Adjusting to Gakudou

It is April, the sakura are in full bloom and my life has suddenly drastically changed. With the start of the new fiscal year, both my son and I have started at elementary school, him to learn and me to work. This is the first time he has spent so much time apart from me. With kindergarten, the days were very short, him leaving the house late in the mornings and coming home rather early in the afternoons. We barely spent more than 6 hours apart from each other. Then with all of the covid cases and worry about getting sick, he spent most of last year not even attending kindergarten. His days were made up of following me around on the back of my bike, or entertaining himself within the equivalent of an arms reach at home. 

  Since April first, a week before school even started, he has been attending gakudou for nearly ten hours of the day in order for me to go to work. This means he goes there very early in the morning and comes home at dinner time. I then have to spend the remainder of the day’s time prepping for dinner and the next day. It leaves little time for play and activities.

  I am really grateful for the gakudou program because it allows to me go back to work but I think my son is less happy about it. I ask him each day he gets home if he has had fun, which always follows with an enthusiastic yes, however is inevitably followed by a crestfallen pout about how long it took me to pick him up. He misses staying with me and of course is lonely without me. That coupled with the small number of kids also attending gakudou (most older than him) he is struggling with this period of adjustment. 

The staff at gakudou are incredibly kind and spend much of their day entertaining the students. I think he will get a lot out of going to gakudou, from help with Japanese as well as guaranteed playtime. However I am also glad I pushed off going back to work until now when he is starting to get old enough to be more independent. Hopefully with the start of the school year, he will begin to adjust even more to spending all of his time away from me and make as many friends as he can at school.