March has come and gone!
Busy month for us. The biggest thing for us was Christopher graduating from high school. I am so proud of him. I think it was very hard for him to start high school. He started just 4 months after Hisao died! We were all in a very hard place and this poor kid, just 15 years old, had to face a completely new environment, new school, new staff and new friends. Not easy under normal circumstances. But he managed and actually did very well at the school. He has a lot of good memories and made one or two good friends there! Next month he will start college, another new adventure for him!
I've also done a load of shopping this month. Because Christopher has had uniforms for the past six years he has no other clothes! At home he lives in track suits, he has one pair of jeans and a couple of tops. So I took him shopping. We had to buy a suit for the entrance ceremony, we got a full set, suit, shirt, tie and shoes. He tried it on yesterday, looks very smart. (I'll post some photos another day). Also managed to get him some smart casual clothes for everyday wear. He still needs some more T shirts, it gets so hot here in the summer that changing everyday is normal.
Hannah has finished her first year of junior high school. I am very dissapointed with the school and rather worried about the coming year! There is little to no discipline in the classes. Hannah complains about the constant noise when the teachers are trying to teach. There doesn't seem to be an atmosphere of studying, more like playing around. This was reflected in the end of term test results. The average mark was 55% on the main subjects. When Christopher attended the same school the average was 60 to 80%.
I am worried that the kids who are struggling now will not get the help they need to do the 2nd grade work. If the study is to difficult then the kids will get bored which in turn leads to more class disruption which means that the kids who are trying to study don't get a chance. I have said to the teachers that the kids disrupting the class need to be removed from the class. But in Japan everybody has the right to an education. But at this rate it will end up with nobody getting an education! Looks like I am in for a long year ahead!
The two older boys are doing well. David is improving his cooking! He can get very creative when he wants to! I've been trying to do more cooking but somehow it is nice having a meal served for you! Mikey developing new games for teaching. Must be working because I am hearing a lot more English being spoken by the kids and a lot of laughter! But on a sadder note a few of our students have left us this month. They have graduated from high school and are going onto university. So it is happy/sad feeling. Most of these kids have been coming for a few years, so saying goodbye can be hard!
Tomorrow is April first, I will try to write more than one post a month.
The spell checker stopped working so if there are spelling mistakes.....sorry!
