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"Changing Community (Urui and Kogomi)"

2020.10.01 Changing Community (Urui and Kogomi)

Text : Asako Sugano

I feel that there are 3 turning points that have been a great influence on the changes of our 0,1,2 year old community.  I would be delighted if you can imagine how children, who are always living in the present, feel and express themselves, through the following episodes.

1.Meeting New Friends
June K-kun and E-chan joined Kogomi from Warabi.
August S-kun entered Yamanoko and joined Urui.
October M-chan and Y-chan joined Kogomi from Urui.

Capturing the moment and it goes on
K-kun was a shy boy when he joined the new class. He preferred staying with his older brother A-kun (Akebi) and didn’t talk much to his classmates. As days went by, K-kun gradually began adjusting to the daily class routines and became more comfortable being in class. One day, during lunch time, K-kun suddenly began calling his classmates’ names out loud with a big smile on his face; “B kuuuuun!!”, “H chaaaaan!”.
Responsively, those friends yelled back “K chaaaaan!”. To me, such repeated actions represented exchange of their joyful feelings, just like playing catch. Was it that  K-kun fit in very well with the party or did they jump into his world? Maybe it’s both, I thought, moved by the scene. Since then, to me it seemed like K-kun started talking more with his friends. Here is a picture of Kogomi class playing ghosts in August This was first initiated by K-kun alone, then K-chan joined the next time, and the third time it was almost the whole class playing together.

Ghost play was a trend at Kune-Kune Yama.

2.friends “moving” to another class
June R-chan moved up to Akebi.
September A-kun and E-kun followed.
September M-chan and A-kun left Yamanoko to move to Thailand

Signs of Generational Change?
A-kun was always the one who would invite his friends to play by saying “Let’s play monsters” or “Let’s do, ready set go!” . He was a superhero and would always be there to help whenever someone fell down. E-kun was an animal wiz he would spot out earwigs by yelling “here it is!”, and would  often give instructions on how lions hunt. In Kogomi, H-kun and G-kun,

both just turned 3 this September, would especially admire A-kun and E-kun. They would always follow wherever their brothers go. A sign of change in the relationships between H-kun and G-kun began to show after A-kun and E-kun moved up to Akebi.
One sunny afternoon, I asked H-kun and G-kun to take the bowl of banana peel to the compost after snack time. This triggered their grab and pull fight! “I will! I will! “No, I’m going to take it!” They were crying and shouting out their feelings at each other. Watching the fight, R-san (Kogomi Staff) quietly said “ It’s been a while since I saw them having a real fight”. Did the fact that A-kun and E-kun left affect them to become more conscious of each other? I’m looking forward to seeing how their gaze might  change in the upcoming daily scenes in class.

G-kun (Left), H-kun(Right) Their birthdays are only one day away!

3.Urui and Kogomi Integrating into One Class What does coexistence mean to children?
Urui and Kogomi used to stay in different rooms and do separate activities. However, since May, they have been spending more time together as the integration of the two classes started to seem to produce positive effects.
An instant reaction to such change of environment was something like Kogomi friends preparing  younger Urui friends’ cups during morning tea time. More proactive changes in their relationships emerged when H-kun, G-kun, and B-kun(Older friends in Kogomi) were playing with blocks.

When they felt someone was coming, it was H-kun, a 1 year old Urui friend, running towards them. With his  arrival, he attacked the blocks with his “Uuagh!” voice, and they fell. H-kun shouted “Look! H-kun(H’s nickname) monster is coming!” G-kun and B-kun followed “Oh my god! It’s H-kun monster!”. Usually they would be angry at him or even start a fight, but this time they learned how to change “not fun things” into “fun things”.
Hidetoshi, on the other hand, was very curious about Kogomi friends and their toys, with a sense of security that he would be safe if he rushed into them.

Further cross-age interaction was notable during the time we spent at Kids Dome SORAI. I was pleasantly surprised to see Kogomi friends telling Urui friends “It(The toy)’s mine!” face to face. They used to tell that to us, the staff, not to the person who took it. I feel that now they recognise younger friends as equal communicators.
As a member of a changing community, I  always want to be close to each child’s feelings and learn together.

Finding frogs together

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