Today marks three months that we have been traveling, which means our year of adventure is a quarter of the way over. Three months of wandering, learning, and finding home in unexpected places. Time feels like it has simultaneously gone fast and slow. Time seems to speed up as we age because we have fewer…
Category: Homeschool
Water, Light, and Wonder: A Day at teamLab Planets
We had Field Trip Friday on Thursday this week and went to teamLab Planets. This is an immersive digital art museum and we had to get tickets in advance (they were sold out for Friday). This was a crazy sensory experience. It was weird, it was like nothing we had ever seen before, and it…
Field Trip Friday – Fail Turned Fun
Today didn’t go quite as we planned. For field trip Friday today we intended on visiting the Imperial Palace. This is the primary residence of the Imperial Family, and before going we read about the role of the emperor in Japan. Prior to WWII the emperor held political power, but today his role is purely…
Nakamise Shopping Street and Senso-Ji Temple
Last night we went to the Nakamise Shopping Street, which was the local place Alexis picked for her school project. She did all the research about what to expect and successfully navigated getting us there on her own. The majority of the walk there was along the Sumida river and took us about 45 minutes….
Miraikan – Stepping Into The Future
Yesterday, we visited the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. This museum is also known as Miraikan, which in Japanese means ‘future museum’. At times it really did feel like stepping into the future. The museum is known for its cutting edge science where you can explore a variety of topics. There were exhibits…
KitKat Tasting and Pajama Friday
Last night we did a blind KitKat tasting competition. It was so much fun! KitKats are a big thing here in Japan and are seen as a good luck charm. KitKat sounds like Kitto Katsu – a phrase in Japan that means ‘surely you will win’. They are often given with a good luck message…
Field Trip Fridays and Family Movie Night
When we got ready to start school this morning, Braxton asked if we could have pajama day. This reminded me that Fridays were often a fun day for him in school. In 3rd grade he had ‘Friday Fun’ which involved getting to play games on his chrome book. In 4th grade, they had something very…
School in the Morning, Pura Vida in the Afternoon
Our first week of school has gone fairly smooth overall. There were a few power struggles, but nothing we didn’t anticipate. The kids worked hard on all of their subjects! Alexis completed a paper on the history of Costa Rica and Braxton wrote an opinion essay on his experience at El Miro. We all enjoyed…
Homeschooling Begins – Learning Where Our Feet Are
Today was our first day of school! Our original plan was to start in September once we were settled in Japan, but we changed our minds. We realized we would like to have more flexibility to take days off throughout the year. The state of Colorado requires that we log 172 days of school and…