School Observation Day

We had the observation day the other day, I managed to sneak a cheeky photo as the kids were experimenting. They had science class which started out talking about butterflies, they had been observing, the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly and the somehow it changed to wind powered cars!

I didn't get to check out the kits they were using properly, but it looks like they will study 3 types of energy using these little cars that they had to put together. There was a lot of excitement and the kids all looked like they were having fun - except for the ones who couldn't get the wheels to stay on their cars!

There are 39 kids in his class, so sensei has to work really hard to keep them all on track and to stay within the time frame (Ebi-kun said that she's not great at that!) but it must be really tough, so kudos to her anyway. 

After class was the teacher/parent meeting, I left daddy to enjoy that and went down to the library with Ebi-kun and about 900 other kids, some doing their homework, others running round like loons.

Although I'm deep opposed to the teaching system, I believe that teacher led classrooms are fundamentally the reason why schools are failing our kids, I do know that Ebi-kun is learning a lot of non academic things that are important. He does enjoy school for the majority of the time and is happy when he comes home, so that is good. If he wasn't academic though, I would be pulling him out and homeschooling him, the system certainly don't work for kids who need that bit of extra help.

We also have the homework list for the summer holidays! Need to figure out how we are going to juggle that with the big trip home. Surely 20 hours on a plane is enough time?