麦わら帽子の季節になりましたね。

麦わら帽子にひかれて買った絵本があります。「なつのあさ」というその絵本は男の子が、大好きな汽車を見に行く、という設定です。

自転車をこいで汽車を見に行きます。「なつのあさは　しろい・・・」という文章がまだみんなが活動を始める前の静かな時間を想像させてくれ、読んでいるだけでこちらの心まで澄み切ってきます。

頂上に到着し、汽車が来るのを待ちます。そこに遠くから、「だっだっ　しゅっしゅっ」という音とともに汽車が見えてきます。

最近ひらがなを読めるようになった息子はこの絵本が大好きで時々私に読んでくれます。

偶然にも、息子が通う幼稚園の夏用の帽子も麦わら帽子なのです。麦わら帽子をかぶった後姿が特にかわいくて、絵本に通ずるところもあり親ばかながら後ろから何枚も写真を撮ってしまいました。

Today my kids and I went to ‘Crayon House’, a book store in Esaka, Suita to participate a workshop of reading an English picturebook.    A friend of mine and her kids also attended it.

The book title is “The Happy Egg” written by Ruth Krauss.

I would say it was the first time for me to listen to a lecture about how to read aloud English picture books.   The lecturer is a chief cordinator of English picture books sold in ‘Crayon House’.  She also translate several books from English to Japanese.

She pointed out 4 important things to do when we read the book ‘The Happy Egg’.

First, we should follow a sentence on a page with our forefingers while reading.

Second, keep in mind to put a lot of feeling into the sentence.

Third, when we come across a word or words that we can’t read, we just say “Munya, munya,” I don’t know the proper word in English, we just bubble those words.

And lastly, the most important thing of all is we need to read aloud the book again at home within 24 hours from the time when the workshop started.    And she recommended us to read it to  anything alive.   It could be a goldfish or a plant.    

I learned a lot there.

After that,  we played at the park near the bookshop.  we stayed there nearly 4 hours.  I haven’t seen the friend lately so we talked a lot each other.

It was a good day.

I went to a shoe shop named “POISSON”  to buy a new pair of shoes for my son.  

This is the first time in 2 years to visit that shop.   When I first knew about the shop was 4 years ago.  

Since  my son didn’t seem to start to walk at the age of 18 months,  after having had a consultation with a doctor at a medical check,  I was told that my son should be examined throughly at a big hospital.   Then the doctor wrote  a  referral to the Saiseikai Hospital in Suita.

At the hospital, he had his brain checked with CT.   Then a doctor suggested us to go to ”Ryoikuen” attached to the hospital where disabled people take various trainings.   

He had gone to the institute once a week for about 6 months.   In that period it was hard for me both physically and mentally.   Please read the post I wrote about that time.  

One day, during the training,  a trainer in charge introduced me the shoe shop “POISSON”.   There are only a few shoe shops in Osaka that sell good shoes for foot.  According to him, “POISSON” was one of them.

Almost all shoes in that shop are made in Italy or Germany.   When we first visited that shop, a cleak asked me several questions about my son.   30 minutes passed before choosing which shoes was best for him.

Since then I bought a few pairs of shoes there.  

Thanks to that training and shoes of  “POISSON”, he is able to run now.

I’ve just come back home from my son’s ballet lesson.   He started to take ballet lessons just before he became 3 years old.

Now he is five years old.  He doesn’t mind being surrounded by girls. 

He is a slow learner but he seems happy dancing ballet.

My daughter is taking her lesson right now.

Almost all English native speakers would know “Humpty Dumpty”, a nursery rhyme.

I’m teaching it in my English classes this month.  

Here is the words:

      Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

      Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

     All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty toghether  again.

While listening to the CD from Mother Goose JAZZ CHANTS,  I put a ball on my head and sang the rhyme.   After that, I asked my  students “What do you think Humpty Dumpty is?”     Nobody answered. 

Then I opened the text book, Mother Goose Jazz Chants, and showed them a picture.   Finally, they knew what it was.  They said “Tamago!” in Japanese.

Yes, it’s an egg! 

I like Mother Goose a lot.   But I think if you read it in Japanese, you can’t appreciate the rhyme.   Because the meaning of each rhyme is mostly not interesting.  

Therefore I recommend my students not to translate it into Japanese as much as possible.   I want them enjoy the sound and the rhyme itself.

I want to introduce some picture books by Maurice Sendak.  

・Alligators All Around

・One was Johnny

・Chiken Soup With Rice

・Pierre

These are my favorite books.   These four books are put in one box titled “NUTSHELL LIBRARY” and they are small sized, about 7cm by 5cm.  So it’s convenient to carry them in a bag.  My son also loves them.  You can enjoy those videos on You Tube.

In the Night Kitchen and Where The Wild Things  Are are also written by the same writer.

I  recommend you to watch those videos on You Tube, too.

The way he develops a story and draws  pictures on his books are quite unique and  completely different from Japanese picture books.