"A child's motivation" and "a parent's resolve" require the same level of intensity. ~Summer 2023, tossed about by Hyakunin Isshu~

Hello everyone, thank you for your hard work every day!
I'm "Kyassan," a career consultant☆

Today, I would like to write down as a memorandum a story about how I realized that "a child's motivation" and "a parent's resolve" require the same level of intensity.

My child is full of motivation for everything.
They seem to think "I can do it" no matter what, and when they fall into a situation where they can't, they cry out of frustration.

Personally, I wanted to raise a child with high self-esteem and self-efficacy, so for now, it's going according to plan (lol).

Actually, recently, since they started elementary school, I realized that a child's potential for growth changes depending on how the parent supports them when they show motivation.

I think you may have seen news that economic disparities in households lead to academic disparities. Unfortunately, this is a true story.
However, it is also true that academic ability cannot be bought with economic power alone.
What moves a child is the "motivation" that wells up from within them, for which they cannot explain the basis, and the accumulation of successful experiences that accompany it.
In short, I realized that in early childhood, it's all about how much resolve a parent has to support their child's motivation.

The encounter with Hyakunin Isshu was sudden

As the title suggests, Hyakunin Isshu is what tossed our parent-child relationship about this summer.
What do you do when your child gets motivated?
They invite me with sparkling eyes, saying, "I want to play Hyakunin Isshu!"
The opponent is a first-grader who just learned hiragana at elementary school this spring and just mastered the distinction between "ha/wa" and "he/e".
I have never played with Hyakunin Isshu and have never even touched it.
If anything, the only poem I know is, for some reason, Semimaru's.

The trigger was when my husband's grandmother revealed the existence of Hyakunin Isshu at her house and gave it to us, saying no one plays with it anymore.
She said, "You can just play Bozu-mekuri (monk flipping)," in a lighthearted way.

After returning home, we enjoyed Bozu-mekuri.
But, however!
The next day, as expected, my daughter asked to "play the real way."
I explained the general purpose of Hyakunin Isshu.
Then, she said, "I'll memorize them!" and the conversation changed.

I wanted to memorize them from the first poem, and my daughter wanted to memorize them from the monks.

I said we should memorize them in numerical order so that I could easily grasp which poems she had memorized and which she hadn't.
However, my daughter insisted on memorizing them in the order of "monks -> women -> men."
In addition, she said things like, "I'm the one memorizing them, so let me do it freely!" which made me even angrier.
Tired of the fruitless argument, I said, "Fine, memorize them however you want," and decided to watch over her without interfering until she asked for help.

As expected, even after a few days, she couldn't memorize a single poem and was getting frustrated.
Well, there are 13 poems just about monks, so there's no way she could memorize them without a plan.
It was about the third day of watching over her, I think? Before going to bed, she started crying and said, "I'm not doing Hyakunin Isshu anymore. Because it's not fun at all."

At this moment, I was struck by a realization.

My daughter's motivation, which had been so strong, saying "If it's me, I can memorize them alone!", started to seem like something very precious.
So I made up my mind.
"If you really think from the bottom of your heart that you're done with it, then quit. But if you really want to do it, but just don't want to do it alone, shall we do it together with Mom starting tomorrow?"
These words came out naturally.

My daughter stopped crying and looked into my eyes strongly, saying, "I'll definitely do it!"
Now, this is the real beginning.

The reason why it's hard for a first-grader to memorize Hyakunin Isshu.

My daughter's strategy is to memorize two poems a day.
After reading them a few times, we line up about five of the second halves of the poems and practice grabbing them.

This is quite difficult.
What's difficult is, first of all, it takes time to read them!
And every time she asks for the meaning, it takes me time to look it up too (lol).

The first poem my daughter memorized was this one, poem number 66 ↓

Everyone, do you understand? "Aware" is read as "aware."
Things that adults accept naturally are a series of questions for a child.
Even if you want to know the meaning and read the modern translation included with the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, it is difficult for a first-grade elementary school student. It is too difficult.

My daughter asked, "What is 'sonata'?"
It was the moment I thought I should have let her watch the anime 'Ojarumaru' (laughs).

Well, questions like this were a parade.
So, I explain it in a way that is easy to understand in my own way.

I don't think the day is far off when the authors, who would want to object to my arbitrary interpretation, will appear in my dreams.
Because it is really difficult to explain things so that a child can understand.

At this rate, we were finally able to memorize 13 poems.
So, tomorrow marks the beginning of the ninth month (laughs).

My daughter, thank you for the precious experience.
If it weren't for you, I don't think I would have memorized the Hyakunin Isshu in my mid-30s, nor would I have realized the charm of the Hyakunin Isshu before my life ended.

My daughter is enriching my life.
What can I do for such a daughter?
Thinking that I only have a few more years left where she will say 'Mom! Mom!' like she does now, I want to cherish my relationship with my daughter,Nagatsukiwas beginning.

Thank you for reading until the end today as well♪