Lessons

The main reason we are in New Zealand and not rural Japan right now is to give the children a chance to experience some "kiwi" education. Like all weeks so far this week has been full of learning experiences for them. They started swimming lessons on Wednesday and despite the fact that they swallowed half the pool, they seemed to have a great time and the small class sizes (5 children per class rather than the 15 or so they seem to have in Japan....) should mean they learn quickly.
My mother has also been showing the children how to use a natural resource, flax, to weave baskets. There is a reason why the finished product is not featured! I'm glad she has the patience to sit with them to give them this experience.

Today I went and watched the children's assembly at school. I was impressed by the huge number of parents there and also by the confidence the children showed. Both my son and daughter won a "cooperation award" so they were very excited! My daughter has a partially deaf girl in her class and so they are learning a lot of sign language which they took pride in showing us today. It was a nice chance to see the children with their classes and see a little of what they are doing in class.