My Book /Lesson Tote Bag Not just an ordinary Tote!

Living in Japan for 2 years opened the doors for great ideas for Jaq Jaq Bird®. There are too many things I could implement for my collection.

Yes, Boys can carry them too!

I did observe something about the Japanese culture and this is also true of the Korean culture too: They are very detailed when it comes to developing a product especially for personal use. Some examples? They package one of their gum lines in a small plastic jar which I love because the gum doesn't stay at the bottom of my purse floating around until it's too late, and it's mashed up when I chew it. When you open it, you see a very small 1" square post-it notepad inside the gum jar. I was perplexed, why is there a 1" square post-it notepad inside my gum jar? My son knew exactly what it was: "Mom, when you're done chewing, you throw away your gum on the sticky note pad!" I was tickled pink at that discovery, what a smart and practical concept! The Japanese are just so practical, smart and thinks of every angle of your personal needs to produce a product. This is so true of so many things they have. As you know from my way earlier posts that my kids went to the Japanese school, and if you know the HUGE amount of stress I went through to get them in the school and everything leading up to it, especially in the way of their school GEARS! So, as you know, all Japanese elementary students carry a leather $300-$900 backpack called the Randoseru. My kids all have one. It lasts from 1st-6th grade. You are required to use across all schools in Japan. However, that small leather backpack isn't very practical, and can only really hold your books, and notebooks. They carry around a tote which is SUPER useful and practical to carry: PE uniforms, shoes, projects, and after school lessons. Americans school kids carry one backpack and there is no need for extra gears like PE uniform, shoes, etc. But what I have found practical in America is having a DEDICATED tote bag  for kids to carry has been SUPER practical especially in preschool, and kindergarten grades, and after school activities in the elementary grade level: such as going to the library, piano or music lesson, art class, etc..

I loved how they turned out!

Contrast lining inside! So fun!

So I tested it with American mothers who have K3 kids up to 5th grade and I found out of 20 mothers, 19 of them loved it. The one mother that didn't find it as useful was because she home-schooled her kids; but stated it was great for her 4 year old daughter who would use it for toting to church at Sunday school class. Her daughter would carry it to class, and it would have her blanket, snacks, extra set of clothes and knew on Sunday she can carry that special tote.

Some great uses:

1. Weekend sleepovers
2. Library
3. Piano/Music lesson books
4. Dedicated small tote when traveling to put kids' favorite trinkets.
5 Preschool/Kindergarten.
6. Toy-goodie bag

List goes on! So did I convince you yet? :)

Alas, Japanese School is Done

I cannot believe it's my final 6 weeks here in Okinawa, Japan. I am proud to say my kids finished 2 years of school here in Japan. My first child did 1.5 years. It has been an amazing and wonderful learning experience that the kids will never forget. They could have finished the last 2 months up in school, but with the new school year that just started in April and trying to squeeze all our Asia travels, I decided to pull them out for the new year. They had been going to the Friday co-op school called Classical Conversations, part of a home school curriculum we have been doing all year long. What a marathon! It is what saved them from not losing their English skills. I have to admit, my youngest is still behind, but the fact he is fluent in Japanese doesn't faze me about his lack of English skills. It will all even out in the end.

It's been a pretty intense two years, I basically had no life because I packed their academic schedule to the max, (Japanese, English along with a pretty intense music schedule too), and now looking back, I'm not sure if I would have do it again, as hindsight has it, it's 20/20 now, and without going into too much here, I think as a parent, I lost steam along the way: the constant help I needed with translation, finding tutors, dealing with Japanese parents that were always willing but unable to communicate everything to me, the stress of not knowing Samuel's basketball practices and games (that was a CRAZY experience!! many close calls of calling the police because I couldn't find my son after practices and games) and kids stressing to learn Japanese but then lagged in English all became very taxing....BUT, after much reluctance and stressing over to keep the last two kids in school for the next 2 months was a very hard decision because finally, they got over the hump with their language skills, and finally, Ellie had made friends in school and was also motivated in studying Kanji (She was already doing 3rd grade Kanji), and NOW I pulling them out was probably the most heart wrenching thing I did as a parent... and it doesn't stop here, because now we are going to live in a small town, where there probably won't be a Japanese program for them to keep up with, another problem... In my moment of insanity, I asked Seung if we can drive three hours every Saturday to Dallas so they can go to the Japanese school there. He just looked at me and didn't respond...Ah, the stress of the frantic mother who wants everything for her children and stresses now about how to keep up their Japanese after we leave. This is a new problem in itself.

New season, new month, so finally: Here are my children finally enjoying their time in Korea. I took them on a trip to Korea after their Japanese school year was over this month. (They are now on the American schedule), so they still have "homeschool" work now, which is essentially english, history, and math. 

Overall, the Japanese school experience was such a rich time of learning that every situation was a "grateful and new" experience for them. Situations like bullying, (which happened more than I expected), lunch etiquette, teacher-parent conference, inviting Japanese friends to our "American" home,  and meeting other Japanese parents were unique experiences that I would never trade.  IN this sense, I love that we have the opportunity to live in other countries. This is how I define experiencing another culture: not just reading, eating and learning about them, but living, breathing and interacting with them so closely that we learn to broaden our mind to embrace the other culture's beauty and etiquette, and I believe my kids have achieved it.

As I try to tie up loose ends with my time here, I am trying to launch our next season's prints. Stay tune to hear more about what's going on with the Paik family!

Updates on Japanese schools

So I  know  many of you asking me what the status of the kids' schooling was, so I wanted to give you an update:

When I started this blog, I came to Japan intending to send them to the Japanese local schools. Whenever I would tell this to other colleagues and even Japanese friends, they would be shocked and a bit concerned.  I didn't know why people were shocked at the mention of Japanese schooling... well, not until now, and I see clearly why it's a bit shocking:  It is completely different from any schools you would find in the US. (But then I knew this too, but I guess I didn't know how much of a gap there was?? )

So if you read my blog from the beginning of this school journey, you would see that they are now in the public elementary school in Japan, but we pulled out my oldest son this coming school year due to numerous reasons: number one is not having close friends. He is my sensitive and timid child, and needs a lot of nurturing. He is also my brightest child too, so even though Japanese academics was the perfect mix of challenge and understanding, he wasn't developing friendships beyond the classroom. Also, because he was older, and kanji was more advanced at his grade, he was falling behind in his reading, although I commend him for his third grade level of kanji. We decided to home school him for now, and he attends a co-op Christian program once a week with other American home-schoolers.

However, the younger two still attend the Japanese public school and attends the co-op homeschool group every week (I pull them out of the Japanese school once a week), so they can keep up with their English skills. This has been great for them because they were falling behind in English, however, it's a very intense program of a classical education, (trivium philsophy of grammar, rhetoric, & logic) and so, they work doubly hard at their Japanese and English schools. If I had to start from the beginning, I'm not quite sure if I would have sent them to a Japanese school considering we are going back to the States. However, I never signed up with this in mind, I signed up for my children to learn about character, culture and to enrich their minds in learning differently. I know they have benefited from Japan as a result, and I am really grateful for that.

An example is during our month off in California, I was teaching my younger son how to subtract numbers beyond 10, and because he can't use his fingers, I couldn't figure a way to teach him how to subtract other than physically show it with little cubes and memorization of subtracting higher numbers after he understood the concept. But today, he brought home a math paper that showed how to do it, and I was amazed. I have never seen the strategy the Japanese used to subtract (another post), higher numbers. It's quite simple, and simply brilliant, and these are the things that broaden my mind to think differently and to be enrich by another culture. It's the simple things in life that make is so fun to educate my children in Japan. I'm grateful for the opportunity.

Etsy, Taipei and Japan

(Kids and daddy happy to be out of Japan for a little bit, and enjoy Taipei)
So between school, work and supporting my husband as the commander's wife, I finally figured out how to use Etsy, and posted some of my products on the site. Please see here to see our collection on Etsy.

For the holidays, (yes, kids got out for one week) we visited my sister and brother in law in Taipei. It was such a relaxing break for the kids, even though all we really did was eat and window shopped. (Too expensive to buy, but always nice to look!) What I was really surprised was seeing some of my products at the uppity bookstore, Eslite in Taipei.

In the meantime, kids are wrapping up school in mid-March! I can't believe the school year is through, but don't fret, the new year starts up again the first week of April, so I do get a small break. I've been so busy getting them adjusted with the school, that their music, and sport activities have been seriously neglected, and I feel so guilty. Samuel wants to play baseball, but the Japanese school team meets Tuesdays, Sat, and Sundays, and they play for at least 3 hours. I don't know if I can handle that kind of commitment. This is on top of his piano, English schooling and Japanese tutoring. The other sports'schedules are worse: practice every other day, including weekends. As a parent, you seriously have to commit to your entire free time in kids' activities. I don't know if I am up for that challenge after hollering all week to study and practice. As the mother, I feel I need the break. These days, I've been enlisting my husband to administer discipline in kids' organization at home. I admit, I am administratively-challenged.

This past semester, kids have been late couple times, or have forgotten to take their towel, jump rope, etc.. to school (forgetful mother who doesn't read Japanese when all their school papers come in), and the teachers really take it out on the kids. They strongly believe in personal (student's) responsibility, and it actually stresses my laid-back, free-spirited daughter out. As a result, both my kindergarten son and daughter have been better about remembering things and getting everything ready the night before.

Japanese schooling and mothering have been a challenge, but it's fun, and definitely rewarding!

Post-Holiday Thoughts

Happy New Year!

It's too way too long since I've written. During the holidays, I pretty much hibernate to work on my biz, and getting ready for Christmas fesitivies. However, this Christmas, I couldn't get my act together, and didn't even send my holiday cards out, especially since I'm in Japan, I thought it would be a special treat to send cards out from Japan, but as usual, I love to relax and horse around then sitting in front of my computer during my down time, and never got around to it....

Well, there has been so much that's been going on, and the kids are in throes of the Japanese school here. Already, Micah will be going to first grade in March, even though he started Kindergarten in September! I feel as if he ended up getting the short end of the stick. It's so hard for me to see him grow up. I still love the fact he sucks his thumb in the middle of the night. (Shh! don't tell him that when you see him, it's a big secret for him!)

Well, ironically, Japan celebrates Christmas, not extensive like America, but Yochien (Kindergarten) did throw on a Christmas play (although it had nothing to do with Jesus' birth). His class acted the story on the "Big Turnip" Well, here is the video, and my son is one of the Mario Brothers doing tricks with the jump rope. Each group of children did some type of act, and they would all try to pull the giant turnip out of the ground.

Some thoughts: I cannot believe the costume, and all the props the kids and the children designed and made. His Mario hat was made out of a garbage red bag with red duck tape, and cotton. It is so cute and sturdy. The whole performance just blew me away. They are so creative and so serious about their education. Please see these 2 clips:

Part I of 4

Part II of 4