As I was dropping Miyu off at school this morning, I had the urge to finally document all of the things that I bring with us. Hoikuen had been daunting for me at first, but now that we’re settled into a routine, things aren’t that bad. To give you an idea of the madness though, here is a list of things that I bring for her.
Inside her backpack
In the front flap:
Renrakucho (communication journal for parents and teachers). This journal needs to have a record of her temperature for every single morning, and who is picking her up and what time. In the photo below, it’s the yellow booklet in the middle. Inside, it’s just regular lined notebook paper.
This photo was taken at the hoiken on April 3rd, right when Miyu started. The left sheet is actually her time card. The time card is something I’ll discuss in a future post about hoikuen in general. As of right now, October 2nd, that particular time card is no longer used.
Attendance booklet (I don’t know what this is called, will come back to this later). In the photo, it’s the blue and green booklet. When you open it, it’s basically a calendar where the teacher or child puts stickers on each day of attendance.
Monthly dues and fees (¥7,500~¥8,000) – This is separate from the monthly cost of attendance. These fees pay for extra classes that we have Miyu enrolled in like English and Gymnastics. There’s more but I can’t remember at this moment, go figure. I didn’t bold this item because this is not an everyday item. This is only for the beginning of the month. For her particular hoikuen, it’s a yellow bubble type of envelope with a ziplock closure at the top.
Insurance paper and ¥100 fee for her upcoming field day. Again, this is not an everyday item but I thought I would include this anyway. We placed the ¥100 yen inside an envelope.
In the main compartment:
Extra (normal) clothes: 4 shirts, 3 pants, 3 panties, 2 socks (I forgot to add another one). Usually, I can only fit three of each item.
I usually separate her extra clothes into outfits that are then placed into a thin plastic bag like the one pictured on the left underneath the clothes. When I don’t have time to organize, I just grab clean clothes and throw them into her backpack. The extra clothes are placed into her cubby drawer which I will explain in another post.
One set of extra gym clothes for that day (shirt + shorts). Gym clothes = uniform underneath skirt and blazer.
The extra set of gym clothes go inside a drawstring bag.
Cutlery for lunchtime.
The face towel gets folded into the small plastic container and everything is placed inside a drawstring bag. The container is useful because after the face towel is used, it’s usually wet and dirty, so the container keeps the other items from getting soiled. I leave the cutlery in her backpack which is stored in her cubby.
Face towel for lunchtime messes. This is usually soaked in water so that it’s easier to clean dirty faces.
Toothbrush + cup – Note there is NO toothpaste. This is kept in a drawstring bag and is hung along with the hand towel.
I check every now and then at the quality of her toothbrush. Once the bristles start to look worn down, I just go ahead and replace the toothbrush.
- Hand towel with a loop for drying hands after washing. These towels must have the holder loop so that they can be hung (along with the cup and toothbrush) on the mobile pegs typically located near the sink.
These towels are nice to have in her classroom because using a cloth towel as opposed to paper towels is better for the environment. Not only that but by bringing their own towels, it’s more hygienic.
Just for reference: There are two pegs in the photo to the left. The round one is used for hanging their outerwear. The long rectangular one is used for the hand towels and toothbrush set. I will touch upon these again in a future generalized post.
Handkerchief – They place these inside the back pocket of their shorts.
We got Miyu two different kinds of handkerchiefs to see which one we like better. The bigger, thinner ones are nice because they’re less bulky in the pocket. The downside is they don’t absorb much sweat. The smaller one on the right is nice because it absorbs sweat but for some reason they’re easy to tear. If you click on the photo to see the larger version, you’ll notice the Sophia handkerchief is falling apart at the bottom. Next time what I’ll do is buy a whole pack of these and then immediately trim off the tags so they won’t get pulled on and tear the fabric.
- Hat for outside. This is brightly colored and they’re standard for both hoikuen and yochien. They’re brightly colored so that when the children walk to a park or wherever they’re going, they can be seen easily by cars and other pedestrians. I’m guessing it also makes it easier for their teachers to keep an eye on them.
- Small shower towel (like the kind that you would normally put in a bathroom to dry your hands with). Yes, when they’re practicing for field day or just playing too much and sweat a lot, they end up taking a quick shower in their classroom. During the summer, her school actually had little kiddie pools that they would put out on the large balcony. I had to bring a bathing suit, a cap, and a towel for her every single day. After they were finished, they would shower. I’m glad summer’s over. 🙂
- Pajamas for the week – This is kept in the classroom throughout the week. This item is placed inside her backpack on Friday afternoon after nap time.
In a separate bag
I got tired of finding large plastic bags so I finally found this multi-purpose, reusable bag.
- Futon cover – These have corner garters to make sure they stay in place atop the futon mattress.
- Towel blanket
- Whatever extra (normal) clothes I could not fit in the backpack
- Waterbottle (always with mugicha or roasted barley tea) I usually have Miyu carry this, but sometimes I’ll just throw it in here or carry it myself.
Today, or last night rather, I forgot to write her name on the bag holding her shower towel. And then, as I was stowing away her backpack and other things in her classroom, I saw that there was a place to put aprons. Her class cooks sometimes and parents are required to provide their child an apron, a mask (like the kind that you use when you’re sick), and a bandana to keep hair away from the face and from falling into things. I was confused because Ken had told me that they’ll be cooking every Friday. *Shrugs* Anyway, when I dropped Miyu off this morning, I asked her teacher if they were cooking today and luckily she said “ashita,” which means tomorrow.
Photos and cost of each item coming soon!
