Friday, June 17, 2005

Equation

Math is not my strong suit, but I'm pretty sure this equation works:
Koji is 2.
I'm 32.
Koji has 16 times more energy than I do.

Lately I've been thinking about "shikata". This is a Japanese word that means something like "the way to do". Fill in the blank on the "do" part of it; for example, "asobikata" means "the way to play," "tabekata" means "the way to eat" and so on. I probably don't have a lot of original thought on the subject; I think a whole book has been written about it by someone else. I would be more clever if I could give the title here, but I haven't actually read it and I can't track it down, so never mind...
In any case, there are all kinds of opinions about the Japanese idea of shikata. I'm reaping benefits from the existence of this idea as follows: there's a Japanese publishing company called Benesse (who apparently also owns Berlitz! to see the Japanese site I'm referring to click here) with a sub-division called "kodomo charenji (Kids Challenge) to support parents raising pre-schoolers. I've become a member of the club, so every month I get a little package of toys/information/DVDs starring their mascot, Shimajiro the tiger, to help me teach Koji that month's theme skill.
Maybe I'm just a lazy mom, but I love their shikata! I don't even care that Shimajiro is not actually very cute! I'm just not clever enough or motivated enough to think of and implement my own program. Teaching Koji to brush his teeth with the exact same dumb song that millions of other Japanese moms are probably singing right now is fine by me, though it's pretty embarrassing when he asks me to sing it on the train...

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