School

Hannah started school in at the end of August and has now completed her first term. This was initially attending 9:30 - 12:30 2 days per week, but in the last weeks of term we put her in the 'extended hours' program until 3pm to give Rika more time.

Hannah dressed up for her class' Haloween party on Oct-30th


Hannah's class had an excursion to Yoyogi park on Nov-24th. They all enjoyed looking for acorns and leaves.


Hannah with her friend Rintaro-kun. Hannah seems to like looking after him. At the end of the excursion Hannah went over to Rintaro and gave him a big hug.


Rintaro-kun with his Mum. Rintaro is a cute and funny little boy. He calls Rika 'Hannah-mama'.


We had a parent-teacher meeting Dec-17th and received Hannah's first school report. She has settled-in well and is making good progress, although she doesn't yet speak much in English.

The next day Rika, Shimada-san and I all attended the school break-up party on the last day of the year. Here her class is singing the 'good-bye' song.




Then there was the 'Happy Holidays' concert. The 3 'little penguins' classes assembled in the basement gym and sang some songs in front of their proud parents.


One little penguin didn't join the group. When our Hannah was taken down to the gym with the rest of the class, she became upset, and I had to go and comfort her. So instead of joining the group, she sat on my lap by the side of the stage.


This is Lila-chan and Rintaro-kun from Hannah's class. Rintaro loves to dance and already has some cool moves.


It turns out that moving Hannah to the extended hours program in the last weeks traumatised her. In particular she didn't like being taken down at 1:30 to the nap room in the dungeon (basement) and being left in the dark to sleep. Most children cry at first and then get used to it, but our Hannah didn't and instead got more and more upset about being taken to school. Hence the tears at the break-up party when the class went down to the basement gym for the concert, and Hannah's refusal to give her teacher a good-bye hug on the last day!

During the holidays Hannah kept saying 'no school' and had too be reassured each day that she wasn't going to school. She is saying school is 'iyada' ('horrible')


Postscript: Hannah started back at school in January. We agreed with her teacher to stop taking her to the nap room, and kept telling Hannah. And after a few days it was back to 'school tanoshikatta' ('school was fun').