Tampopo

I accompanied my daughter, Tif and granddaughter, KC to her Tampopo (Japanese School) today. Tampopo literally means dandelion.

Tif takes KC into Chicago to get a little culture once a week for a couple of hours. There were about 20 children (I think. Maybe it was 10 but just seemed like 20) between the ages of 20 months to what looked like maybe 4 years old.


Sensei (teacher) Naomi began the class singing songs together to teach some Japanese vocabulary, shapes, colors, weather, body parts, etc.

There was a Japanese version of Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes. KC was a little ahead of her mommy.

After the music session, children attached colored birds to matching color words. I learned something new here, too. I didn't know daidai was the word for orange. My mother always said, "orenji" (sort of Japanese version of orange).

Here, children helped to drop red or white colored balls into the correct baskets. I think it reinforces cleaning-up skills for one thing. It was also to teach sorting, more or less and counting. After all the balls were rounded up, Sensei Naomi had the children count in Japanese to 10 with her to see which basket had more balls.

Another game involved the children picking up colored plastic bottles and sorting them into the correct colored containers.


KC absolutely loves her teacher. She insisted on taking a photo of her sensei first before allowing me to take a photo of the three of them.

Toilet training update: Oh my goodness! Another poop! KC pooped in her little singing potty seat after asking me to take a tiny nap next to her to give her a little privacy. We looked into the potty and discussed the quantity (no kidding), the effort, the beauty of the accomplishment and the bounty she would be receiving for her great job (3 jelly bellies, a slice of li hing moi (Chinese spiced) mango, big sticker, me reading her a book, playing a game with her, the moon, the stars.... Sheesh!) She also commented that it was gigi. I told her that she certainly wouldn't want such a gigi, bad smelling thing to be on her okole (Hawaiian for derriere) and should make sure it goes into the potty all the time. After that, she's told us when she needs to go.

Sigh........

That's what I call relief!