Junior High Finals

This Thursday, Friday and Monday are Kei's 2nd trimester finals. On Thursday and Friday, testing is all morning and they are out by lunch. On Monday, testing is again all morning, but regular classes begin again after lunch. Thursday's tests were Math, Social Studies, and Music. Friday is English, Art, and Science. Monday is Japanese, Health/PE, and Industrial Art.
Two weeks before the tests all club/sports activities at the school are stopped so the kids can study. Personally, I wish they would keep some sports practices since Kei is just bouncing off the walls with all this extra physical energy. Last night, we gave him a dry mop to clean the living and dining room floors since he was so hyper. I went upstairs to spend time with my daughter for about 30 minutes. When I came back down, the first floor was sparkling. He had moved the furniture, hand washed and dried all the flooring, replaced the furniture and throw rugs and straightened up the couches. So, now I am thinking that maybe we should take him out of sports altogether....

Kei is also entered in the district wide Jr. High English speech contest. They take the top three English speakers from each grade from the nine district Junior Highs. Whoever wins goes on to the all Tokyo contest. He is working very hard to memorize this 5-minute speech. The speech is scheduled for Friday afternoon. He will go directly to the contest after morning finals. I have to remember to pack him a lunch....

This picure shows Kei's attempts to turn his school uniform (see above) into a tuxedo. I think the origami hankerchief adds quite a good touch.