夕方、息子とふたりで、近くのモール（写真）で映画デート。パパと娘は家で、カレーづくりのゆったりタイム。なんたって、この１週間、修羅場だったから、週末のちょとしたご褒美です。ウィークデーは大変です。ふたりとも宿題が案外あるところ、日本語補習校の宿題も加わり、かなり忙しい。上の息子はミドルスクールなので、各科目の先生がそれぞれ宿題を出すからあれやこれや大変だけど、なんと言っても今週のキワメツケは日本語補習校からでていた算数のドリル10ページ！やっていることはきっとそんなに難しいことではないのだろうけど、いままで日本語で文章題をあまり解いてこなかったので、日本語で問題を理解するというところでつまずき、説明を読んでも日米のアプローチの仕方がかなり違うのでチンプンカンプン、一生懸命横で説明する親には反抗したいしで、かなりのドロヌマ状態。親子ともども疲れ果て、補習校前日の金曜日の夜中１時過ぎにやっと10ページ終わり、涙涙のゴールイン（最後はパパがつきっきりでがんばった）。
ご褒美の映画は、ティム・バートンがプロデュースした「９（ナイン）」を見たんだけど、う~ん、70点かな。息子が満足していたみたいだから、それでよしとします。
I had a movie date with my son this evening at a nearby mall (picture). My husband and our daughter had a quality time staying home and cooking some curry dinner together. It's a relaxing time after a week of hard work.
During the week we stay very busy. First of all kids have considerable amount of homework all through the week. Since they started at the Japanese school last week, they now have Japanese assignments on top of what they have usually. Our son was already busy with all kids of assignments for every subject from the middle school, but his biggest challenge of all this week was a 10 page assignment of the Math drill from the Japanese school. He has not worked on math problems in Japanese much in the past, thus first of all he has a trouble understanding what the problem is about. There is a hint given on each page to solve problems, but making sense of it requires some getting used to, since Japanese approach is quite different from American approach even if you are working on the exactly same problem. He has a parent or two eagerly trying to help him on his side, but he has this great need to resist those helpers. Well, it was not a pretty picture at all. He finally finished all 10 pages past 1:00 am, the night before the Japanese school.
So he got to pick a movie, and he chose "9 (nine)", produced by Tim Burton. It was ok. I would not say it was excellent, but as long as he was happy, I am happy.
