Japanese reading assignment

子どもたちが毎週土曜日、西大和学園土曜補習校に通い始めて３週間。１年生の娘は、毎週の漢字テストに最初は戸惑ったけど、すぐ慣れてOK。問題は５年生に入った息子。最初の週は、荒波の小船状態。漢字で苦戦。算数ドリルで苦戦。助けようとする親には反抗（ま、気持ちも分かるけど）。きっと、「こんなに大変ならやめてもいいよ」という一言を期待していたのかもしれないが、こっちも絶対あきらめずにアメとムチ作戦。その結果。。。

２週目からはあきらめたのか案外素直に宿題もやるようになり、しかも漢字テストも、「最初は50点取れればいいよ」という親の横で、それじゃあいやだと勉強しだしたり。。。

そして３週目、国語で音読の宿題が出た。案外長い小説を３回まわり。きっと文句を言うだろうと思いきや、本日月曜日さっそくやり始めた。いろいろな読み方バージョンがあり、これはラップバージョンだそうです。ラップというよりは講談みたいだけど。先生がなんて言うかは知らないけれど、ちゃんとやっているだけよしとしよう。

It's been three weeks since kids started with Japanese school at Nishiyamato Academy every Saturday. Our 1st grade daughter (2nd in the American system) had a relatively smooth take off, being simply a 1st grader. Our 5th grader son (6th in the Amrican system) is a different story. He sailed through a rough stormy bumpy start. He struggled with 5th grade Kanjis (Japanese characters) and Math word problems, begin unable to make sense out of them. He needed but did not want parents' help, being a typical preteen. He was maybe expecting us saying, "It is just way too much. This was not a good idea." Of course that did not happen. We stayed on.

He probably figured out in his own way that we never let him quit, and after the second week, he started working on those assignments with a more positive attitude. Although we told him that we should be happy if he scores 50% on Kanji tests for the time being, he had a higher expectation and worked until late!

Now we are in the third week. One of the assignments is to read aloud this relatively long novel in the textbook three times. I knew he would complain which he did, but he is done with the first round today (MONDAY!) without much fuss. To make this assignment more bearable, he invented a couple different rhythms to read it along with, and this is a lap version. I do not know whether his teacher approves it or not, but the important thing is he is working on it, isn't it?