Last Friday morning I went to Tomitsuka Elementary to read a couple of books. There's a program where in parents (mostly moms) volunteer to read to the school children about once a month. Sayori signed us both up to volunteer. As far as I know, I'm the only dad and the only non-Japanese in the program. Which makes sense because the other dads are probably at work by 8:00 am and my daughter is one of the only non-Japanese at her school.
As luck would have it, on Friday the 4th-grade class I was assigned to read to had some kids who spoke/understood English. One boy comes to English class here on Wednesday. He was a little bit shy when I said hi to him in his classroom on Friday. Another girl piped up after I had read the two books I brought and told me that she speaks English. She was really smiley and had no reservations about coming up to talk to me. Lots of boys seemed excited too but didn't have the skills to communicate with me in English, so we settled on high-fives. I look forward to going back again in September to read to some more kids.
Oh yeah, the books. I read Swimmy by Leo Lionni, first of all because the kids have all already read that book in Japanese, so the story is familiar and also because the pictures are fantastic. I also read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss which I don't think is a very familiar book to them. But I love Dr. Seuss' illustrations and rhymes and want to share his wonderfulness with these kids.
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