Sorry for the lack of posting! Life has been crazy lately with college & what not! Hopefully this weekend I can catch up posts that I've been meaning to share!
In the first week of February we did the traditional Setsubun Ceremony. For those who are not aware of this Japanese tradition, Setsubun is a bean throwing ceremony that happens at the beginning of Spring to fend off bad spirits from entering the household in our case, the classroom. The ONI (demons) visited our classroom & the children were supposed to throw soy beans at them to fend them away. However the toddlers were so frightened that they mostly clung to us & cried. All around the school you could hear children screaming & crying. I felt a little bad but hey it's a cultural experience! It's not the best/appropriate way to teach good behavior but the children did not get out of line once that day for they feared the oni would come. :-P
