So, we are not sure if you knew this, but...
Yuki's summer vacation has not started yet and he is still in school!
Tag told us you were already in summer vacation when he left America, and he was very surprised when he found out that Yuki was still in school!
Yuki starts his summer vacation on July 27th, and he is going back to school on September 1st!
Moreover, he has a ton of homework he has to do during the summer vacation, including kanji (Japanese letters) and math printouts AND workbooks, a book report, and a project of his choice.
The beginning of a school year in Japan is April, so Yuki will be going back to his class with the same class mates and the same teacher when he goes back to school on September.
This is Yuki's school. You can see the play ground, pool, gym, and school building.
This is the front entrance of his school.
This is the play ground and the school building.
In Japan, elementary schools are from Grade 1 to Grade 6, middle schools are from Grade 7 to Grade 9, and high schools are from Grade 10 to Grade 12. However, even though most kids go to high school, high schools are not compulsory in Japan and everyone has to take an entrance exam and pass in order to go to a high school.
Also, almost all the elementary school students in Japan go to school with one of these special backpacks called randoseru.
When Yuki's mom was small, boys carried black randoseru and girls carried red randoseru, but the time has changed. Now, everyone carries so many different colors of randoseru, such as pink, light blue, and brown!
Excuse Yuki's messy room, but this is how it looks like when it's opened.
Japanese elementary school students do not have school uniforms except for these randoseru unless it's a private school, but in middle schools and high schools, we all wear school uniforms to school.
Yuki cannot wait for his summer vacation to start so he can play and go visit many places with Tag!!
We really like Yuki's randoseru! It looks like it has a lot of room for everything he needs.
ReplyDeleteTyson and Audrey have homework during their summer break, too. They each have to do a project for their Honors Institute, which is a special program for kids who get good grades and are well behaved. Tyson has finished his project, and Audrey is working on hers.
When do kids start Grade 1 in Japan?
The kids are very jealous that your school has a swimming pool! Charlotte took some swimming classes through the school last year, but they had to take a school bus to another facility where the pool was. How nice it must be to have a pool at your school! How often do you get to go swimming?
Oh, wow... Way to go, Tyson and Audrey for being in Honors Institute! :O
DeleteThe age we start Grade 1 in Japan is the same as the age you start Grade 1 in the US... The year in which you turn 7. But of course, since schools start in April in Japan, the year starts on April 1st and ends on March 31st of the next year.
Ohhhh! That's why Charlotte is a good swimmer! Because she has taken some swimming classes! In Japan, every public schools have a swimming pool. At his school, kids in 6th grade clean the pool in the first week of July, and they start having swimming classes the week after that for twice a week until the school is over in the end of July.