Students practice childcare while supporting local child-rearing Five pairs of parents and children participate in "Kujira Kids"

On July 12th, we held a community-based child-rearing support activity called “Kujira Kids” at the Chiba Togane Campus. 10 parents and children in 5 groups living around the campus participated and enjoyed various games with 20 fourth-year students of the Childcare Course Faculty of Social Work Studies Department of Social Work Studies study childcare and early childhood education.

Childcare Course incorporates "Childcare support in the community" into its classes, and as part of this, since 2016 we have been offering the "Kujira Kids" Parent-Child Interaction (Childcare Support) Room, an opportunity for preschool children under the age of four and their Guardian to visit our school every year.
In April 2019, we opened a dedicated classroom equipped with a hand-washing area suited to children's physiques, and stocked about 400 picture books, including large-format picture books, fabric picture books, and pop-up picture books, as well as about 40 types of toys, including wooden toys. In this classroom, we hold "Kujira Kids" events about 10 times each year, where parents and children can spend some relaxing time together and where students organize parent-child play activities. Last year, we held 12 events, with a total of 58 pairs and 124 people visiting the classroom.

This time, the focus was on watching over and observing the children by the students, as well as parent-child contact play. In one of the petting games, "on the bus," the parent's knees are likened to the seat of the bus, and the child lying on the knees is tilted to the left while saying, "I will turn left," or "brake." I cried out and stopped moving. Every time the parents who participated bent their knees left and right following the example of the students using the puppets, the children cheered. At the end of the day, we distributed lyrics cards of the songs sung during the play so that the children could enjoy the play they practiced that day at home, and suggested ways to spend time with their children.

In the future, the students will plan play that incorporates the sense of the season at "Kujira Kids" and provide play that matches the development of children. In addition, with the cooperation of the participating guardians, we plan to challenge cooperation with guardians and promotion of exchanges between guardians.

Students using puppets to demonstrate the interaction play "Get on the Bus"

A student (left) explaining one of the petting games, "Pyon", and a parent and child (back right)

A student deepens his understanding of development according to growth while watching over children at play (left)