As, I am sure everyone knows by now, Branden will be entering the first grade at the beginning of the new school year. The new school year might start in August or early September in the US, however in Japan the new school year starts in the beginning of April. Now, as I have only been educated in the United States, and admittedly don't know too much about the "ins and outs of elementary school in Japan", I will just as I always have and do. I will use this blog and continue to type and tell "our" journey of entering the first grade in Japan. Everything I find out. All the mistakes I make, because I am sure there will be a few flubs, ha ha ha. So anyway here is where we are at this point. In September, we ran into some friends of ours at a local small shopette. The guy works with my husband. And they have 2 kids in elementary school, the same school B will be going to. So, anyway, the mom said to us at the bookstore that day. She said something to the effect of. "Branden will be going to the first grade this coming year, right?", My husband told them, yes he will. And then she said...."oh I imagine from November you will be *REALLY* busy then" Again, not knowing much about Japanese elementary schools, at all. I just smiled, nodding my head and said "yes, you are right". I asked my husband about that and he said, in Japan, parents usually start getting ready for elementary school in November. Again, it's all new to me. Now on October 31st, Halloween day, as I picked up Branden from the bus meeting point, where all students and mothers were. About 60 mom's in total, plus kids. The thing of the biggest topic for the big class, was getting ready for elementary school. The buzz was mostly about backpacks. I have received so much advice. So much advice and funny because some advice conflicts with other advice. Oh brother, ha ha ha. : ) And I think it's pretty obvious how confusing all this, is to this American mommy. So anyway, on Friday, today, Branden came home with a packet of about 4 backpack maker catalog's (from the 4 main makers). And I flipped through them. Thought deeply about what all the mother's had told me. Sigh, grumble, grumble. Ha ha. I will get this all sorted out, I am sure. The pic above is of the catalogs all wrapped up. : )
2008, these are all the newest models. And for those of you in the US, what is the price range for backpacks in Japan? Cheapest ones are about, $180.00 US, and they go all the way up to about $600.00 and some can even be more expensive as well. It all just depends. Some are leather, and some are not. That's what I found out. The basic colors and models are. Girls wear red, plain red. And boys wear plain black. Some boys, I gather from the mom down the street says, very few boys at our school, wear blue (I wonder why that is, hmm). Most of them use black. Double sigh from me. In the US here's how the backpack stuff goes down, your parents go and buy you a nice $20.00 or $30.00 Jansport backpack, or if you're younger say kindergarten or elementary school age, maybe a Care Bear or Strawberry shortcake one, if you are a girl. And boy's maybe choose a Spiderman or Superman. You replace them every year, so no big deal. No life altering big deal, like I said. Certainly nothing to worry, fret or have a stroke about. But in Japan, the kids must use them for the entire 6 years and given the price, they have to last that. So, as you can tell, we have been in deep backpack discussion mode at our house.
Now here is the paragraph where I will share every one's advice, that I have been given. And heck I do appreciate all the advice I got from my friends.
#1, everyone seems to agree on one thing. They have all told me to buy a quality one. Again not the most expensive. But they told me to buy one that was leaning on the more expensive side, rather then the cheaper side. And they said, the cheapest ones do tend to break and fall apart. So, after hearing that same advice from about 6-8 ladies who already have kids in elementary school. Plus they also went to school in Japan, themselves, I am inclined to believe this. So, we agree about this.
#2, one of my friends, told me to buy a backpack that closed more in the middle of the bag, versus closing on the bottom. Now, nobody else has mentioned a thing about this to me at all. So I am taking this with a grain of salt. But again, the advice was appreciated. Not sure, if I am going to follow it though. : )
#3, my good friend, her older daughter is in elementary school. And her other daughter attends the same yochien as B. She is really beautiful, by the way. Her style is exceptional. And she gave me a ton of advice the day I went to pick up B from the field trip. She's the lady who brought us the case of mangoes when I had that BBQ in the summer, if you recall. So I listened to her advice intently. She said, they have automatic closures on the better bags. And I didn't know that. And she also said this advice. She said, all the mom's are buying the backpacks already and all the more popular ones will be sold out by the end of December, so she told me, "please Gina buy yours quickly", because the popular ones go outta stock quickly. This advice, I will 100% listen to. So my plan is to buy ours before December 1st. My husband and I have decided November we will research and make this our month to buy our backpack. We don't wanna go to buy one, only to find it's outta stock. That would totally suck! She also told me to buy my school supplies by the end of December as well. My god, I thought, this lady is like an elementary school, guru, if she's kind enough to dole me out some advice, I better listen! : )
Her final thing, has got stuck in my head and I can't get it out. What is it? I'll tell you. She said, when her older daughter started the first grade last year. All the mom's bought all the cute fancy red ones. the ones with the flowers, and patterns on them and floral stitching etc.. And the mom's of the boy's did the same. And at the end of the first week, the kids all asked their parents if they could just have the basic red and basic black instead. Meanwhile, the parents had bought the more fancy ones and were shocked and actually she said, many took the bags back to the shops and asked for exchanges for the more basic model. And yes, as she was saying this to me. I sat wondering, they gave them an exchanges? Ha ha ha. But, again, I was just listening. Sigh. So anyway. That's what I have been told so far. And a few more good points as well, but they would take too long to type out. Sorry.
So, with all the good Japanese girlfriends, I have. And this time it totally pays to have good Japanese girlfriends, because they really, really know all this stuff. And they really jump in and help me. And boy do I need it and appreciate it. So where am I, at in terms of the backpack? Well, we know we will buy it by the end of November for sure. We don't wanna drag our feet with that. And we know, we are going to buy one that leans to the expensive side. Just because it has to last the full 6 years. However, I wanted to buy Branden a really cute pattern one I saw in the catalog, however I worry the advice would be true and B would hate it after a while and wanna change it to a basic color, with no pattern. Hmm. Because whether we admit it or not. All kids wanna sorta be the same as their fellow classmates. Nobody wants to be the odd man out so to speak. And if I sent him with the only odd or different color bag, I wouldn't want him to hate it. So anyway that's where I am about the bag. A lot of thought and searching is going to be going on this month! : )
Final thought about the bag and this is what a coworker of my husbands had told us. He said this. A sign of a good Japanese elementary school backpack is it is going to have a **6 year warranty on it.** And anything with less, proves it won't last. And yes, as I flipped the catalog, I saw many with only 4 year warranty's on them. And many had 6 year warranty's on them. Also, consider Japanese backpacks are about 20 to 25 pounds. They are freakishly heavy. So also consider the weight of the backpack. Sigh, so much thought has to go into this purchase. Anyway, again that's where we are in the backpack buying journey! Ha ha ha. : )
Branden has a medical exam to take next week. It's one of those "mass cattle call" type exams for all 6 year olds entering the first grade in April. His good friend, Genki-kun will be taking the exam with him too, since they will be attending the same elementary school together. They have that medical exam on Tuesday November 6th. And on November 12th, I think is when Branden will have to go back and all the 6 year olds who will be entering elementary school, they will be taking a test. They want to know how much your child knows. It's a knowledge test. I am not worried about either test. The medical or the aptitude test. Branden is pretty smart. Really smart actually. He reads and writes in both English and Japanese. Speaks in both English and Japanese. Although between you and I, he prefers English. Ha ha ha. And I hate to say it but, this is where I am thanking my lucky stars we started him in Kumon in July. Just by looking at that rather thick stack of work sheets he has finished. I have absolutely zero worries, if he will be okay or not. I know he will be fine. He'll ace that test come November 12th. And come on, us mom's can be proud of our kids, right? Of course we can! : ) Heck, we'd be odd, if we weren't! He he he! : )
He can read all this. For not even being in first grade yet, he reads really well. When we go to the store, he points, at a bottle and says, ...yakitori! Mikan. Ha ha ha. He can read it and it's really helpful actually. Ha ha ha. His reading is spot on for his age. In both languages actually.
And as the teacher at Kumon quiz's him, and you can see his score here. It's always 10 out of 10. he never misses a beat with regarding his reading. And honestly, the relief this gives me. Phew, I won't have to worry about B at school, now. Phew! : )
His writing, he does writing drills at Kumon all the time. he does know how to write his name in both English and Japanese. And considering, his level will only get higher before April rolls around. I am really pleased. So here it goes, the beginning of our journey to elementary school begins! : )
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