Our Planet

Text : Yurika Murata

For 0 year old children, it is absolutely crucial to make loving attachments with adults in order to expand their own world. This is why until the pandemic, we have limited access with other classes. We have shut the door so adults and children could both spend time undisturbed. Since then, Urui’s  environment has changed 3 times. I have thought again about this change now with the focus on the plight of 0,1,2 year olds.

 

1.The Beginning of Maze Koze (mix up): The door has opened!

“Maze Koze“ started in June. Children from the age of 0 to 6 were divided up into two teams (“Swallow“ and “Japanese rice fish“ team) and spent the morning get-together, going out for walks and lunch together. Everyday, children from the age of 0-2 ate lunch in Akebi and took a nap in Kogomi.

During the period of Maze Koze, we attempted to organize two rooms as if it were a big one since the doors between Kogomi and Urui were open. Due to the increase in size, we wanted to utilize the space by incorporating play area, art area, 5-senses stimulation area. However, we spent much of our time and energy trying to integrate, so much that we were not able to create the satisfiable environment.

At first, when Maze Koze just started, the 0 year olds were confused, perhaps because of the dynamics of others’ movements and adults who they have never interacted with. Most of them held tight to adults they were similar with, and spent the whole morning not doing anything else.

However, the plight of children had changed everyday, after a month, the smaller children started to interact with bigger children, shrated tea, had meals next to each other.

2.Moving to Kids Dome Sorai (Urui and Kogomi as one unit)

When Maze Koze was settling in, because of the incident of flooding, we had rented a room from Kids Dome Sorai momentarily. In this period, 0,1,2 year olds spent time together from morning to the late afternoon in one room. Because the environment did not make it easy for children to go outside and play whenever they wanted, children drifted towards building blocks,and reading books. Through these activities you could see them getting along more.

 

3.Currently: The doors between Urui and Kogomi are closed.

When we returned from Kids Dome Sorai, we discussed whether to re-begin Maze Koze. Because we already felt like children were interacting amongst themselves, we did not feel necessary to intentionally make time for them to mingle.

We talked about bringing Urui and Kogomi into one environment, but that was when A-kun, who was 6 months old at the time, came into Urui so we wanted to prioritize his safety and peace of mind, so we decided to spend our own time,separate from each other. We ate lunch in our own rooms, H-chan and S-chan however went to Kogomi to eat lunch and A-kun ate in Urui. It has been three months since we closed the doors, however, children go in and out of both rooms, I feel like there is no wall in between us.   The 6 months we have spent together regardless of the borders heightened the sense of togetherness amongst the children. I am going to share 2 episodes.

 

N-chan’s Shoes

When an adult was trying to put on shoes for N-chan, E-chan came and said “I will do it“. She then tries to put the shoe tape but it is hard for N-chan to put her toes in. B-kun was seeing what was happening, and said “I will do it“ and tried to help. E-chan seemed to have wanted to do it on her own so he then said “why don’t you pull the shoe tapes?“. E-chan followed suit and did just that and N-chan was able to wear her shoes. Their facial expressions seemed very proud and content as if they said, “I helped!“.

“A-kun is Sleeping“

It happened while A-kun was asleep after he ate his lunch. Kogomi’s children went through Urui’s room to go get food from the kitchen. V noticed that the group had left without him so he ran to get to them while saying “wait!“. I told N-kun to look atA-kun, who was clearly sleeping. He said “oops sorry“ quietly and went to search for his friends. When the children returned with the food cart, he said to his friends “A-kun is sleeping so let’s keep quiet.“

“When there is a baby, whose physical ability is not as developed, we want to lend them a hand.

When there is a difference,

we recognize it then step into other’s shoes“.

In the book “The Search for 21st Century Childcare”(edited by Hirotomo Soyoda, published by Froebel-kan), it is described about living with a 0-year-old person like this.

Looking at the current situation of the children, I was moved to think that it would be possible to set the environment with Kogomi and Urui as one room with the partition closed, and started slowly again. Specifically, from the end of January, the play-area corners that were originally in each room were set up in the Kogomi room, and the composition play such as building blocks was concentrated in the Urui room. We are still in the middle of the road, but I would like to gradually create an environment where children can choose the place they want to play and spend time.