Wee-wee Tykes

Just when I was thinking "man, first graders are kind of out of control and don't want to sit still for 5 minutes," I get news that made me worry even more: I'm teaching pre-school twice a month.

Pre-school kids. Learning English. They probably can barely write their own names in their native language, and I'm going to be teaching them how to introduce themselves to a foreigner. Weird right?

I started my first pre-school class with some simple color cards, thinking it'd take the whole period for them to learn 7 or 8 basic colors, and be able to say and recognize them. Imagine my surprise when they stood up and said "hello, my name is riku/momo/ryosuke/whatever." They knew every color I had without so much as me having to prompt them with the first letter, something that about half of the first graders I've had so far haven't been able to do. Hell, I'm using the same games with second graders at one of my schools.

Anyway, I ran a few games with them and by the end, pretty much all of them knew when I was trying to trick them (say by holding up a yellow card and shouting out black) and they self-governed themselves during the game. The only thing that separated them from first and second graders was their propensity to get even louder, especially when doing jan ken (paper, rock, scissors) when there was a tie. Plus, I swear the cuteness levels here could kill a lesser person.

The only thing that threw me today in that class was when a little girl starting pointing at my crotch and saying the Japanese equivalent of wee wee (chin-chin)...that was a bit odd.