E x p a n ding fut ure pos s ibilit ies

P.9

Let's make a phonics cartoon
Line examples;1“Letʼ s go to the beach!”
2 “Hmmm...”10

3“Why not?”4“This is why...sigh.”

Please shareyour ideas!
Hiraku provides useful informationand the latest news related toEnglish and childhood education.

・Your recent interests
・Topics you want us to cover
・New content etc etc…
If you have ideas to contribute,please share these with us!
Hiraku Editorial Department
TEL：06-6135-0150
Mail： hiraku@kinderkids.ed.jp

Published inJuly 2020 Vol.10
Next issue isplanned to comeat the end of September

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

www.kinderkids.com

Understanding the importance of sleep for children
Join survey ★ GET ★ Present

Staﬀ Spotlight

Interview - Successful Examinees File 004

Eiken class Online Lesson
Grad Club News

Japanese Spirit with an International Future. Kinder Kids inc.

Understanding the importance of sleep for children!

The Japanese are described as the world's worst sleepers.

Why a lack of sleep is bad for children.

The Japanese are described as theworld's worst sleepers.
Japan is recognised as a sleep-deprived
country. 2018 OECD ＊ statistics revealthat Japan has the shortest averageamount of sleep in the world.
Moreover, according to the National
Health and Nutrition Survey 2017 conducted by the Ministry of Health,Labour and Welfare, about 30% of theworking generation (20-59 years old)
suﬀers from chronic sleep deprivation.

The majority of growth hormones are released during sleep. This is about
70% of the total amount secreted per day. Sleep deprivation suppresses therelease of growth hormones and has further negative eﬀects on children.
Children often fail to notice sleepiness and become irritable, hyperactive,
or impulsive.

＊ The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment)aims to discuss the overall global economy.
＊ Chart … Average sleep time per day in selected countries
OECD " Gender data portal 2018"
The survey year varies between countries.
The target population for the survey is of working age
people in most countries.

Estonia
New ZealandUnited States
CanadaGreeceSpain

Loss of concentration

Italy
FranceDecline in academic performance

Decrease in the amount of exercise

Australia
United Kingdom

Increased risk of injury

Stimulates unhealthy eating habits

OECD average
Germany
NorwayTrouble managing emotions

DenmarkSouth Korea
Japan
Hours 6.5

Sleep deprivation is a common problem in Japan, notonly among adults but also among children. According
to research (Mindell et al., 2010), "total sleep time forchildren aged 0 to 3 years" in Japan is 11 hours and 37
minutes, which is the shortest among 17 countries/regions and 1 hour and 42 minutes shorter than in New
Zealand.
A Pampers study found that 46.8%, nearly half of Japanese infants and toddlers (0 to 4 years old) went to sleep
after 10 p.m.
This night owl tendency continues as they grow and they
only have an average sleep time of 7 to 8 hours at puberty (junior high school students). This is about 30 minutes
shorter than in the United States and about 90 minutes
shorter than in European countries.

Children & Sleep

1

Feature
Story

7

7.5

8

8.5

9

Growth hormones can be referred
to as the fountain of youth .
Sleep is closely related to skincondition and obesity levels. Let sdevelop good sleep habits
together with our children ★

How much sleep is best for children?
To promote healthy physical development, check out how much
sleep your child needs.

＊ Chart …
National Sleep Foundation
Published in January 2015

0 ～ 3 months

14 〜 17 h

4 ～ 11 months

12 〜 15 h

1 ～ 2 years old

11 〜 14 h

3 ～ 5 years old

10 〜 13 h

6 ～ 13 years old

9 〜 11 h

14 ～ 17 years old

8 〜 10 h

18 ～ 64 years old

7〜9h
Hours

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

172

T h a n k y o u!
Let 's pr ac tic e healthy sle ep habit s at home!

If children develop healthy sleep habits,
they learn to sleep better in the long term
Many parents may feel that they don t get enough sleep every day. The optimum amountof sleep for adults is between 7 and 9 hours. Research shows that people in their 40s andraising children, sleep less than six hours. Less than in any other generation for both men
and women.
Lifestyles, including sleep patterns, aﬀect children signiﬁcantly. Let's consider the life
rhythm of our family. Do your family members tend to be night owls?

Family & Sleep
At Kinder Kids we have nap-time for long stay children from
infants to K1 (until the end of Term 1).The recommended
sleep time per day for children includes napping.
Taking afternoon naps at a certain time will help to fulﬁll thesleep requirements for children and will make it easier toadjust the child s sleep schedule at home.

A message from ourexperienced nursery teacher!

Read picture books aloud to help
children settle and relax

Dim the lights in the bedroomYour favorite articles
Categories you are interested inYour recent interests
Topics you want us to coverin the future
New contents, etc...

For the healthy
development of yourchild and your health,will you reconsider
the sleeping habits ofyour family?

18:00ｐ.ｍ.

"Parent Survey" Page
For PCs,

the menu is in the top right
For Smartphones,

dropdown menu in the top right corner

Join survey GET！ Present

Go to bed within an hour after taking a bath3

Scan to accessthe survey!

Childcare Department
Hirose Takako

As children are more sensitive to lightthan adults, pay more attention to children s
use of smartphones and tablets.

Keep regular bedtime and wake-up times
Maintain the same sleep /wake patterns as
usual on holidays

Many thanks to you all, it has been one year since "Hiraku" was ﬁrst published.
For the past year, we covered a range of topics including people, products andservices that we hoped you would ﬁnd engaging.
Pleasecomplete our
In order to create a more attractive magazine, we kindly ask for yoursurvey bycooperation in ﬁlling out our survey.
Monday,Sept. 7th

Tips for getting children to sleep

Prevent children from watching
TV or smartphones 1 hour before
bedtime to help them feel calm

A n n i v er s
u
で
yo
toま
ksさ
げ
ary
n
a
か
Expanding future possibilities
おTh

Angry Apple lunch bags!

We will give our original lunch bags featuring Angry Apple
to 50 raﬄe winners that complete our survey.
Please complete our survey by
Monday, September 7th, 6:00 p.m.

50

raﬄe
winners

Please takea moment tocomplete oursurveyTo enter our raﬄe for the lunch bags, please make sure toenter your name in the survey.

Back issues are now available!
Digital edition

Hiraku page in Kinder Kids Grad Club, or school websites
Digital editions of all the back numbers up to vol.9 (issued in
May 2020) are available in both Japanese and English.

4Staff

Interview

Takatsuki
7 classrooms, indoor gym,
rooftop garden
Surprisingly spacious!

Spotlight

SchoolTakatsuki School Manager
Eriko Okubo

School

Sakai School has
lots of experienced staff
working for Kinder Kids
across the grade levels!

S

Our staﬀ is reliable, always values teamwork, takes
care of children across all levels, and provides achild-centered approach that brings out eachchild s potential. The future possibilities of children
in all aspects of their lives, especially language
acquisition and group interaction, is truly amazing
and inspiring to me every day. They show me theircrafts or tell me about lunches they tried hard toeat...I can see their growth every day through such
heartwarming interactions.
It is very fulﬁlling to be able to share in the children's development and the pleasures of raisingchildren with their parents.

HP

Facebook

1-1-1, Tenjin-cho,
Takatsuki-shi, Osaka

5

Sakai
Sakai School Manager
Eriko SugimuraTakatsuki School is located in a very convenienturban area close to JR Takatsuki Station. As
some parents are working while others are not, I
always try to be aware of and meet their various
needs.
While children continue to grow rapidly, each family
has diﬀerent concerns and thoughts about raisingchildren. As individuality and growth varies fromchild to child, I am always learning how to encourage children to be independent and give assistanceand attention to things children struggle with asnecessary.
I would like to keep an open environment whereparents feel free to exchange opinions or to share
their concerns with us at any time, and make surethat both parents and school staﬀ feel comfortableto talk to me ﬁrst so that I can act as a bridge
between them to provide the best care for children.
Our school staﬀ has a lot of diversity with diﬀerent
nationalities and ages.
The staﬀ room is always ﬁlled with laughter, and we
actively share information about childcare, the day's
events, and how children are doing.

Interview

akai School is located in a quiet residential
area and 15 minutes walk from each of thenearest stations. Close to the school, there is a park
where children can get in touch with nature, viewing
insects and plants. In the school yard, children enjoy
playing with the slide, sand, and water! We also have
fun school events such as Tanabata and Halloween
to encourage children to interact with friends ofdiﬀerent ages. We always enjoy activities no matter
if it s hot or rainy. There are a lot of uniquely attractive activities which children can only experience inthe school.
I have been working for Kinder Kids for 10 years.
There was a family who graduated from Kinder Kids
when I just started to work. After a while, this familycame back to Kinder Kids for a sibling to join us. I
felt so happy that they chose us again even though
it s been a while since they graduated and there
must be lots of other schools they could choose. I
still remember what they said "If we choose Kinder
Kids, the English ability of children will be guaranteed!" and "Our children will become independentand able to do many things!"
We focus not only on improving English skills but wealso take care of children according to their stage ofdevelopment as childcare professionals. Under ourphilosophy of "Every staﬀ member is responsible forevery child , we encourage children to develop theirown minds so that they can demonstrate their abilities in their own way when they go to elementary
school after graduation.

Our school has lots of teachers who have children
and they understand being in the position of aparent. I can see them trying to empathize withparents in every situation. All the staﬀ members try
to be aware of each parent s feelings and provide aplace where everyone can feel comfortable and lookforward to coming to every day.

HP

Facebook1633-1 Nagasone-cho,
Kita-ku, Sakai-shi, Osaka

6

Eiken class

Online

unch！
La

月 水

Check member site
"Kinder +""Grad +"!

Take classes from the comfort of home

Choose the best time/day for your schedule and no need to travel.

金Grade4 G 16：00〜17：00
M 16：00〜17：00

03

受験年月
Counting backward from the scheduled exam date I madea study plan, I allocated time to study for the Eiken
test, working on past exams and expected questions
little by little every day.
Family support

How I understood the questions

I tried to have a rough idea about what was
written instead of understanding completely.
I also tried to find out how to deal withdifficult questions;such as figuring out the meaning of words that
I didn’t know from the context
or using the elimination method, etc.

To encourage my child to work with confidence,
we asked her to start with questions she liked
and moved on to questions she didn’t likeafter she’d been motivated.
In regards to social situations and trends, when
we found any topics likely to be covered in
the exam, we wrote explanations in a notebook tomake them easy for her to understand.

G ... Group Lesson M ... One on One Lesson

Grade3 G 17：15〜18：15

M 17：00〜18：00

Pre2 G 18：30〜19：30

M 18：00〜19：00

Take only lessons for the topics students wish to focus on＊ At least 3 lessons

Students have an option to take the same lesson twice
if they wish to review or study it again.

04

K3

How I studied

Students study the same curriculum in the same week as each school.
Students continue learning while ensuring safety in preventing infectious diseases.

02

受験年月
Grade
at exam

受験年月 Pre-2
Grade

We have started a new online course for Eiken class!
The beneﬁts of taking online classes were noticed by many at the end ofTerm 1 and the number of applications in the second term nearly tripled! Our
next online course will start this fall and we are looking forward to you joining us!
If you have any questions or inquiries,
please contact Kinder Kids Eiken Department [06-6135-0140]!
What's new?

Four Features

ちゃん

January 2020 （The third exam in 2019）

Test date

Example (Lesson schedule for 2020 Term 2)

M.O

Entr ant

受験年月 Ibraki Saito
SchoolLesson01

Fi l e0 0 4

Successful
Examinee

Vocabulary
勉強法

How I studied

I highlighted words that came up
frequently in questions, identified
unfamiliar words and tried tomemorize them.
Writing
勉強法

A learning style of students' choice: One on One/Group Learning

Choose a learning style suitable for your child's personality.

What do you like about Kinder Kids!

The expressions and words that the teacher
usually used were helpful for passing the grade pre-2.
There are lots of things that our child learnedin Kinder Kids. It is a great help for parents!

How I got overMessage for peers who are studying

For long sentences, marking eachparagraph made them easier to see
and understand which part was related
to which questions.
This helped me answer questions more quickly.

Journal homework helped me learn various
expressions and it was helpful when I organized mythoughts and expressed them in my own words andsentences in the exams.
‘Show & Tell’ was also helpful for interviews!
*Refer to group test site results

One on One

Group Learning

30minutes

60minutes

Learn at a pacethat suits
each child!

7

Group members motivate
each other! Reinforce and support
each other s learning!

＊ Kinder Kids/Grad Club students can take the online course.
＊ We may ask parents to conﬁrm that the online system is operatingsmoothly during the lesson in case of computer or network problems.

There were many cases where
discussion in class helped
each student to work out
the answer by themselves!

＊ The online course is for Grade 4, 3, and Pre-2.
＊ Feedback is given to parents during the last 5 minutes of each lesson.
＊ There is no listening preparation provided online for the Eiken test.

Ki nde r Ki ds

Our overall results
受験年月
Test
date

January 2020 (The third exam in 2019)

Passing rate ofGrade 3

88％

受験年月
Test
takersPassing rate ofGrade Pre-2

K3

1 ／8 名Questionnaire conducted by: General Research Ltd. Survey period: February 22-25, 2019
Survey method: Internet Survey summary: Comparison of services oﬀered by 10 English focused pre-schools
Survey participants:1048 Japanese adults M/F aged 20-50

8

Let's make a phonics cartoon

1

Grad Club

Let's enjoy the comic world of four panel manga withyour children in English!
In the manga, there is a ghost girl who is a bit selﬁsh andspoiled but cannot be left alone, and a caterpillar
boy who is a cool all-rounder with great taste
in art and music. What are they talking about?
Choose from the following four lines to complete
the cartoon.

Grumpy Ghost

News

Cool Caterpiller

This is why...︓これだから ...
2

1

3

3

We have opened ‘Kids Dining’ to provide energy
and inspiration for the afternoon lessons!
In Tennoji
Yuhigaoka
School,urday lunch at Kids Dinin
y Sat
g
o
j
En

We oﬀera one coin (500 yen)lunch with a variety
of ﬁlling dishes.

ning for Saturday classand ope
stud
r
g
é
ent
f
ﬁ
s
h
t
a
f
a
e
o
r
s
'
a
t
s!
cha
Le
C
nge
JapanesedishesEveryone
loves
it!

C ur

Curry
Fried Chicken

ry w i t h F r i e d

ic
Ch

ke

Udon Noodles
Fish Plate!

n

The menu is improving
by incorporating the opinionsof students and teachers.

Le「Hmmm...」

st「Letʼｓ go to the beach!」2

Our Grad Club lessons this year started in June; two months behindschedule.The children's lively voices have come back to our schools!
Saturday classes in Tennoji Yuhigaoka School are bustling with around200 children from G1 to G6.
Most children take a full-day of lessons from morning to evening andenjoy lunch with their teachers and friends!

4

ea

t ve

Served witha bite-size
dessert, a salad,and side dishes.

gg ie s!

「This is why...sigh.」
9「 W h y n o t ? 」See back cover for examples of lines※Lunch is served ﬂexibly,
in line with class rotations.

10