A day at the gakuen

Today was Observation Day at Ethan's school. It was really fun to see some of what his days are like. It was only half a day, but it gave me a pretty good idea of what he does and how he's adjusting. Sometimes he still seems a bit lost, but he's teacher is so sweet and loving, Ethan adores her and she tries really hard to keep him involved and included in everything that goes on, difficult enough with a room full of 3 year olds, factor in that neither of them speak the other's language and she's doing a wonderful job!

As each bus load of kids arrive, they line up to greet the teacher before heading to their class to unpack their backpacks.

Ethan and Aya Sensei. Her first name is Aya, Sensei means teacher. Ethan's wearing his summer hat and smock, they changed from the winter uniform on June 2. (He's still trying to master the "peace" fingers).

The kids arrive at 9:00 and get to play on the playground for an hour. Then they line up by class (each class has it's own hat color) for morning excercise. Ethan's class is the orange hat, he's to the left of their flag, the 2nd kid in line, in the green striped shirt.

Taking attendance. Sensei says "Chesoonato, Isaynkoon" (phonetically). Girls are called chan, as in Gabi-chan, boys are kun, Ethan-kun

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Getting ready to go home.

The school is perched right on top of a big hill, there's a long, steep staircase leading down to the parking lot at the bottom of the hill.