KICC News①　Winter Vacation Study Classes

During winter vacation, many children come to our study classes with their school homework.

Children with foreign roots often have difficulty getting help from their parents at home. Sometimes their parents are too busy with work, or there may be problems with their parents' limited Japanese skills.

In particular, “Kakizome” is something many children prefer to do at the study class rather than at home. Some children have many siblings and are often disturbed by their younger brothers and sisters, so they want to do it here to focus on.

Writing with a brush is quite difficult, but the children eagerly tackle a different kind of calligraphy. The staff give them advices, such as: “Yes, that part should be written in a straight line and stopped at the end to make it look neat,” “Slowly and gently release the brush at the end there,” and “Try putting a little more strength at the end there.” The children also begin to focus on aspects of kanji writing, like “tome” , “hane”,and “harai” ,which they usually don’t pay attention to. Even children who initially said it was a hassle end up writing seriously, concentrating, and practicing on Hanshi (the special paper for calligraphy) over and over again. We can see that their handwriting is becoming better and better.