next one, Juhee's teacher and I will be able to communicate better and Juhee will have settled in even more than she has already. We are very blessed to have such a caring, thoughtful teacher!