Jabu - jabu

Jabu-jabu is the sound that Japanese teachers in Kindergartens make when a child wants to play with water. We had lot of it this winter.

This is at the Wakakusa yochien. While looking into the Kindergartens for Maya I found out this one is told to be one of the best in Kochi city. So we went to the "entei kaiho" to see what's so special about. Entei-kaiho is time, when a mom can bring her kids with her into the Kindergarten and let them play, of course she has to watch them, time is quite limited and they don't participate in Kindergarten events. But still nice, and free, way to let your children socialize and play somewhere else.

What's different abut Wakakusa, that I don't see in any other place we go to (and we go somewhere every single day)? It's water!

Children in Wakakusa play outside. Mostly, with water, sand and dirt, and all year around. They get wet and dirty, they jump and splash, they built mountains of dirt or make "obento" of water and sand (and try feeding moms and teachers after they ate it themselves). They play outside all day long, getting inside for lunch and reading only. It doesn't matter if it's mid January and snow or mid July with it's terrible heat.

For reference:
Aiiku, the day care center Maya used to go - 1h outside in 8h long day, the rest they played in the classroom.
Wakaba, day care center where we go to play on Mondays - kids in there are outside from 10am untill 11am, outside is free and open to use all day, also for "visitors" like us. But someone has to tell children to get out first, as few are willing to do sth as first and risk unhappy teacher. So many end up spending all day inside. Children under 2years old as default don't go out at all. The classroom for "visitors" is a the 2nd floor so hardly anybody goes out. But we do and Maya loves the slides and she made few friends there, who find me as soon as I appear and ask where is Maya and Kalina to play with them. (BTW, Kalina's favorite play is making mommy scared that she would go down the slide head down, she didn't yet, but she likes to stand at the very top and jump and laugh at me, and finally her she jumps down the slide and goes on her back. :-/ )
Pocket Land - outside is small and has little grass area and sandbox. But when children head outside to play most moms run after them screaming "oh no, I have no clothes for change for you, stay inside". (Maybe it's time to pack?)
The others we go to don't have outside available at all.

Water is Kalina's favorite. She gets herself wet few times a day, and it's always as much fun as it was the previous time. She spends a lot of time scooping water from buckets into our sandbox.

Maya prefers more complicated projects. She makes birthday cakes, icecream, chocolate or purin (or some other sweets she would like to eat all day long but bad, bad mommy won't let her), she goes for a little walks and picks up flowers (nanohana is edible and we had another dish thanks to Maya the other day!). And she loves the plum trees that are blooming right now!