Konnichiha! Today was filled with Sudoku, Flags, Haiku, songs, origami & Teriyaki chicken. Can you tell it was Japan day?

We began our day by waking up our brains with age appropriate Sudoku puzzles. Boo has done some 4x4 squares before so I gave her some 6x6 to do. Bug had never done them before but picked it up pretty quickly. Both girls needed a bit of assistance to remind them to check rows, columns and boxes every time!

Next we listened to the Japanese national anthem, Kimigayo. It is definitely a slow and almost sad sounding song. It wouldn't get me hyped up about my country that is for sure! We learned about the flag, the capital and the nickname of Japan. Bug learned the words to "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" in Japanese (I had learned them years ago during Vacation Church School!). She had a good time trying to pronounce all the words. Boo tried counting to 10 with similar results!

After a break to go to the pool, Chip worked on teaching them some origami, traditional Japanese paper folding. They made dogs, a butterfly, a flower and a swan. The kids decorated the swan and butterfly with markers and crayons.

The dog

Chip doing origami

Bug decorating her dog

Looking at the origami pattern book

The final products

A flower from my husband!

For dinner, I prepared Teriyaki Chicken, wide noodles and peas. The recipe is pretty simple.

You need:
3 chicken breasts, cut into about 4 pieces each
1 cup Soy Sauce
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp ground Ginger
2/3 cup Splenda
1/4 cup of a fruity white wine

Mix all ingredients add chicken to marinate. You only need to marinate about 20 minutes. Place marinated chicken on a foil lined cookie sheet and broil for 8 minutes on each side. Check chicken, if not done, cook in oven at 350 for about 10 minutes.

Kid's Verdict: All three kids had seconds! Boo said it was delicious and although Bug ate some with ketchup, she ate most without. I thought it was quite flavorful!

During dinner, we talked a little bit about Haiku poems. The meter is 5-7-5 syllables. We explained syllables to Bug and then brainstormed what we could write about. Here is what we wrote:

Silly Things by Bug

After dinner, Boo & Bug painted their names in Japanese characters. I found this website that translates and then copied their names into the characters. They practiced writing them a few times and then used black tempra paint to "write them like the Japanese would." I think they look pretty good!

Boo working on her name

Bug working on her name
Boo's name
Bug's name

Lastly, here is a site where you can read about a day in the life of a Japanese child. It's quite interesting to read about the similarities and differences between life here and life there.