Sunday, March 29, 2009

All over... at last!

A few days late, but... we all survived my son's last day at kindergarten and the ceremony that went with it. My son managed to receive his certificate with the appropriate bowing, holding and folding and I managed to get through my speech with a minimum of tears. Although I rubbish all the ceremonies here a lot, I actually think they are very important for the children in terms of finishing an era and signally the start of another era. The 18 children in the class will all split up and go to 9 different primary schools so it was the last time that we will see a lot of the children - apart from random sightings at the supermarket etc. To be honest there will be a few parents that I won't mind not seeing, but a lot of the mothers became good friends so I hope we will be able to keep in contact. It was nice to be accepted as a "mother" rather than a "foreigner".
My son also received a special trophy for not missing one day of kindergarten all year. I guess that makes up for the 3 months he missed last year when we went to New Zealand.
Graduation ceremony finished... entrance ceremony to come - can hardly wait!

6 comments:

  1. Don't you both look great! And very relieved! I do hope you all have a happy elementary school experience.

    We are heading for JHS which is entirely uncharted territory so we are all a bit nervous this week....

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  2. What a gorgeous photo of the mother and son!! Jeepers - is he tall or what?!! No pressure to play basketball there. Congratulations on graduating Kindergarten. I guess it is the end of an era eh? Haven't got to that point myself but I can see that it would be sad thinking that there is no going back - when you're in it that is sometimes appealing but they do grow up - and that ain't appealing at all!! Especially when they know so much better than you!!

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  3. How very Japanese mother you look :) And Masaki still surprises me with his height. Will the other kids every start growing - or is it the other way round.

    Well done on your speech. Not looking forward to the kids getting bigger and getting kindy responsibilities.

    After the holidays are over and Marina is all settled in at kindy for the whole day we should do lunch - although doing it with your two would be fine too - seeing as they can both talk and keep their food on their plate!! Can't wait for that.

    Talk to you soon.

    And - no Granny K episode today, except that sister in law rang again and has spoken to her hub. We will see what happens from there...

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  4. Vicky - thanks for the nice comment. The second child starting school doesn't feel anywhere near as stressful as the first! I'm sure you will learn to enjoy the junior high school experience too. Fortunately I have another 4 years till I have to go through that!
    Jo - welcome back... one era down and a zillion to go! I'm sure the time will race by for you too and you will be out of kindy before you know it. That is of course provided you don't feel the need to add to the population any more!
    GW: Masaki's height surprised me each day too... I can't imagine what he is going to be like at school graduation! Looking forward to lunch soon - holidays here finish on teh 8th for Emily and the 13th for Masaki. Then I am a free woman... I wish!

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  5. Poor Yoshi is the experimental model - we make all our mistakes on him so that Harry can have a simple existence. It sucks being the oldest sometimes....

    What grade is Emily in now? Harry's going to be a 3rd grader.

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  6. Hi Vicky,
    Emily is in the same grade as Harry. I have been enjoying watching the identical things happening at his school that have been happening here. We can "graduate" together!
    As for the cups.. the cheapest I could find them was about 800 yen each... a bit too much for 80 students! There may be cheaper ones somewhere that I haven't found yet. Good luck hunting!

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