Back Home from the East

Letters and Sounds: resources for phonics

2013-02-18T20:48:00.000+00:00

The Letters and Sounds webpage

This site is used by the teachers in the Reception classes at my school (and undoubtedly many other British schools) and provides resources to help with the introduction of phonics to 4-5 year old children and onwards. In general, nursery classes (3-4 year old children) follow Phase 1 and reception (4-5 year old children) classes follow Phase 2 & Phase 3. Phase 1 is the listening and communicating stage and Phase 2 onwards starts to introduce letters and their sounds.

Pretty Cure and B'z and festivals

2013-02-18T13:18:00.000+00:00

It's been a while since I've written here, so hello again! My family and I went back to Japan for the Christmas and New Year holidays. We were anticipating the sudden switch from English to Japanese in my daughter, but this time it didn't happen as quickly as it did last winter holidays. We spent time at first with the children's Japanese grandparents. Millie was slow to remember her fabulous Japanese but got by with greetings and simple requests. Then for the next week we were joined by their Japanese cousins. They all played together but did not talk together much, realising that their languages were different. Millie became very interested in her cousin's favourite animation, Pretty Cure, or Purikyuar as pronounced in Japanese. Back in England it has become a great way to continue to hear and sing along with Japanese. Not too sure about the short skirts and too cute girly fashions but hearing her try to sing along in Japanese is adorable.

The Pretty Cure Girls

We also bought a little CD player for them to play my old CDs on. A favourite of everyone's recently is B'z 's compilation album which is often played to accompany our meal times. Finally we are lucky enough to know a few Japanese/British couples and we are now making an effort to celebrate Japanese festivals and holidays together. Just recently we held the Setsubun festival at our flat, throwing dried beans at the dads with demon masks on! Next is Girl's Day in March, so we will be preparing chirashi zushi and the like for that too. The dolls are already on display.

Haruki Murakami to cheer me up?

2012-10-14T08:55:00.004+01:00

Recently I've been savouring my latest read during my lunch break. It's "The Elephant Vanishes" by Haruki Murakami. Not only do I get my Japan fix but his short stories are odd, eerie and shocking which shakes up my otherwise uneventful lunch breaks. I can hardly put the book down to go back to work!!!
A definite recommend.

Amazon.co.uk Widgets

Big fat Dorayaki!!

2012-07-31T21:16:00.001+01:00

I can hardly believe I went to all this trouble for a sweet, but such is my desire to have a Japanese-inspired summer!! (We had to cancel our 5 week holiday there due to my broken elbow.) This morning I made tsubuan, which is red bean paste with a lumpy texture. This evening I made pancakes to sandwich my tsubuan, and there we have it....Dorayaki!!!
We are all now thoroughly stuffed and completely satisfied.

Found a great Dorayaki pancake recipe here.

Anko, Japanese sweet bean paste

2012-07-31T15:26:00.001+01:00

Here's this morning's excitement...cooking anko, sweet Japanese bean paste for the very first time! I found a super recipe here at Just One Cookbook. Tonight we'll try to make Dorayaki, pancakes, with this sweet bean filling. Yum!!

Samsi, a Japanese restaurant in Manchester

2012-07-31T09:41:00.000+01:00

We had a day trip out to Samsi, as recommended by a friend. It's a Japanese restaurant in the centre of Manchester, walk-able from Oxford Road railway station. The restaurant was large and quite quiet on the early Friday lunchtime that we went. The decor was a mix of traditional and the tacky, and we were served by a yukata-wearing Japanese lady who was very helpful.
The food took a while to come but it was plentiful and we couldn't finish it all. We had a few pieces of sushi, rather bare miso soup, gyoza, chicken yakisoba, chicken ramen and tonkatsu curry. I wasn't a fan of huge slices of chicken in the yakisoba or ramen, but the taste was ok. My favourite was the tonkatsu curry and the gyoza. Oh and we had lovely little daifuku to finish. It was lunch where I felt like I was back in Japan or an hour or so, so overall, a nice experience.
Samsi also has a little supermarket below the restaurant, selling Japanese food, sweets, tea and ceramics.

Japanese restaurant, Samsi

Peppa Pig's magazine

2012-07-17T16:47:00.000+01:00

Just been looking at Peppa Pig's home page.
Peppa's Official Site
There are games, books to read, songs and lots of other activities to do to keep your little ones entertained!

There are some printable worksheets and colouring sheets from the fortnightly magazine, which my little girl loves. They are linked to the principles of early years learning.
Peppa Pig worksheets

Subscribe to Peppa pig magazine here, for both UK and international subscriptions:

Peppa-Pig-Magazine-Subscription

Welcoming bilingual pupils into primary schools

2012-07-16T15:19:00.000+01:00

My daughter came to England with us last year understanding a lot of English but Japanese was her first language. Within a year she now uses English predominately, thanks to a year spent in the local school's nursery. Like other EAL (English as an Additional Language) pupils I've met in my own workplace, her first reaction to a new language in nursery was one of shock and quietness. Children are listening, assessing and assimilating the new language in this first phase, before they start to communicate. I think my daughter spent 6 months at her first nursery doing so. The staff all thought she was very quiet...so NOT true!! At the nursery she started in January of this year, she was also thought of as being quiet but I think they are seeing her true colours now. Her English is also amazing, full of imagination, questions and excitement. She has had some wonderful and sensitive help from her present nursery; we have seen a huge change in her confidence and language since she has been there.
Here's a link to Dorset County Council's EYFS policy for bilingual children:

Welcoming Bilingual pupils into Primary Schools’ – Dorset County Council

What a find!! Japanese style mugs

2012-07-14T15:35:00.002+01:00

I've been thinking about giving our home a more Japanese feel to it...after I did live there for 15 years!! We brought back the bare essentials when we shipped our stuff back to the U.K. I feel we can start to add some lovely Japanese nick-naks to our flat once we go back to visit Japan again. However, on my recent stay back home in Lancashire, I was excited to find our local Factory Shop was selling very Japanese-looking mugs. The natural earth colours and glaze are very similar to those found in traditional Japanese pottery.And at one pound a mug, I snapped up several!!!

Princess Smartypants...a girl after a modern mummy's heart!

2012-07-11T13:06:00.000+01:00

A little girl in nursery requested I read her this book last week. I just loved it!! A hilarious modern twist on the tired old princess stories. Can't wait to get one for my little girl!!

Jolly Phonics sound and actions

2012-07-11T12:32:00.001+01:00

I'm really enjoying teaching phonics to my nursery class. They follow the Jolly Phonics programme, which links an action to the letter sound. All the kids like doing them, and many spontaneously produce them when they hear the sounds alone. I think its a really good way for kids to remember English sounds.
http://jollylearning.co.uk/2010/11/03/jolly-phonics-actions/

Bilingual children in the nursery class

2012-06-02T08:12:00.000+01:00

I have been working as a teaching assistant in a primary school's nursery for the last few months. About half of the pupils use another language that they speak at home. We need to actively help these pupils to gain new language skills and not expect that they will just 'pick it up as they go along.'

Ideas for teachers of bilingual learners at nursery
NALDIC (National Association of Language Development in the Curriculum)

British Council webpage: Learn English Kids...super songs and stories!

2012-04-28T10:41:00.000+01:00

This brush your teeth rap is a huge hit in our house!!
There are loads of songs, animated stories and games to play on this wonderful site!!

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/brush-bus

Just down our road....Wuthering Heights, Haworth and the Bronte sisters

2012-04-23T08:59:00.000+01:00

We live in an area of England where very famous writers once lived.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte.

They lived in the parsonage (the house for the priest of the town or village) at the top of a hilly village called Haworth. It's about a 20 minute drive over the moors from our house in Hebden Bridge.

Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights is inspired by the rugged and desolate views of the moors around here.

Latest local news tells us that wind farms are to be built on the moors that inspired these women.
Residents are against the plan as the natural beauty of these moors will be destroyed.
Wind farms on Wuthering Heights Moor?

Beautiful Yorkshire

2012-03-31T13:39:00.001+01:00

Here are some recent photos taken from Heptonstall park looking down on our town, Hebden Bridge. It was a lovely sunny day, quite rare for March in England! We are really blessed to live in such a lovely place.

My parenting bible!

2012-03-12T22:51:00.000+00:00

I've been re-reading a really useful book today, called 'The Pocket Parent'. It's a really clear advice book for all the troubles associated with kids from 2-5 years old. I like how it focuses on the main causes for argument and gives clear and light-hearted advice from other parents as to how to deal with difficult behaviour. Topics include: tantrums, listening, the 'gimmies', whining, sibling rivalry and so on.... I re-read the chapter on 'Listening' tonight. It's a big issue for my little girl :)

First sighting of cherry blossom!!

2012-03-10T07:53:00.001+00:00

On the way to school yesterday I saw little buds of cherry blossom opening. How beautiful!! I was reminded of Japan all day long. I even spent most of the day sticking pink tissue paper onto branches for our class display. Our class is called the Foxes, and our fox on the wall outside our classroom is now walking amongst daffodils and cherry blossom trees!

トーマス・ベッド：これで寝るじゃないかな？Thomas the Tank Engine bed and a better night's sleep?

2012-03-09T22:57:00.000+00:00

最近息子のトーマスのベッドをかった。１歳から４歳ようのtoddler　bedです。すごい素敵な色と絵で、木でできて、丈夫な子供ベッドです。喜んでこのベッドに入って、トーマスとパーシーとジェームズにお休みを言いながら、寝るようになる。子供が２０ｋｇまで使える。 We bought our son a toddler bed recently.
It's a colourful wooden bed with Thomas the Tank Engine designs. He absolutely loves it. He even sleeps better in it!! I think it distracts him away from me at night time. We say goodnight to the engines, James, Thomas and Percy over and over again until he calms down and gets ready to sleep.

It's a nice compact size and can be used from 18 months until 4 years of age or around 20 kg.

Help your kids with school work: Sparklebox 家で英語を教える

2012-03-07T23:14:00.000+00:00

イギリスの小学校の先生がこのウエブ・ページをよく使っています。
フォニクス、数字、理科などいろいろプリント・アウトでいるの。
使ってみて！
今娘が宇宙について勉強しているなので、Sparkleboxで宇宙を検索して、宇宙のポスター、宇宙飛行士のマスク、宇宙人の粘土マットとか印刷した。娘かなり気に入った。

http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/

Absolutely super website used by primary school teachers for ideas in Maths, English, Science...everything!!
Reinforce what your kids study at school by helping them at home too.
All kinds of resources can be printed out and they all look so good.

Right now my daughter's doing space at school, so we've printed out a space banner, astronauts for a rocket and space-themed playdough mats, just to name a few!!

Really, really check it out.

http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/

Aha Parenting: dinner time tantrums

2012-03-07T07:58:00.001+00:00

http://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-tools/family-life/Arsenic-Hour

I've never heard the expression Arsenic Hour...is it one? It seems a bit odd, but anyway it's that just before dinner time when everything seems to be kicking off at home. It's very good advice for preventing chaos!

My daughter's first ever school report!!

2012-03-03T21:37:00.000+00:00

Wow, just 2 months into her new nursery and my little girl brought home her first ever report!!

Of course, as she's only 3, it was very simple.

Positives were:

a sunny smile
sociable
wanting to do things by herself

To work on was:

writing her name
tidying up after finishing with toys (No surprises there!!!)

ブログをちょっと変えた・A change of look to my blog

2012-02-28T23:31:00.000+00:00

今日はブログのタイトルとれーアウトを変えてみた。”さよなら日本、Ow do ヨークシャー”になった。"Ow do"というの、北イングランドの挨拶。元気？かこにちわ！みたいな表現です。昨年日本から出て、ヨークシャーまで引越しした。最近、ヨークシャーの観光地かイギリスの生活についての発見について書いているなので、このタイトルはブログにもっと合うかな。バイリンガル子供育ち体験と英会話・英語の教え方をもちろん、続いて書きます。よろしくお願いしますー

You'll notice I've changed my blog's title and background today. It's called Sayonara Japan, Ow do Yorkshire. "Ow do" is a greeting from the North which means, "How are you?" or "Hello!". As I left Japan for Yorkshire last year I thought it is a good title. I've noticed my writing these days is about discovering new places in Yorkshire and learning new things life in the UK. I'll continue to share experiences of raising bilingual children and ideas for home teaching, especially English and Japanese. Thanks for continuing to read!

近状がナショナル・トラストで選べられている・Hardcastle Crags, Salem field and Hebden River

2012-02-26T16:33:00.001+00:00

天気がやっと暖かくなって、家の裏の散歩道を歩こうかなと思った。家族の皆さんで行ってきた。ヘブデン川と緑のスペース、サーレム・フィールドがあります。
この川のちょっと向こうに、ハードカストル・クラグスがあります。ハードカストル・クラグスはイギリスのナショナル•トラストの一部分です。ナショナル・トラストはイギリスの文化か自然の質高い場所を守ってるNPOです。美しい自然、滝、と観光客のインフォメーション・センターがあるだそうだ。

It was finally warm enough and dry under foot enough to go for a walk with my family to the riverside walk behind our new flat. There is the river and fields called Salem Fields.

Hebden river eventually leads to up to Hardcastle Crags, a part of the British National Trust. (The National Trust protects areas of Britain that have cultural, historical or natural value) Hardcastle Crags is a beautiful area of countryside walking with hills, waterfalls and a visitor centre, Gibson Mill.

We hope to visit there soon.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hardcastle-crags/

Nama Chocolate | Homemade Chocolate

2012-02-18T16:23:00.004+00:00

Found this today on Just One Cookbook, a lovely blog showing how to cook Japanese dishes. I really miss 'nama chocolate' since moving home. It's so soft and melts in your mouth, and we often see it in the winter months in the Japanese shops.

Just One Cookbook Nama Chocolate | Homemade Chocolate

It is SOOOOOOO easy to make. Just melted chocolate and cream.
Can't wait until it's ready!!

ペッパ・ピッグと水溜り　Peppa Pig and muddy puddles

2012-02-17T21:34:00.000+00:00

Peppa Pig's favourite past time is jumping in muddy puddles with her brother, George. It has made the past time a big hit with children who follow the TV programme too. I wonder how many mums and dads are secretly cursing Peppa as they see the daily laundry volume ever increasing with mud-splattered pants and socks. It's a bit of a pain in these winter months trying to get them all dry quick enough for the next round of puddle jumping!!! ペッパ・ピッグの大好きな遊び方は弟と水溜りにジャンプすること。このアニメを見ている子供たちも、同じように、水溜り遊びが大好きになっている。どれぐらいお母さんお父さん達が、ああ大変だ、と思っているだろう。ペッパ・ピッグの大好きな遊びのまねで毎日のどろどろの洗濯ものがどんどん増やしているだから。この冬のあいだにがんばって、洗濯ものを乾かないとだめだ、次の水溜りの遊びのために！！