Thoughts from Tokyo

So, things are a-changing. And rather rapidly. We've been watching this Corona virus for weeks now. Our mission has been sending us updates since January (our mission works in many Asian countries, so makes sense). We've seen colleagues in other countries have schools shut down, have borders closed, and other measures. Now it's happening in our backyard.

Meanwhile, Spring is on its way in!

Japan's Prime Minister made a surprise announcement yesterday, recommending that schools shut down until the end of the school year in a couple of weeks.

Of course, that's a red flag to society: if the top political leader thinks schools should be shut, then things seem very serious. So lots of other things are shutting or being cancelled too. And people are stocking up in the shops. 

I usually shop on Fridays, and today sought out the toilet-paper aisle to test my theory: that toilet paper is the litmus test in Japan for "panic buying". People in Australia might stock up on bread and milk but in Japan it's toilet paper! We saw the same in 2011. I learnt from that time, though, and keep a stock of the stuff in our house. I also learnt from previous flu epidemics here to keep a stock of masks in our house. I've also got other staple supplies—we live in the land of earthquakes, it makes sense to be prepared!

Comparison with March 2011

Which brings me to what my brain was doing at 5am this morning: comparing this event with the aftermath of the triple disaster in March 2011.

This event brings that experience to mind, not just because of the shopping and school shutting—yes, our school is shutting. We're looking down the barrel of three weeks of distance education. I know the teachers will try hard . . . but I'm not so sure about the students. I'm prepared to be surprised. Thankfully they've had today to lay out their expectations for the students. I've just received an email suggesting students start work at 8.30, not sleep in. That's helpful!

But 2011 comes to mind for deeper reasons. I think it's the fear. The disaster, if you don't recall, went like this: earthquake which caused several giant tsunamis that inundated a nuclear power plant north of Tokyo. There was a lot of fear at that time. Lots of people struggled with overwhelming anxiety and stress. Lots of foreigners evacuated Japan. It got to be that every time I looked at social media or checked email, another of our friends or colleagues had left (and the kicker was—without saying goodbye).

So instantly we see how this virus situation is very different, but also similar. There has been warning—today they've had time at school to prepare—and evacuation isn't a great option at this point. We aren't getting constant aftershocks that disturb our sleep and rock our emotions. We aren't wondering if there's going to be another one soon. We aren't labouring under the realisation that many thousands have already lost their lives suddenly.

However, the fear is there and the misinformation (or merely exaggeration) is being freely shared. 

This is what I created yesterday to go with the basic update
on OMF Japan's social media

Another similar factor is that it can be stressful to talk to other people. Everyone, I've discovered, has a different threshold in this sort of situation. Some immediately go into "panic" mode, others are more laid back; some research every morsel they can find, some like to speculate about what the politicians aren't telling us. In some ways it's easier just to stay at home and stay off social media.

But I'm a social media manager, so the latter is hard! Yesterday I had to do what I've been avoiding, and face this straight on, researching facts and putting together an update post for our mission. It didn't come out as scary as I thought it would (although the conspiracy theorists will be quick to tell me that we aren't being told everything).

How I'm doing

I've found it hard to concentrate today, that's another common feature with 2011. With such turmoil, it is hard to focus, and focus is what I need to do to keep up with the deadlines that keep marching across my desk. That's going to be challenging in the coming weeks too with the rest of my family at home, in "my" office.

I also must say that I'm relieved that, at this point, the two big events next week that I've been looking forward to are still going ahead: a two-day women's retreat and a writer's retreat next weekend. The latter I've put quite a bit of work into organising and it made me feel very uncomfortable earlier this week to consider that that might not be possible.

It was also reassuring to go out this morning and do a simple thing like get a hair cut. That simple act, seeing real people doing ordinary things, was very grounding and encouraging. 

But ultimately I need to ground myself in the eternal reality. That our times are in God's hands. That he is not surprised by anything that's going on here. And that ultimately, whatever changes come our way, he never changes.

5 

5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God;

    my hope comes from him.

6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;

    he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

7 My salvation and my honor depend on God[c];

    he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

8 Trust in him at all times, you people;

    pour out your hearts to him,

    for God is our refuge. (Psalm 62 NIV)

Perplexing the People in Perth

We had many conversations in Western Australia. A couple of unexpected themes emerged early on. 

Length of Stay
People expected that we were staying in Western Australia for a greater length of time than eight days. A common question was, "So, how long are you here." This was confusing for me to start with, I always had to define "here": "Do you mean Australia or Western Australia?"

David with our two older boys enjoying a Perth park.

When I explored this expectation further with some people they confirmed that it is rare for missionaries to just drop in to Western Australia for a week or so. They usually come over only because they used to live there or have relatives there. Our visit was entirely on the edge of ordinary.

Boys at school
It seemed to catch people by surprise that our boys were at school in Queensland. I suspect most people assumed that we live a nomad lifestyle while on home assignment and home school our boys. When I explained that we had to keep our visit short because we'd taken our boys out of school people were confused.

Extensive deputation, no?
We often got asked "So where do you go next?" Again people were surprised to hear that we really only had two out-of state deputation trips, Western Australia and the ACT. We've kept our support team as streamlined as possible. No, we don't have 50 churches all across Australia to visit. Less than 20, I think, and most of them within a few hours of our base in Ipswich.

Is this just a Western Australia thing? Or do others think of home assignment as a time when missionaries are perpetual nomads, roaming the countryside and not stopping in any one place for very long? Would you assume that we were home schooling our boys while in Australia if you hadn't been reading this blog?

Spelling in an American accent

Sometimes I end up in conversations about what it's like to have Australian kids in an American school. One thing that's come up has been spelling lists centred around certain phonetic sounds.

Here a list that came home today, it is supposed to have the same sound in all the words:

octagon
taught
pause
bought
awful
often
broad
dolphin
watch
author

I'm not sure if all Americans say all these with the same "aw", but we Aussies sure don't. I taught my boys to read at home using an Australian phonetic system, I'm really glad I didn't use an American system, I would never have coped!

Nevertheless, this isn't a big deal. These spelling words can be learnt, even if they don't fit the neat categories they are supposed to!

What other challenges do you think an Australian might have in an American-system school?

Unexpected turnaround

Our eldest son had a challenging start to his formal education. He went to Japanese kindergarten in Sapporo for 1 1/2 years, then we went on home assignment for a year. He attended Preschool (like kindergarten) for six months and then Grade 1 for six months in Australia. Then we returned to Japan, but to Tokyo.

Our eyes were firmly fixed on the Japanese public school system at this point because we wanted our kids to grow up understanding the language and culture of the land they were living in. Additionally we knew of a number of other foreigners who'd put their kids into the system, so it wasn't such a strange thing to do. But because he hadn't yet turned six, he was ineligible to start school, so back he went into kindergarten for six more months. We were hoping that those six months would help him to get back on track with understanding Japanese (kids can often pick up a new language quickly, but they are just as fast to lose it when not exposed to it).

I home schooled him to keep up his English and we persevered with kindergarten. His Japanese never seemed to come back and he struggled. He developed some bad habits and attitudes towards his Japanese teachers, but the kindergarten indulged him. After six months he graduated from kindergarten with his class and progressed down the road to the local primary school.

We found out, to our horror, that he was in a class of 38 kids . . . with one teacher. The classroom was chockers (colloquial Australian for 'overfull'). The teacher was young and keen, but with a class of that size, most days presented our fairly monolingual son with long periods of talking from the teacher. He got bored really quickly and started causing trouble. Here I won't go into details, I don't want to embarrass my son. But it was a difficult time of many phone calls from teachers, meetings with staff (including the principal). And many tears from me.

Our son's Japanese primary school.

After a year we thought he was settling, but early in second grade it escalated again. It got to a point where we decided to withdraw him from the school and send him to CAJ. We didn't know why he struggled so much, but we figured at least we could remove the language and cultural challenges.

So from year three he attended CAJ. Our struggles with him weren't over, but that is another story.

However, the two year encounter with the Japanese education system left our son with a negative attitude towards the Japanese language and Japanese teachers in particular. You can see how I beat myself up over this at the time. Our good intentions produced the opposite result!

In May this year, towards the end of the school year, he started to think about what subjects to choose this school year. Especially, whether he wanted to continue to study French for a third year. He loved French. So when he first voiced his thoughts about changing to Japanese study in year 8, I couldn't believe my ears. Thankfully I held my tongue, though, because soon he was saying things like this,

"I think I'll take Japanese because that is the language of the land I am living in. It would be really handy to be able to speak and read this language."

Amazing turn around. And the fact that he's come to that conclusion on his own, the conclusion that we'd come to a long time ago, but failed in our execution of OUR plan to get him to acquire Japanese, still brings me to tears.

This week he lamented that there were only two Japanese periods in a week. He's so keen! We're praising God for this turnaround in attitudes!

Something different about Grade Eight

Our eldest son started eighth grade today. There are a couple of similarities, but numerous differences between the situation our son is in and what it was like for us, his parents, at the same life stage.

When we were growing up eighth grade was the start of high school and in almost all cases required changing schools. Back then in Queensland we had primary schools (1-7) and high schools (8-12). We also had uniforms. Don't you love these photos?

For both of us, this was the first and only school change we made in our school careers. For me, it meant going from a small school (one class of 30 year sevens) to a large school (200+ grade eights in nine classes). It was also the first time we'd had to shift classrooms for all our subjects.

Our son has already shifted "schools" five or six times (depending on whether you count part-time home schooling while he was a Japanese school) since he started grade one (only four "schools", though). He's gone to school in two different countries. He's experienced three different country's schooling systems and school in two different languages.

His current school, the Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ), has an elementary, middle and high school section. So today wasn't as big a transition as David and I made in the 80s, because middle school goes from grades six to eight. Next year he'll enter high school, but he won't change schools, just floors. He doesn't wear a uniform (though he did for 1 1/2 years in Australian schools, and the half a year he spent in Japanese kindergarten between being in Grade 1 in Australia and entering Grade 1 in a Japanese school). He's experienced shifting classrooms and teachers over the last two years.

Perhaps the biggest differences are perhaps deeper, however. A new grade nine teacher at the school made these observations on her Facebook status this afternoon:

1. All of the students in grade nine except one felt they could communicate in at least two languages.
2. There are very large number of students whose parents work in some type of missionary capacity here in Japan
3. Probably more than half of the students have parents that are different nationalities than each other and the students are proud of that fact.

This is a very different school to the ones that David and I entered when we started Grade eight. But it is also a wonderful school and an amazing environment for our kids to be growing in.

Today's modest achievements

Here's a glimpse of the pseudo-homeschooling that I mentioned back here. Someone gave us a small electronics kit called Snap Circuits (see on the right). The boys have had fun playing around with circuits on it (my dad would be proud, he's been an electrical contractor for a long time). Today the boys have also been doing maths online, reading, writing responses to their reading and colouring in (5 y.o.). I've continued to read the Narnia books to them, something I was doing anyway, even before the recent events.

The book our 8 y.o. read and reported on today.

Here is our white-board timetable which we've been updating daily. The school has offered open times where there are skeleton staff available. You can see here that today the Art room was open for three hours and kids were able to drop in and do various projects. The library was open for borrowing. But kids were also using the computers (families with several children are quite pushed at this time with much demand on computers to do online maths and other activities) and there were adults quietly working, some teachers, some parents.

Each of the school division were given an hour to play in the gym. Our elementary-aged boys played indoor soccer. Our middle school son played basketball. Very necessary physical outlets. I feel sorry for those who live too far away to take advantage of these times.

Wednesday is also the day the school usually has chapel for older students. Today they held an open, relatively unstructured chapel, mostly singing. Unfortunately it was very late (12.15pm) and a struggle for our hungry boys to manage before lunch. But we did appreciate attending as a family and focusing our eyes on God in the midst of our less-than-normal circumstances.

Even this tiny semblance of normality will end after tomorrow as the school goes into its scheduled Spring Break. We're sure we had a whole lot of things we were going to do in Spring Break, but we can hardly remember what they were any more!

 

As has been my common habit during the last 12 days, I went shopping. The shops are getting less depressing and generally have more in them. Two shops later and I had everything on my list. Not all the shelves are filled and there are still conspicuous things short in supply like yoghurt, rice and milk. Different things were difficult to get in different shops, strangely enough. Plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, for which I am very thankful. It is amazing how a situation like we've just gone through makes you thankful for things that previously you took somewhat for granted!

Believe it or not, our suburb hosts a flour mill. David went and got 5kg of bread flour and 5 kg of cake flour. So even though the shops are short on bread, we should be self-sufficient for bread for a while to come (we have a bread maker)!

Non-illuminated sign.

This evening I decided to take a night off cooking and we headed out to Maccas (translation = McDonalds) for tea (translation = evening meal). All good until dessert time. The much anticipated ice-cream wasn't in stock. What I said about dairy products is true at Maccas too!

Lights out.

So we wandered down the road to the 100 yen convenience store and bought some ice-creams there. I snapped a couple of photos to show you something of the effort Japanese are making towards energy conservation. You can see the usually illuminated sign outside the shop is not illuminated and many of the internal lights are not being used either.

This morning I checked the preview of my report for our mission's magazine, East Asia's Millions, and gave them the okay to print it. It is also going to be used on two OMF websites and in a report our director is making to our IHQ in Singapore. Wow, did I ever question whether God could use me as a writer?

I also met with the Japan Harvest Managing Editor to ask some more questions and check that I was headed in the right direction. That was a reassuring meeting and I continue to move headlong in an adventure I feel pretty unprepared for! However, God is providing stories, writers and editors in an amazing way. So not only do I feel as though I'm putting together other people's stories, I feel as though the whole magazine coming together will be a God-honouring story in itself. God loves to work through the weak, doesn't He? Reminds me of the Gideon story with the 300 defeating a whole massive army.

Well, that is today's modest achievements. School will taper down after tomorrow and we'll have to make some plans for recreation for the week afterwards. Because once that week is over it is a hard 10 week slog until early June when summer holidays begin.

Today was cold. Under 10 degrees here in Tokyo. We spent the morning in an unheated school and came home pretty chilly, but were thankful for our kerosene heater with oil in it. Tonight I'm remembering those who don't have enough clothing, food or heating tonight. And praying that they'll get the help they need quickly. Also praying that we get a warm change coming through soon.

Day six post earthquake

This shelf was totally empty of paper products on Tuesday.

Well, we're still here, still in Tokyo. And the food situation seems to be improving. Today I was able to buy milk and toilet paper, albeit at different shops. It is amazing how cheerful it makes one to know that I have more than 12 spare rolls of that stuff in the cupboard!

My bike loaded with goods, including precious toilet paper!

Today was Day One of "Marshall School". I have to say we were a little bit disorganised and it didn't go all that smoothly. It didn't help that we were promised another power blackout mid-morning and that didn't occur. Or maybe that did help? Not sure. We just don't know what we can rely on happening. 

This is why we kept our old laptops - you can still play CD-ROMs on them!

I also didn't know what really was expected of me this morning. I went down to the command centre to help the Managing Editor of Japan Harvest. I thought I'd be doing something related to the magazine, but I ended up preparing a document to orientate new volunteers at the command centre. An important document when you consider that the place is very fluid - people coming and going all the time. 

It is incredible, actually, to be a small part of what is going on there. They have a huge vision - to have six or more "base camps" up near the site of the devastation - places where they can send truck loads of supplies for distribution and places where people can work out of to help with the clean-up and restoration work that needs doing. The first one was set up today. But to go with the huge vision is a huge amount of work. They've started this from basically nothing on Sunday. They have donations and offers to volunteer coming in constantly and are trying to process all of that at the same time as basically setting up a big organisation. Amazing to see it in process. Somewhat frustrating too, because there are so many inefficiencies that need to be smoothed out. That is what my boss at the magazine was trying to help with (typical missionary - he's picked up another "hat"). His brain was pretty scrambled and it made it difficult for him to give me things to do. 

Pre-dinner wresting. Watch those paper walls boys!

Anyway, I'd promised David I'd come home at lunch time to help with the boys. At this time of flux and change it is extra difficult to be their parents and we really need to support one another. The boys really appreciate predictability of routine and that is something that has been sorely lacking in the last six days. In fact today it looked a bit better because no big announcements were made. We'd suspected our middle son was particularly upset by the changes in how long the school would be closed for - and this evening when I finally got him to sit down and do some writing the first thing he wrote about was how long the school would be closed kept changing! He got really excited about writing and is looking forward to continuing the "What happened after the earthquake" story tomorrow. Sounds like a bit of a chip off the old block, doesn't it?

This afternoon David went off to school for a couple of hours to be available to any students who came in. Our 11 y.o. went gleefully to an "open art room" time for a couple of hours. He loves art. And while they were gone the other two played happily in their room while I sorted out the three articles I was writing for our mission's international magazine.

So schooling tomorrow will be better. Our eldest son has come up with a couple of ideas of things to do that will keep him busy for a while. Our youngest son still has things to finish from what the teacher sent out today. And in the afternoon I'll troop them all down for some art "therapy" at school.

Tomorrow will be somewhat similar, except that I'll be working mostly from home. Trying to pull together a magazine of stories related to the recent events is a mammoth task that sounds way beyond me, but it is similar to the task that faces those in the CRASH command centre. They've never done it before, but are trusting God to provide the strength.

Emotionally we're feeling a bit up and down. No predictability has been very difficult. David realised he's temporarily lost a role - that of full-time classroom teacher - and that has made him feel a bit rocky. We've had friends and colleagues temporarily head home or to another country. That is not easy. 

The number of daily visitors here have shot up since Friday.

Something I've been watching with amazement is the statistics on how many people visit this blog. It is kind-of nice that so many people are reading this, but I wish the circumstances were different.

Tonight is cold. It is supposed to drop below freezing here, which means even colder in the disaster zone. My heart goes out to those hundreds of thousands who don't have enough food in their tummies or enough warmth to help them sleep tonight and probably a heart-ache deep enough to sink any ordinary person into despair.

Eclectic skills useful on the mission field

The Missionary label is a wide umbrella. My personality also seems to lend itself to a wide variety of interests and responsibilities. This week I've found my fingers in in many pies - editing, writing, desktop publishing, Occupational Therapy consultation, leading a prayer meeting and attending a diaspora meeting. 

Today I am teaching cross-stitching and card-making to some grade 5/6 girls.

CAJ has a department that supports families who are homeschooling (also a few small English-language schools). Through the year they run various events to support these families and students. Their biggest event is today - Arts and Skills day. A day when the students come to CAJ and have the opportunity to learn a skill they might not otherwise come in contact with. Including classes like woodwork, karate to friendship bracelet making and acting. My husband is taking a science class - especially using lab equipment that most homeschooling families wouldn't have access to. It is always a popular class (this is the fifth time he's done this).

I'm making this cute card with eight girls:

It really is quite simple. It took me under an hour to make. I have two hours to help them create it. Mind you it wasn't easy to come up with a beginners' craft with cross-stitch that will hopefully allow them a nice take-home project.

I'm a tiny bit nervous, but mostly excited. It is really special to be able to help out by using a hobby I mostly use for my own relaxation.

All is quiet!

Today is the day I've been waiting for. The day when all three children are at 'school'. To add to the fun, my husband was home too, so we went out for coffee. Ah bliss. Gotta be careful, though, I might be accused of selfishness. Why else would I want my kids all at school - so that I can have coffee with my husband? Probably not. I am confident that they are getting a good education at the school they are in and that certainly we will all remain saner than if we were all together at home all the time. Just like mission, I believe that home schooling is a calling - and I don't have it!

The end of home schooling

It is only just over two months since I began full-time home schooling our 6 y.o., but as of yesterday we've now finished, formally anyway. It was easier than I expected, most days. For the first time I got a glimpse of the thrill of it (have you even heard passionate home schoolers talk about that?). Seeing my son grow in confidence at the very beginning of his reading journey on my watch is something I won't quickly forget. An unexpected outcome is our 4 y.o.'s journey too. In the course of teaching his brother, it was easiest to just include him with pre-school activities. He has built on the foundation built through fortnightly classes based on the alphabet over the last nine months at CAJ. But his fine motor skills (speaketh the OT) and ability to concentrate on table-activities have improved. I still cannot imagine myself doing it long-term. I have a friend who is in her 13th or 14th year of home schooling and still has a child in lower primary. My hat is off to her and the many like her, willing to make a career out of home schooling.

Homeschooling happiness, packing problems and bee bother.

I have no complaints about a homeschooling boy who says, "I could start work early." And who then, when basically finished for the morning, says, "I want to write a story." Then later, he picked up a book (hitherto almost unknown) and started reading it, with the occasional, "Mummy, what does c-o-u-n-t spell." Ah, if only I'd known these pleasures of homeschooling earlier. This same child is refusing to go outside today. He is worried the bees are targeting him (bees=anything smaller than a butterfly which flies). I don't know what to do to counter this new phobia. I didn't do too well at the last one - toilet flushing phobia. Had a packing problem last night. I started taking some books off the shelf in the boys room to put into a "to be packed" pile. My husband started to worry that we would get our packing done too fast!!! Can you believe? His particular concern was that we'd have nothing left for a Busy Person who is coming across Tokyo (1 1/2 hr commute) to help us on the 11th of June. Apparently, kids books were on his internal list of things-which-could-be-delegated-out. You can see why I am trying to stay out of this as much as possible - I simply don't know what his game plan is and it is stressful to try to find out!

The beauty of a simple worm

This morning has been a bit more chaotic than usual in our house. Our 3 y.o. turns 4 today, so the morning began with presents before breakfast, as is our custom. We managed to get them calm enough to eat breakfast and then after our eldest reluctantly went to school with his Dad, the other two played with Lego, Spiderman and the new Fireman costume. Needless to say, they were difficult to pin down for homeschooling this morning. I think it took our 6 y.o. about 45 minutes to copy three sentences we made yesterday with a silly sentence game. Concentration - closer to none! After persevering a while, I decided that outside was the key, but the catch - our middle son didn't want to go but the birthday boy did. Not a problem if you have a backyard, but here, unless you play in the 1.2 m strip at the back of our house or on the (quiet) road, you have to walk to a park and I wasn't about to leave a 6 y.0. home alone, so the backyard strip was IT. Thankfully birthday boys loves to dig holes, so we pulled out the big spade and he dug some holes while (amazingly) our 6 y.o. did another workbook page for homeschooling, while I supervised from the otherside of the fly screen door. Until birthday boy found a worm! Mentioned that wriggly creature out loud and our 6 y.o. was suddenly finished all his inside work and play and heading outside to play with worms :-) and mud. Hopefully I won't have to bath them when they return (this is a presently ongoing scene). Also amazingly, the worm they found has managed to disappear. It must have moved fast. I can do with some down-time. Up late last night to finish the sword cake, all the excitement of the morning and still a party and a guest (adult) this afternoon/evening. I wonder if I'll get to go to the gym? Depends. If I don't I'll only get there twice this week. Tomorrow is a public holiday and I am away Friday/Saturday at a retreat. I also have a prayer/newsletter to write. So much to do...

Home-made clock woes on a rainy day

I hate it when brilliant ideas fall flat on their faces! Kids are particularly clever at causing such disappointments. Today for home schooling I decided to be creative in teaching clock-reading to our 6 yo. I found an old kickboard destined for the rubbish and a larger piece of cardboard. Figuring the boys could each make a clock. I felt optimistic even a tiny bit clever. The boys were excited, to start with. Somewhere in the process, though, my 3 yo decided that it wasn't at all to his liking and threw a tantrum. What exactly turned the tide for him, I don't know. But I do know that there are some things you can't undo - like the felt pen numbers on the foam board that he demanded be erased! I have never had the experience of home schooling with just one child under my care. I always marvelled at our eldest son's ability to learn things despite my divided attention and the attention seeking antics of his younger brothers. I cannot imagine what it might be like if a child had learning difficulties, nor if I had six children under my care (like one homeschooling mum I know). Juggling the needs of several different aged learners is just a little bit difficult, especially when one or more are under school age. Any mum who has managed it without going crazy, I salute! But it doesn't mean that I wish to join them for the long term. As for time, we've called "time out" for now and will get back to it later when tempers are a little less frayed.

Home schooling for us

Today I'm home schooling. If you'd told me 10 years ago just before my first child was born, I'd never have believed you. Me, home school? Not that I am fundamentally against home schooling. I have lots of good friends who home school. It just was never something that I've been interested in doing. I guess I myself had a good school experience. I also enjoy time apart from my kids! I know there are many different reasons why people home school, but I primarily see it as a calling and something that needs to fit both the kids and the parents. In our case, it fits neither. So how did I end up home schooling? Well, it is more of a stop-gap measure than a long term lifestyle. Our middle son, as you might have read, just finished Japanese kindergarten. We ourselves are going to Australia in under 13 weeks (!!panic!!). Our six-year-old son will start school in July, the middle of an Australian school year. So our alternatives for the intervening weeks were: 1) Send him to Japanese primary school for 10 weeks. (Big culture shock) 2) Send him to CAJ (Christian Academy in Japan) for 10 weeks where our eldest son goes and my husband teaches. (His age would put him into kindergarten there too, hours of 8.30-12.30 every day. I would spend most of my day commuting - 20/30 mins each way). 3) Do nothing. (But this doesn't prepare him to start school in July very well.) 4) Home school (As well as sort and pack our house for moving.) If you add into the equation that his personality is one that takes a while to get used to new situations and people, and the decision to home school was not too hard to make. But hard to explain day after day as well meaning mums at kindergarten and in the neighbourhood enquired! Actually I have been home schooling part-time for the last 3 1/2 years. Ever since we last left Australia in the middle of my son's grade one year. We desired to give our children a head start with the language and culture by attending Japanese schools when they were young. So that is what we did. So he didn't lose what English he already had, I home schooled him in reading and writing before and or after school. It met all my expectations - difficult, impossible, frustrating and undesirable. He is no longer in Japanese school and the day we finished home schooling with him was a day of celebration. Thankfully our second son is a little more cooperative and compliant. On my second day of 'full time' home schooling, I can say that I am glad that I am no longer working around the time table of kindergarten. I can use the best hours of his day to teach him! All that being said, I am being fairly relaxed and we are not doing a full curriculum by any means. Reading, writing and arithmetic would about sum it up. All I'm doing is (hopefully) smoothing his entry into school in Australia in July. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.