As I thought, PTA and Home Education Classes are fun!!!

Yesterday, at my school, we held the opening ceremony for the Home Education Class in person for the first time in a while!! In-person event Although I am a member of the PTA, I was invited as a lecturer.
As I thought!!

PTA and Home Education Classes are fun!!!! It was a session that made me feel that strongly.

After greetings from the Civic Center director and the social education director,
the principal also spoke about their own background, lessons learned during their teaching career, and their experiences raising children.
The stories from their professional experience in education and their message as a senior in parenting were relatable and really resonated with us.

And, the second half was left to me.

The theme was, Let's find seeds for learning in the Home Education Class!!

The Home Education Class is a place for parents to grow.
There are many common worries and challenges parents face regarding child-rearing, housework, and work, and it is a place where we can realize the idea of
Let's all learn together!! as a group.

I created the following sheet and distributed it to each group and had them chat about where they have challenges or things they want to learn.

When everyone started chatting...
Oh, they just kept coming!!

Challenges and worries in child-rearing and daily life!
There are so many!!
They were diverse, ranging from serious ones to things we could laugh about together!!

As parents with children of the same generation, we were able to empathize and share with everyone in our group, and
I wasn't the only one! It was good to be heard! It was good to hear everyone's stories!

It felt like that circle of learning expanded.

A topic that came up in every group was
games.
As parents, we can't understand what kind of games they are or how they work (laughs). There were many worries about children playing games all the time and being unable to control it. And since they have friendships online, we can't just dismiss it...

And, smartphones.
Watching videos all the time, playing games on smartphones, etc.
We are also worried about SNS troubles. Topics like 'What restrictions do you have?' and 'What rules do you set?' were also lively.

Also, pocket money and money matters.
'How much pocket money do you give?' 'I want to teach them how to use and manage money from a young age, but it's quite difficult...' We heard voices like that too.

Sharing housework and childcare between husband and wife was also a lively topic.
They were sharing know-how on 'raising a husband' (laughs).

We split into four groups and had them chat.
In the middle, we shuffled the members in a World Cafe format.
I had them mark the topics that came up at that table on the sheet.
By the way, I will introduce those four groups.

And, the goal this time was
to decide the theme for the next Home Education Class.

From everything we chatted about, which theme should we narrow it down to for the next learning session?
Finally, everyone discussed it.

And what we decided on was,
about 'Santa Claus'!

Huh? (laughs)

No, they are really interesting!
A circle of empathy spread from one mother's comment.

"Does your child still believe in Santa?"
"At what age should we tell them about Santa's existence?"

I don't want to trample on a child's pure heart...
but I also feel bad if they get teased by more realistic friends...
There was also an opinion that it's aboutparent-child communicationthat evolves as they grow.

I felt that there are such important"heart-related themes,"as well as
parent-child relationshipsand
our existence in the roles of parent and child.I thought about these things.

In a sense, we decided to dig deeper together into these pressing (haha)
challenges we face as parents!

From everyone who participated,"I will definitely come next time!!"I heard that voice many times.
"It was so much fun chatting with everyone!"
"I'm glad I was able to talk to people I didn't know before!"
"I feel relieved knowing that everyone has the same worries and challenges."
I heard comments like these.

Family education classes are a place for us to learn as parents.
It became a very fun place.
I also asked everyone who participated yesterday to bring friends along next time.

This kind of
mutual learning and forming connectionsis
what I think is the real thrill of the PTA.

See!
I knew it!!
PTA and family education classes are fun things!!!
It was a session where I realized and felt that once again.

Thank you for reading today as well.
I'll post some related articles from the past here.