Book about childcare education and how to keep English level up

Hisashiburi

I am teaching and creating various curriculum's at an international pre-school in Kansai and am searching for a book about childcare education.

The students in my class follow this course for about 3 to 4 years, for 5 days a week. Most of my students will go to a regular Japanese elementary school and lots of parents wonder if they will be alright at ES since the education most international schools give compared with regular Japanese kindergartens vary widely. Now I am in search of a book that gives information on what students need to know before they go to ES, basic things that they should learn at Japanese kindergarten. For example; how to hold chopsticks, sit, and other kinds of matters.

Of course I am not planning on putting all those things into the schools curriculum since it wouldn't be an international school anymore in my opinion, but I do want to prepare my students that will enter a regular Japanese ES. Since my Japanese isn't perfect I prefer a book that is easy to read and has clear images in them, or even better a book or PDF file in English. If you have any ideas yourself please feel free to share these.

Also I wonder what kind of advice I could give to parents when they ask on how to keep their students English level up after they graduate from the school.
The things I normally advice are:
* keep reading English books together (i.e. oxford reading tree)
* listen to English music in the car and at home
* plan an overseas trip or study overseas (motives the child to keep studying English)
* take English tests such as JET, Japec and Eiken
* have English only times (in bath for example)
* keep coming to the after classes at least twice a week (if the school is to far, I advice them to go to an English school in their area)

If you guys have any other advice except for these or ways how parents can keep motivating their children to keep practicing please share them.

Ohisashiburidesu.

I do not have children of my own or those of relatives around me, so this is based on my own experience. Of course it was loooong time ago but as far as I looked up the info on the net, the basics remain unchanged.

Kindergarten is basically a place to learn social skills, i.e. to get on well with others. What we are taught at Japanese kindergartens are:
- simple games to play with friends without using too many things (onigokko, ken-ken-pa, nawatobi, kagome-kagome, hankachi-otoshi, etc.)
- childrens plays (making something with clay, origami, drawings with crayons, etc.)
- seasonal traditions (oshogatsu, setsubun, hinamatsuri, tango no sekku, tanabata, and even Christmas.)
- hiragana
- dancing (oyuugi - nothing too fancy)
- singing (children's songs)
- listening to stories (read by teachers)

Basics for individuals such as using chopsticks, sitting on the floor properly, how to eat one's lunch etc. are expected to be taught at home, not at kindergartens.
Through games and plays children learn basic rules in society, like being kind and considerate to each other, to wait for one's turn, queuing (standing in line), to greet when meeting or parting.

Most of the things except some traditional Japanese stuffs, I believe that they are taught at international pre-schools too.

Here is a simple description of kindergartens in Japan (by MEXT)
幼稚園ってなあに？どんなところ？何するところ？－文部科学省
(consists of 3 pages)
幼稚園ってなあに？どんなところ？何するところ？－文部科学省
(pictures showing various activities at kindergartens)

I'm sure that other members who have children and/or in the educational field will provide more detailed and practical information.

Hello Davey,

Greetings from Tokyo. As a father of an 8 year old with a Japanese wife, I appreciate the complexity of providing an optimal education. I would simply advise to spend some time on the wonderful site Bilingual Monkeys, which is dedicated to this topic. The founder, Adam Beck, is a writer based in Hiroshima who is passionate about the issue and has developed quite a following. I hope this lead is helpful.

Best Wishes,
Steffen