E x p a n ding fut ure pos s ibilit ies
Kinder Kids is the#1 pre-school
in Japan in four very
important categories!

5

In a nationwide survey of pre-school services in Japan, Kinder
Kids was voted Number 1 in four categories: Curriculum
Quality, Child Welfare, Children's Enjoyment and Elementary
School Preparation. Upholding our unique philosophy of"Japanese Spirit with an International Future", we willcontinue to build on our 20 years of accumulated knowledge
to develop children who have an international perspective
and who are able to thrive in new environments.

Questionnaire conducted by: General Research Ltd.
Survey period: February 22-25, 2019
Survey method: Internet Survey summary: Comparison of services oﬀeredby 10 English focused pre-schools
Survey participants:1048 Japanese adults M/F aged 20-50

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Hiraku Editorial Department TEL：06-6135-0150 Mail： hiraku@kinderkids.ed.jp

Developing Self-Expression from Early Childhood.
Published in
September 2019 Vol.5
Next issue isplanned to comeat the end of November

Kinder Kids Inc.
TEL：06-6135-0150
Pulala Tenma 2F, 3-1 Ikeda-cho,
Kita-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka. 530-0033

www.kinderkids.com

Globally Active Kids

Interview with a Kinder Kids Graduate
Japanese Spirit with an International Future. Kinder Kids inc.

SELF EXPRESSION
Part.1
What does it mean todevelop self-expression

We inspire our children tocommunicate their ideas andfeelings with others.

Featuretory

with clear communication skills?

Children who can clearly express themselvesInternationally, the Japanese may be seen as poker-faced
and not showing their feelings clearly.
There are two possible reasons why the Japanese areseen this way. One is because Japanese tend to adopt
this stance as a way of showing respect to others and it isalso a result of traditional Japanese education.
Traditionally Japanese education tends to focus on
acquiring knowledge, while developing students people
skills has been seen as less important than accruing new
knowledge.
However, due to the acceleration of globalization in
Japan, this traditional method of education is being
reconsidered.
A lack of expression makes it diﬃcult to convey yourthoughts and feelings to others. It may also cause diﬃculties in both personal and workplace relationships.
Under the course of study, it describes developing
self-expression as an essential life skill.

At Kinder Kids, children take part in Circle Time from Nursery level as part of the daily routine
and learn how to express themselves, and the importance of sharing their feelings with friends.
Toddlers often can t express their needs verbally to say I want my toys back! . Crying, pinchingor biting their friends is a substitute for the messages that they can t yet express with words. At
those moments, we teach children how to respond depending on the situation, and provide themwith the language they need to express themselves.
We frequently use words like sorry thank you or please during reading time, play activities
and throughout the day. Children see examples of situations where these words can help them toexpress their feelings, empowering them to communicate.
In Kinder level classes, children have theme discussions where they use their theme workbooks asa tool to explore their feelings or ideas around the topic and share them. Additionally, children
take part in Show and Tell to share their experiences or interests with their classmates, helping
them become conﬁdent public speakers.

Children who can clearly
express themselves

You ll be upset
if someone
takes your crayon

I wonder about
this feeling…
Am I frustrated?

Elegant ElephantKiwi is sad…
I wonderwhat I can say
1

Kissing Kiwi

As the children have new experiences in class they will
also develop new vocabulary so they can adequately
describe and express their reactions to these.
Developing strong communication skills that allow thechildren to share their opinions eﬀectively with otherpeople will be a beneﬁt to them throughout their life.

2
Running Rabbit

Staff

Interview

Tama Plaza

NagoyaSpotlight

SchoolThe newest Kinder Kids school
in Japan opened
in April 2017.

Interview

SchoolTama Plaza School Manager
Manaka Iwashita

Nagoya School Manager
Junna Ojima

Our Only Kinder Kids school in
Chubu region. Supporting children from infancy
through to elementary and high school with their learning.

Ｔ

ama Plaza school is located close to thetrain station. It is conveniently located close
to central Tokyo, with a big shopping mall andpark nearby and it is home to many young families.
All of our Tama Plaza school staﬀ actively contribute to the smooth running of the school. We
interact with all the children so we are very close
to each other regardless of the children s age
diﬀerences and that creates a warm and lively
ambience in the school.
We encourage the children to interact with
diﬀerent age groups so we often see older children will help to take care of the younger children and the younger children try to learn fromtheir older peers. I genuinely feel the importanceof communication every day working in thisschool. My goal is to notice the ﬁne details
about each child s growth and tell parents
about their progress even just a small thing thatshows the children are working hard.
I will watch the children grow up alongside
their parents and share the joy of their growth
while maintaining a homely and inclusive atmosphere.
HP

FacebookＮagoya school is in an urban area where
many major schools are located but has
nature on its doorstep, including the local parkwith a famous big pond and beautiful springcherry blossoms.
It oﬀers a spacious yard and gym so children
can enjoy playing even on rainy days. Our
school staﬀ have a lot of energy and lots ofsmiles so they can keep up with children. The
staﬀ often impress me when I see how they genuinely interact with each child. We value building trust with children and watch each child s
growth closely through the well thought out
activities created by our team.

3F KM Bldg, 2-14-4
Utukusigaoka, Aobaku-ku,
Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa

It feels very rewarding when I hear stories fromparents telling me how they are so impressedthat their child translated for them when theywent on an overseas trip, or a graduate student
explains to me how he uses the same English
book that he used at Kinder Kids so he s very
conﬁdent reading it at elementary school. I feelso proud to hear that Kinder Kids graduates
excel with the English skills they honed throughCircle Time and our comprehensive curriculum.
I will strive to provide excellent childcare andeducation that will continue to make our graduate students proud to say they went to Kinder
Kids.
HP

Facebook

5-1 Hayato, Hiroji-cho,Showa-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi

Nagoya school
is continuing togrow withthe children!

3

Every day we are
lively frommorningtill evening!
4Interview

Globally
Active Kids

1

A student from our Canada School used our transfer system to visit
Yokohama School. Her mother returning temporarily to her hometown
took advantage of our service.
Visiting a diﬀerent country for a while with kids can be challenging andstressful for both parents and children. However, by using Kinder Kids
transfer system, she could transfer to Kinder Kids Yokohama smoothly
without changing her uniform, textbooks or having to miss any education.
She enjoyed school in Japan just as much as she did at Kinder Kids Canada .
We asked the mother what she thought about using the Transfer System.

ー Did you join any events held at School?
There was an Open Day held so I went along to it. It was a very nice opportunity to see my daughter
enjoying her class.
ー How did you spend your holidays? Please tell us about your favorite places,
recommendations or tourist destinations.
ー Why did you choose to send your children to Kinder Kids?
I chose Kinder Kids because I heard positive feedback about Kinder Kids from people I know. Also,
there is a transfer system and staﬀ are bilingual. When I visited the school, it had a good ambience that is also a reason why I chose Kinder Kids.
ー Did you have any concerns before coming to Japan?
If you did, were those concerns resolved after you arrived?
My daughter can be shy so I worried about how she would adjust to the new surroundings.
However, the class teachers and her classmates were very bright and friendly and my worries soon
disappeared.
ー Kinder Kids doesn t arrange a place for you to stay in Japan.
How did you make arrangements for your accommodation?
Luckily, my parents home was close to the Kinder Kids school so we were staying at my parents .
ー Tell us about your child s ﬁrst day at school: Were they nervous or were they excited?
Although she didn t say it, I could feel that she was a little bit nervous.
5

Our favorite place is Kodomo No Kuni and not to mention, Disneyland was lots of fun.
A Shopping mall called Tressa Yokohama was also fun for her, especially because she could ridein the shopping cart. Shopping carts that kids can ride in is uncommon in Canadian shopping
malls, and even if there is one, we would have to pay 5 dollars so she doesn t usually get to ride it.
ー Do you recommend other students experience the transfer to Japan? Please give advice tothose who are thinking about participating in the program about how to prepare.
Yes, I deﬁnitely would recommend it. There is no need for any particular preparation but theschool year has a diﬀerent structure in Japan to Canada (the school year in Japan is from April to
March, but it is January to December in Canada), so depending on when you transfer, you may go
into a diﬀerent class from your local school class. Therefore, it is safer if you check which level
your child will go into before you transfer and ﬁnd out how it is diﬀerent.
My daughter was born in February, so she is preschool in Kinder Kids Canada, but she is in K1
class in Japan. (In Canada, Kinder class starts only from 4 years old for 2 years). She was confused in the beginning when she found out there was no nap time, and she needed to write a sentence for homework because she only knew how to trace the alphabet. She attended class every
day although she only went three days a week to Kinder Kids Canada (you can choose three days
or ﬁve days per week in Canada s preschool).
6

High School

Interview

ReportInterview witha Kinder Kids Graduate

Cambodia YouthVolunteers

Kinder Kids Toyonaka School 8th graduate student: R.S
After she graduated from Kinder Kids, she went to a public elementary
school and junior high school, then moved on to the Senri and Osaka
International Schools of Kwansei Gakuin high school. From her second
year of high school, she studied abroad at a high school in South Carolina, U.S for a year and she came back to school here in Japan from
September. She passed Eiken pre-Level 1 when she was a junior highschool student and she speaks English ﬂuently.
When she was at high school in South Carolina, she was selected for the
National Honor Society which only selects students who maintain excellent grades, are actively involved in volunteering, and have great leadership skills.
After she graduated from Kinder Kids Toyonaka, she came back to Toyonaka school to take part in an internship. She also joined our Grad Club
camp and Australia program. This year, she helped out as a volunteer
leader at G1 Summer Camp. We asked her about her memories of Kinder
Kids and what she is doing currently.

ー What do you remember the most about when you were at Kinder Kids?

KinderThree Kinder Kids graduates visited
Cambodia to do volunteer work.
They visited Chanserrey Elementary
School in Western Cambodia s
Pursat province, established bya donation from Kinder Kids students
parents.
They also visited a Japanese
language school in Phnom Penh.

I thought it wasamazing that
although the environment forstudying is not very welldeveloped,
they study hard anyway.

w w w. g r a d - c l u b . c o mPlease check out what we do!

The Christmas Concerts. It was fun to play with my classmates and towear the costume my mother made for me.

I was amazed by the
Cambodian students
enthusiasm for learningand how fast they
can learn. I am very
motivated by them.

ー When was your ﬁrst overseas trip?
I went to Australia when I was in K2 to see the Wiggles concert as thatwas my favorite music at the time. I went there with three of my K2 classmates families.
ー Tell us what you thought about the overall experience of studying
abroad in the U.S.

Toddler

There were so many diﬀerent races, religions and people with diﬀerent
backgrounds. It was really important to respect other people s opinions
and understand each other.
ー What language do you watch foreign movies in?
I deﬁnitely watch in English. I can tell that when it is translated into Japanese the nuance and expression changes.
ー What do you want to do when you grow up?
I haven t speciﬁcally decided yet, but I would like to do a job that
requires me to interact with other people.

7

Nursery

Not only is she interested in English, but she is also interested in IT,
so she will join an IT camp for junior high and high school students
from all over Japan. We can t take our eyes oﬀ her, she s going places!

I am not a very sociable
person but the Cambodian
children made suchan eﬀort to interact
with me, that
I was able to easily overcome
my social awkwardness!

Cambodia Youth Volunteer provided theman opportunity/milestone to gain further
international perspective and nurture
adaptability in preparation for
the international workplace.
Going overseas and learning something
new with friends, can be an opportunity totake a look at oneself again and theexperience has certainly made theirworld bigger.
Glad Club Department
Miku Kawata

Chaperone8EikenOｎlineLessonWe are proud to oﬀer new
Eiken online lessons!

will start!

For students who canʼt attend Eiken classapplication.
＊ Students can apply for up to 6 diﬀerent
lessons at once.

Procedures fortaking lessons
1

One on One Lesson

3

Students will complete homework andsubmit it back to us by 15:00 on the dayof the lesson via email.

approx. 22 minutes

2

Work

Feedback
approx. 3 minutes

The student with their guardiancan receive feedback on points
from the lesson.

Submit homework
via email4This great opportunity is oﬀered only for K3 students who will be taking
Grade 5 & 4 exams. We started these online lessons to help students whowant to join Eiken class but due to their conditions (such as a schedule
conﬂicts or their school currently doesn t have Eiken class etc.,) are unable
to physically partake.
They will learn about the format of the Eiken test as well as how to study
for it eﬀectively, particularly the reading test. Your child will be required tosubmit homework in order to practice what they have learned in the lesson.
Keeping their age in mind, ideally it is better to study with study buddies
in a school as they will gain more motivation than they would just studying
by themselves. However, if there is no other choice then take the online
lesson - please apply!
We also provide lessons that prepare children for the second stage speaking test for those who passed the ﬁrst stage of grade 3.
The ﬁrst stage of Eiken will take place around the time when new K3
students are participating in Sports Day.
Around this time there are usually only a few students who can join Eiken
Class so there are usually only a few students who will take the Eiken test.
However, this year, two students for grade 3, and 15 students for grade 4
took the test at group test sites of Kinder Kids.
The result was impressive; both students passed grade3, and 13 students
out of 15 passed grade 4!
Our teachers were very proud of them, and we hope that they gained someconﬁdence from this experience and will move on to the next step.

Feedback on
homeworkOnce we receive your homework, we will give feedbackon the homework and send it
back to you via email.

Questionnaire conducted by: General Research Ltd.
Survey period: February 22-25, 2019
Survey method: Internet
Survey summary: Comparison of services oﬀeredby 10 English focused pre-schools
Survey participants:1048 Japanese adults M/F aged 20-50

Eiken Department
Tomoe Higashi
10