JAPAN WEEK: PK-3

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Ana's Week

One of the things that you may not know about my family is that my father, stepmom and brother live in Japan. My father has lived in the country off and on for the last 15 or so years, so I have spent much of my teenage years and twenties traveling back and forth to visit. Before Skylar was born, my husband and I traveled with Aria to Japan to visit her grandparents, but it has been a while since we were able to make such a long flight. So, I decided to “fly” Aria to Japan this week to visit her grandparents and learn more about the culture in the country that they live. We packed up, got on our pretend plane, and spent the week enjoying Japan together! And man did we have a blast. Aria now knows where she can find Japan on a map, what the flag looks like, and what some Japanese food tastes like.

I was extremely lucky in preparing for this week because since my family lives in Japan, they were able to bring me toys, coloring books, and snacks for the unit. However, it wouldn’t be hard to find a local oriental market and buy snacks and possibly even toys there. The felt sushi and origami were great hands on activities, and Aria absolutely loves making origami now with my help. Also, the great thing about the origami box I bought is that it is huge and we will easily be able to reuse it for a Japan unit next year (or the next time we visit my dad).
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I think that the Japan unit was a blast. Not only because Aria now knows more about where her grandparents and uncle live, but it prepares her a little bit for what to expect when visiting the country. She also has more of a sense of Asian culture now, which is really important to my family as a number of my husband’s family and my family are Asian. I can’t wait to do this unit again next year and follow it up with actually visiting Japan itself! While you don’t necessarily have to cover Japan, I highly recommend finding a culture interesting or important to you and studying it with your child to give them more of a sense of the different cultures to be found across the globe.