Summer projects for kids

During summer, Japanese kids are expected to do "self-study" as part of their summer homework. They can pretty much choose whatever this will be, however many children (and I suppose their parents) decide to go with a science project or a something crafty. The bookstores and other places that sell school supplies like home centers will put out projects on their display shelves. I love it because children get to explore something that they decide they want to do or create. they learn how it works through making it. many of the projects range from building wooden money banks to creating pull back cars, to making crystals form. Of course, because Daiso is like the Wal-mart of Japanese shopping and has just about everything, they also have many of these projects.

Not only are they educational but also just plain fun. I will have my daughters pick out their projects for their homework later, however, I picked up one of the projects for myself. Turns out it was for my son because as soon as he saw it, he wouldn't stop talking about it. It is a wooden house that has a slot for coins. my sone helped me sand the sides of the pre-cut wooden rectangles down and also used those three-year-old muscles and brain to coordinate some fantastic gluing skills. Of course, he didn't know how to handle the fact that we then had to wait for it to dry before he could play with his new house, but the conversations from that point on were focused on his tiny house that would have a white door and blue walls. He even told strangers at the park about it the next day. He excitedly explained that he would "paint the walls" like I promised him, "when we got home".

We didn't have white paint for his white door, but he still insisted he was taking a picture of his "white door, not silver" later that night when it was dry and he could finally play with it.