Latest Action Pack...

There is a special edition Easter version of Action Pack out, can't wait to see what is in it!

Action Pack

BIG Kids Magazine...

It arrived! Ebi-kun scuttled off with it before I had chance to look at it properly...

BIG which stands for Bravery Imagination Generosity, is a pretty unique type of magazine, it consists of work which pairs and adult artist of some kind with a child artist. For example, this issue there is a 'person tree' drawn by a child and a poem written by an adult that goes with the drawing. There is a lot of contributions from artists of all sizes from all over the world and collaborations such as the treasure boats. Ebi-kun's treasure boat was included in the poster that Lilla A put together, can you spot it?

Ebi-kun was very excited to find his ship in the magazine, he says that he feels happy and like he is famous! The magazine makes good reading and it laid out in an artistic fashion plus the paper quality is lovely too. They encourage you to write in the magazine, complete drawings and your own projects, this is the only problem I have with it, and just because I can't bring myself to write in books, it just feels wrong!

To get your hands on the latest edition of BIG kids magazine, you can purchase it here

The cover is by artist Jacqui Stockdale and Makaela aged 8

Spring Yellow

I have just listed some new brooches in the shop and made this bright and cheery treasury to celebrate, can you spot one of mine in there?

I have also added a discount code for newsletter subscribers, so if you like getting a discount (who doesn't) you can subscribe here...

Name

Email

Friends...

We are lucky, I met H when I was pregnant with Ebi-kun, she was equally as round and uncomfortable as she was pregnant with her second, the boys were due about the same time but Ebi-kun was a week early and H-kun hung around for a couple of weeks so there is about 3 weeks between them. They came over to play on Wednesday and the weather was lovely so I tried out the new oven and made pizza, the kids ate theirs outside.

Then yesterday we had a playgroup play date. I recently moved the group from Yahoo over to Facebook and in doing that we have found ourselves some new members, yesterday we met three new families along with some of the old ones. The kids have all grown up together so there is no awkwardness when they meet, they just get straight into it and off to play. We basically have two rules with the playgroup, the first is that all the members are raising their children to be bilingual Japanese/English and that when we meet as a group only English is used.

In a country where those who are different stick out like a sore thumb, it is great for the kids to know that they are not weird or anything and that there are other 'hafu' (mixed race) kids like themselves and it is also good for them to have somewhere to use English, it is funny how they automatically use English and there is a sometimes a slip into Japanese but it is good to that they are comfortable using both languages.

If you happen to be in the Saitama area, are raising bilingual children and want to join the group, you can find us over here.

looking back...

These last two years have been a steep learning curve for me, putting Ebi-kun into yochien not having much of a clue about anything!

Although this post is about kindy in Japan I think much of the information is transferable.

The lessons I learnt....

Not all yochien are equal! Here we have yochien and hoikuen, hoikuen is for children of working parents and often the only way to get in is to have a squillion bits of official paperwork and it is usually more difficult to get a place at hoikuen. Children can also start hoikuen from a baby whereas yochien is usually a two or three year program. In more built up areas it can be difficult to get a spot at yochien too and I have got friends who camped out the night before application day so that they could get a place for their child.

I don't really have any experience of hoikuen so I will focus on yochien. If you are sending your child to kindy next year then ask around and find out what you can about your local options, if you find another mama with the same ideals as yourself who has a kid in kindy then squeeze as much information out of her as possible. I was lucky, I have a friend whose kids went through the same yochien and she knows what I am like and so she recommended the kindy to us, even though it is not nearby it was definitely the best choice for us. I also had a friend whose kids are at a different yochien and we got to drop by a couple of times and I knew that place was not for us.

If you don't have money to throw around then check out the uniform costs and hidden costs that they throw at you. Ebi-kuns uniform was blue shorts, a jacket (one for summer and one for winter) and a hat. They also have a coloured class cap. They wear the jacket to and from yochien and for official functions the rest of the time they can wear their own tops. They also have a sports T-shirt for big events and wear white pumps inside. I don't remember how much it all came too but it wasn't too bad and he wore the same clothes for the two years. Other yochien have similar set up, one near to our house has the kids in a tracksuit and the posh one has the kids in Burberry jackets and felt Madeleine style hats, the uniform, leather bag and extras for that kindy is over ¥100,000 ($1,200), that is a lot of money to shell out! and the uniform is more than likely dry-clean only. eek!

All the yochiens in our area run a bus service, which is great for us but it can be a pain for me to get to the yochien by myself, making friends with some of the local moms really helped, in fact now, I usually get a message a couple of days before telling me who is going to come and pick me up!

You also need to consider what you feel is important for the child to get out of the yochien, some are purely play based others are very academic, I would say Ebi-kuns falls in-between. I was happy to see that they have a well stocked library, over 7000 books and the children can take out 2 books a week. They also have a book of the month (one of the hidden extras) where they read the book together in class and then they get to bring the book home. The books are carefully chosen and many are award winning, they also have authors come in talk about the books to the parents.
They are also very big on creative arts, although there is a bit of 'cookie cutter' crafting going on but mostly they are also given a free rein and encouraged to come up with their own ideas and designs. For me, this is an important issue, especially when we live in a country where they try and squash everyone into the same mold. They also learn to read and write and to play a harmonica but all of this is intermixed with a lot of free play and running around. The yochien is set in a shrine and they have a lot of space, not just the yard but the areas around it including the gardens.

Discipline was something I didn't really think about, Ebi-kun, in general is not a naughty kid, from the time I have spent at the yochien I could see that the sensei's were firm but kind and the kids were well behaved.

Somethings did drive me crazy, like the amount of times we had to go in and then spend 3 hours to do something that could have been finished in 30 minutes, an insane amount of faffing around! For some of the moms I could see that for them, it was part of their social calendar, time to sit and gossip, not worry about whether the rice was cooked or the futons were out. For me it was just an annoying waste of time. Grumble, Grumble.

Our yochien is old but well maintained, I am not sure how structurally sound it is, as far as I know, non of the buildings were damaged in the earthquake but that might be something you want to consider.

So, all in all, I would say it has been a positive experience, Eni-kun certainly loved it and it has prepared us both for school. Although school will bring a whole new set of challenges, having some idea about the way the system works here is a plus. We had intended to keep Ebi-kun at home until he started school and do Montessori with him but it was the lack of playmates that actually made the decision for us, it turned out to be the right decision.

Next, is school, a whole new ball game and yes, I am still putting labels on things....

How did you choose your kindy or not as the case might be?

Chewbacca storage tin - tutorial

This is a completely no sew project and pretty easy to do. This is not one of the projects from the Star Wars Craft Book but was inspired from the book. The book has a tissue box wookie but that wouldn't work for us because the boxes are a different shape here so we took the idea and applied it somewhere else. This tutorial doesn't give measurements because it all depends on the size of tin you use, it is more of a how-to!

Supplies:

Faux fur

felt in brown, white, silver/grey, red

empty storage tin (dull any sharp edges before starting)

goggly eyes

black button

all purpose glue

ruler

cutter/scissors

Cut a piece of fur the same height as the tin and long enough to wrap all the way around but with a small overlap. Glue it to the tin.

If your tin had a lid then cut a circle of fur out which is slightly bigger than your lid, glue it in place.

Prepare the face. Cut two circles of white felt out that a twice the size of you goggly eyes, glue the eyes to them.

Cut an oval of red felt out for the mouth and a second oval in white, the white one should be a little smaller then the red. Cut the white piece in half in a ziggy-zaggy way to make the teeth and glue in place. Use a black button for the nose, then glue all the face parts to the tin.

To make the belt cut a piece of brown felt, make sue it will fit around the tin at an angle, decide the width by looking at your tin to see if the proportions look right. Cut a second strip, the same length but one third of the width. Now cut some blocks in grey felt. Again, just eye-ball it.

Place the grey pieces on the widest brown strip and glue in place, then glue the thinner brown strip on top.

Finish off by gluing the strip to the tin, the top back so that it is loose around the front.

Use the tin to store your Star Wars characters so that your mommy doesn't step on them!

For more tutorials, check out the tutorial page HERE.

I'm bored......good!

It is spring break here at the moment so a certain little boy needs to be kept occupied, or does he? 

I feel like there is so much pressure on parents to keep their children busy at all times, they need after school classes and activities to do for the time they haven't got classes, computer games and TV, so many ways to keep them entertained. Of course, with the internet there is an abundance of activities and projects for you to prepare for your little ones but how much do they actually need?

Let's rewind a bit, this is what set me off thinking about this... yesterday I had quite a bit of computer work to do so I started to feel a bit guilty for leaving Ebi-kun to his own devices, but you know what, he wasn't at all bothered. He spent most of the time building a Jedi temple with his blocks and Lego and making his own Star Wars - episode 7. 

A bit later in the day the new oven arrived and Ebi-kun couldn't wait for me to get the thing out so he could claim the box. I gave him the other card packaged pieces too, so he got busy, drew up a plan of what was going to attached where and made himself a fighter-ship-1, his friend came round to play so they took the fighter-ship-1 upstairs and it kept them amused for over an hour.

I started thinking about when I was a kid, back in those days, so very, very long ago, there were only 4 channels on the TV and kids programs had a limited time slot, so there was no sitting in front of the box all day, like it is so easy to do these days. If I ever dared to claim I was bored my mom would remind me that I could tidy my room (yeah right, I was never a that bored) or find something to do. 

Being creative and imaginative play was what I had, and I think this is often lost in this modern day of child rearing. Sometimes of course, me and my brothers would get into mischief but isn't that what kids are supposed to do? Mostly I remember making tents and dens with the bedsheets, re-enacting our favourite TV show of the time whether it be the A-team or The Fall Guy or making things using whatever we could find around the house.

So, is being bored a bad thing? 

I know many parents dread those magic words but really, I don't think so. A good dose of being bored can invite all kinds of creative ideas, pushing children to explore their mind and their environment, encouraging their creative side instead of being entertained in one way or the other. As an adult, being bored can also lead us to new things, that said, I never seem to have time to get bored, there is always something else on the to-do list to do!

Yes, Ebi-kun does watch TV and sometimes plays computer games but I keep a watchful eye on the amount of screen time and yes, I do organise lots of crafty activities or projects but I also keep his art area supplied with crafty goods so he can go and get creative whenever he likes and he has a good chunk of independent play each day. 

In a age where there is more and more pressure for us to raise well rounded children is keeping them entertained the whole time actually producing a well rounded child? I fear not, so forget all those boredom busting ideas/boredom jars and instead introduce.... 

Sit back and see what happens!

What do you think? Should children be allowed to get bored, I'd like to know your thoughts on the subject. Do you feel like you need to entertain your kids the whole time? let me know.

Give into the power of the crafty side....

When I see a book that I would like, either on Amazon or The Book Depository but don't *need* right away I tend to stick it in my shopping cart and wait for a special offer or discount code to come along in my inbox. That is what happened with this book, The Star Wars Craft Book. When I ordered it, I had full intentions of keeping it for Ebi-kun's birthday BUT (as my husband rightly said) Mommy couldn't wait that long! So we gave it to Ebi-kun as a graduation present.

Ebi-kun has recently joined the millions of little (and big) boys who wants to be a Jedi knight when he grows up and spend half the day firing Star Wars questions at me, and although I enjoy the films, a walking Star Wars encyclopedia I am not.

available on Amazon and The Book Depository

Anyway, back to the book, The Star Wars Craft Book, it is great! Although a lot of the projects can probably be found on the net, I still like the idea of having a book to flick through and of course that is easier for Ebi-kun too. There are over 40 projects covering all the films and many are adaptable so you could use the same technique but a different character.

Ebi-kun decided he wanted to make a Yoda first, I cut out the felt but he did all the sewing and stuffing with the exception of the goggly eyes, it took him a couple of days but by the end he really had the hang of it and his stitched were small and neat. One thing I like about the book is that the finished projects are not 'adult perfect' if you know what I mean. As a kid, I used to love the TV programme Blue Peter, especially the crafty section but I would get frustrated because my 8 years old finished piece never looked like perfectly crafted adult version. The Yoda in the book, looks pretty much like Ebi-kun's finished version.

Many of the projects are kid friendly, I would say most of them Ebi-kun and I will make together but I think an older child would be able to handle most of the projects by themselves. There is also a good mix of crafts, from simple sewing projects to paper mache to crochet. 

Ebi-kun also asked for an Ewok hat, this was so simple to make, I whipped it up as Ebi-kun was making Yoda's robe, luckily I had just enough brown fleece left to make the hood. It would be fun to make a pile of these for party favours, how cute would it be to see a load of Ewoks running around?

I wanted to actually make a couple of projects before reviewing the book and I must say, we both love it. I think it would make a perfect present for any Star Wars loving crafty kids and adults alike.

Ebi-kun says "It is a funny book with lots of good ideas. I want to make Emperor Appletine Doll next"

Inspiration Sunday - Annabel Port

One thing that keeps popping up on the Life is Messy Bootcamp is that I really should step out of my comfort zone more often. Writing to people asking for interviews falls into that category. As I was listening to the Geoff Lloyd podcast from Absolute Radio I thought, I should really interview Annabel. For those of who who don't listen to it (which in all likelihood is most of you, I think Geoff's listeners are rare yet loyal) Geoff has a co-host, Annabel and well, he gets her doing all sorts of insane things, the sort of thing make me blush just thinking about it. From trying to 'occupy' the flagship Top Shop to trying to start a fight with a Christmas elf, from hunting down Lord Lucan to becoming the next top fashionista.

I figured if anyone can give me some tips on stepping out of my comfort zone then Annabel is the one to do it and I was so chuffed that she said yes!

Could we start off with you telling us a bit about yourself - who you are and what you do?

I'm Geoff Lloyd's sidekick on the Hometime Show on Absolute Radio.

The main reason I wanted to interview you was that unless I have had several tequilas I am not a fan of making a fool of myself in public and would certainly not stick around in a job that had me doing just that several times a week. Yet here you are doing all kinds of daft things that Geoff sets you up with. So, do you actually enjoy these crazy errands Geoff sends you on?

Yes, I do actually enjoy it! One thing that I've discovered is how incredibly lovely people can be. It constantly amazes me how nice complete strangers can be and that always really cheers me up.

Do you have any secret method of psyching yourself up for the challenge ahead?

If I'm about to do something really embarrassing I do find myself morphing slightly into another character - a more simple, stupid, innocent version of myself - that helps!

I blush really badly and over the years have learnt to avoid all types of blush worthy events, do you suffer from the ole red cheeks?

I did go through a phase about 12 years ago of blushing a lot - often for no reason. But then it just stopped. No idea why.

Out of all the tasks Geoff has set, is there one that you ended up really enjoying, possibly more than you thought you would?

To be honest, I enjoy nearly all of them as they are often an excuse to do something ridiculous.

And at the other end of the scale, is there one where you wish you could reverse time and erase it?

I do regret the fact that I've been banned for life from the flagship Top Shop on Oxford Street after I tried to start an Occupy movement there in my sleeping bag. I used to get all my clothes from there. Still, I've yet to attempt a return - I suspect it'll be fine...

Has Geoff ever come up with some crazy idea that you have actually refused to do?

Never. I've moaned a bit though.

For one that who regularly steps out of her comfort zone, what advice do you have for people like myself who struggle with such things?

Tell yourself (depending on the size of town that you live in) I'm never going to see these people again. And when you've forced yourself to do it once, you'll realise how much fun it is and hopefully want to do it again.

What lessons would you say you have learnt from doing all these tasks?

Once again, people are lovely. Open, trusting, helpful, kind. I never thought that if I asked a stranger to scratch my back on the bus that they would - but they were happy to oblige. People are constantly surprising in the best possible way.

and finally, a question from Ebi-kun (who loves trying new foods) what is the strangest food you have eaten?

I'm not very good at trying new foods! That's one thing I need to be braver with. Sorry Ebi-kun.

We might have to help you with that! Thank you Annabel! I have made a list of things that I need to bite the bullet and do, one of them was to contact people i admire and ask them for interviews, I am doing OK on that score so far. I am working up to some of the others. Is there anything you really would like to do but are too scared to do it? Let me know!

 Follow Annabel on Twitter
And the Hometime Show on Facebook

School supplies....

I have been busy putting names on anything and everything that has to go to school. I was under the impression that after the yochien fiasco, school would be a breeze, how wrong I was! 

First off was the maths set....

Inside looks like this...

Every single piece has to have his name on it, even the dice.

 Difference ring cards with maths questions on them, these ring cards are very popular over here.

A bag of plastic money, I admit I haven't actually put the name on these yet, I haven't figured out how!

 I'm not sure what these are used for but trying to put stickers on them was a nightmare, I used little white stickers and trimmed each one to size THEN I discovered that there was a pack of specially designed stickers in the box *duh*

Look how bloody small these things are!

Magnetic triangles all the boxes that the pieces come in need name labels too.

The yellow cubes are white on the other side and magnetic, I'm not sure how these are used either but the kind of remind me of the bead material in Montessori.

Plastic stick things that fix together, I am sure maths wasn't this complicated when I was a kid.

The bag of charts and sheets (and the handy stickers I needed earlier!) Most of these are double sided and have games and puzzles printed on them.

Plastic pocket for worksheets I think, cutting board, pencil case - must be one of those flip top ones, red and blue pencil, eraser - must be white, glue and a plastic sheet to put under your paper when you are writing.

Oil pastels, pens and crayons and yes, each one must have his name on it! I am now wondering if I should have put names on his pen lids too?

and finally the metal tray from the maths set, wood clay, scissors and 4B pencils. *phew*

BUT alas, I have not finished, I have bags to make, all to specific sizes and all his clothes to label - I will save that for another post, wait until you see the garb he has to wear for lunch!

so.....

what is 

it's been that long since you quit something big like smoking. 

Nope, never smoked.

It's an illuminated manuscript (the calendar of 354) that's supposed to be the first book in the format we know.

Nope.

Usually the 354th day of the year is my birthday, but this year because of leap year you have an extra day to plan my celebration.

No, not that I have ever worked it out that way.

Is it the number of jelly beans in the jar?

Maybe, somewhere in the universe, but not here!

Sales at your store!

Nope, over at Etsy it is at 605

The number of hours until Ebikun enter in elementary school :)

This is the closest answer, but no. 

The number of menus of your new oven

It could be, I have no idea!

Number of posts.

Nope, this is post 1832

The date your husband proposed - 4pm on 5th of March

Erm, should I admit I can't remember the date he proposed?

The number of emails you received

no, way off!

OK, time to put you out of your misery.... it is the number of items so far that I have written Ebi-kun's name on ready for school! Yes, that is 354 items AND I haven't finished yet. The next post has all the details.

So a winner...

Congratulations Medea!

 

 

 

 

 

354...

What is the significance of this number? Have a guess below and I will pick a winner in the morning, if there is more than one correct entry or no correct answers I will use Random.org to select a winner.

The Prize? A surprise!

Open to anyone, anywhere, because I am nice like that

BUT you must include a contact address

PS. I have taken the stupid word verification off the comments, never mind bots not being able to read it, I have enough trouble, if I manage to get it first time I feel like running a lap of the living room! The comment moderation is still on though, so your comment won't appear immediately.

Where did the crafty posts go?

What can I say? I just haven't had much in the way of crafty time the last couple of weeks. Yesterday we had lunch and playmate at the yochien, yes, I know he has graduated but we are still allowed to go and play there apparently. One of the moms will move to Germany next month so she was asking me lots of questions about the kindy/school system - of which I know nothing, I have been to Germany once, for a couple of days and I vaguely remember it included a lot of beer. I don't think I was much help.

There has been no kitchen fun either, after my microwave/oven combo died I have had to plan meals more carefully. Usually, we go to the supermarket at the weekend, buy what veg looks good / not grown in the affected areas, I never know what we will come home with so I plan the meals for the week after we have done the shopping. I have found this method works best at the moment and I can then use up the veg that doesn't keep well first. In the evening I cook dinner and my husbands meal gets put out so I can re-heat it when he gets home. Except now, I have no microwave so I have had to think of meals that I can reheat easily on the stove top or cook quickly when he comes in, which is usually late, anytime after 9pm.

The new oven has been ordered, we will get it next week and it looks like this....

I have no idea what it can and can't do, my only requirement was that I can fit a turkey in it! It is the Hitachi MRO-JV200 and 33L, my old oven was one of the biggest on the market when we bought it years ago but there seems to be a trend for bigger ovens these days. Anyone outside of Japan is probably laughing their socks of at the teeny tiny size of the ovens here!

So, yes, very little on the cooking or crafty side recently, Ebi-kun has a new craft book and is working on a project from that, I hope to share with you soon, I also hope that once we have all his school stuff out the way I can get back into the crafty groove.

Sword in the stone, edible book & movie....

I blogged a few weeks ago about the edible book festival that Zoe was hosting and of course we had to get involved. It took quite a while to come up with a book but after spotting Ebi-kun totally absorbed in his King Arthur book the answer was obvious...

The Sword In The Stone! It turned out to be quite an epic day, we started off by making the cake, it is chocolate chip sponge cake inside covered with marshmallow fondant. Whilst the cake was baking/cooling we painted a backdrop and then taped it to the big window and also painted the handle of a knife gold. We had to stop for lunch and then I covered the cake, the fondant was a bit runny so it was rather tricky but we got there in the end. 

Whilst I was finishing off the cake, Ebi-kun went to his room to find all his knight related dress up clothes and props and then fun began....

Each part of the movie was done in one shot and I put a time limit on the editing, I can easily sit for hours editing out all the little imperfections but decided that all had to be finished and wrapped up by dinner time. Ebi-kun helped with the editing, it was good for him to see how it all gets put together, how to lay down the sound effects etc. 

Luckily Ebi-kun had the day off yochien so we threw ourselves in head first and spent the day on it. I doubt we will win the edible foods festival (click HERE to see the entries) but that doesn't matter, we had such good fun putting this all together, it has been quite a while since we dedicated the whole day to a project.

So, here you are, the first public viewing of 

The Sword In The Stone 

featuring Ebi-kun as Arthur and Spotty The Steed.

brolly pod....

The Japanese are the kings of cool and weird and wonderful inventions and so I would like to introduce to you, the brolly pod, like a tripod for your camera but it all keeps your head dry if it rains. Although the camera would get wet, a bit of a design fault there!

Graduation...

We didn't attend the graduation ceremony last year because it was just about the time when the Fukushima incident happened and we decided to head out of town for a while. The actual day was cut short last year too, so I had no idea what to expect. 

It started off in the main hall, The kids had to go up on stage one at a time and get their certificate and book (The Wizards Chocolate Cake, the kids could choose from 5 which one they wanted). Then there were several speeches, the younger kids sang and song to the graduating students and then they sang a song to the younger ones. It finished with the children giving their sensei a handmade pendent and then they marched off out the door.

Then it was over to the classroom for the graduation lunch with a 'special' bento and celebration manju - a sweet bean paste bun.

The bento was a set of sandwiches, ham, tuna and egg a mini hamburger, panda melon pan and a cream and jam roll, all washed down with a carton of apple juice!

After lunch we cleared away the tables and the kids played a couple of games with sensei.

There were some more speeches then sensei gave them their certificate (again) and some tulips. Ebi-kuns sensei is also the headmistress and has seen a lot of classes come and go, she is kind but strict and according to Ebi-kun she has a lot of cool ideas!

After all the we had to go to the music room so that the kids could say goodbye to the other members of staff. There are three classes in his grade and when one of the other classes came in at least half of the kids were sobbing, their sensei was one of the younger ones and so she probably has done many of these before, she was also sobbing! Of course, this set half the parents off too, I can't imagine what it was like last year since everyone would have been an emotional mess before even getting there.

It finished with the kids giving the various teachers/bus drivers/kitchen staff pendants and more speeches.

I was rather nervous about what I should be wearing to such an occasion, you know, the Japanese are in general, sticklers for rules but then I have never been one to conform and I am quite happy to play the 'stupid foreigner' card when need be! The rule is for graduation you should wear dark, somber clothes as it is a sad day! For the opening ceremony, you should wear something brighter, spring like as it is a happy occasion. I don't do bright, happy colours and will be wearing the same outfit as graduation, a LBD, I'll put on some nice bright nail varnish and a bright necklace, that should do the trick! A friend offered to lend me a bright yellow jacket, erm, yeah, I don't think so, my inner goth is appalled at the thought. The big pinned on flowers were popular too, about half of the moms were wearing them.

I didn't bother going to by suitable shoes either, I just wore some little slip on flats, I can't see the point when you spend the whole day in slippers anyway. So, now yochien is finished and it is time to prepare everything for school.