Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Katei Homon

Which is the Home Visit. Elementary school teachers visit the student's home in Japan. Usually this happens in April or May soon after school begins so the teacher and the student's family can get to know each other. In our case this year, we had the Undokai in May, so everyone was busy preparing for that, so we had the home visit at the start of the summer vacation.

The teacher comes in, but only for ten minutes or so. We are told to not serve tea and snacks, so we do anyway, but are not surprised when she doesn't drink it! She tells you about how your child is doing at school and answers any questions you may have. It's a good opportunity for parents to ask questions they might be reluctant to bring up in front of everybody at a PTA meeting, or be too shy to go to the school to ask about. And it gives the teacher a good chance to get to know something more about her students. As a teacher, I would love this opportunity to take a peek inside my students' homes, to see what their home life is like.

We took the opportunity to ask about extra work that might be needed when we go to NZ later this year. Both teachers were fine with it, one even commented that her friend had done that too!

One teacher this morning asked about our daily routine. I've heard some want to see the child's room, or rather their study area, but that never happened to us. Though we have the desks downstairs now, in Amy's first year they were upstairs in the girls' bedroom. To some parents obviously, this will feel intrusive. DH told her the kids are up early to get to rajio taiso, then come home to do some study, with free time after lunch.