The Closing Chapter of My Son's Elementary School Life / 終わりゆく長男の小学校生活 - My Actifit Report Card: January 9 2025

（日本語は後半にあります）

【English】

Today marks the beginning of the third semester for my elder son. It is hard to believe that in just three months, his elementary school life will be over.

At the end of his first year, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, school was closed for a while and there was a period of time when he could not go to school. After that, many events were cancelled or held on a reduced scale...the first half of his elementary school life was a bit depressing.

Fortunately, my elder son loves school. I don't think it matters either way whether he likes or dislikes school, but I am sure it is easier for parents when their children are happy to go to school. Except for periods of school closure, he attended for 6 years with very few absences.

By the way, in many cases, children who take junior high school entrance exams are absent from elementary school during the third semester. This is to prepare for the day of the examination and to avoid contracting influenza or COVID-19 through group living. Another purpose may be to make a last spurt of studying for the examinations. Another reason seems to be that the survey forms submitted to junior high schools for entrance examinations only include the number of days of attendance up to the second semester, so missing the third semester will not be a disadvantage for the examinations.

But to be honest, I don't really want my son to miss much school...because he won't be able to concentrate on his studies at home, and since the juku is only open in the afternoon, he will end up just moping around in the morning (also, it's disturbing...).

Just to be sure, I asked him how he wanted to do it, to which he immediately replied, I was relieved that his immediate answer was “I want to go to school! Considering that many children take time off from school to concentrate on studying for entrance exams, my son may be at a disadvantage because he does not have that time. However, I feel uncomfortable with the trend of missing a month of school to take an entrance exam, so I don't mind if he is at a disadvantage. I hope he enjoys his precious elementary school life, which will never return.

This afternoon, I was supposed to pick up my stamped admission application and survey form from the school. Reception hours are from 3pm to 6pm. I left my house a little after 3:00 p.m., but it seemed that I was early and there were only a few other parents there. When I called the homeroom teacher in the staff room to pick up the forms, he said with a twinkle in his eye;

“Ohhh, he (my son) seems to be doing well! He said he got a perfect score when he solved the past exams during the winter break!”

I was sweating oil and almost collapsed. In fact, my son will be going to the real exam without a single good result in the mock exam. By “perfect score,” he probably meant when he solved the past exams at home and graded them himself.

“No, I don't think he did. I think it was a very lenient self-scoring…”

I replied and thanked him for the documents and left the school, half running away. Tomorrow I will send out the documents and transfer the examination fee.

After that, I remembered that the light bulb in the bathroom was out, so I went to an electronics store, bought an LED bulb, and went home.

It was not that cold and was a perfect day for walking. The evening sky was so beautiful that I took some pictures.

【Japanese】

今日から長男の3学期が始まりました。あと3ヶ月で小学校生活も終わりだなんて、なんだか信じられません。

1年生の終わりに新型コロナウイルスの感染拡大でしばらく休校となり、学校に行けない時期があったり、多くの行事が中止になったり、規模が縮小されての開催となったり・・・と、前半は少し気の毒な小学校生活でした。

幸い長男は学校が好きで（学校が好きでも嫌いでもどちらでも構わないと思っていますが、子どもが喜んで学校へ行ってくれると親は楽なのは確かです）、休校以外では6年間ほとんど欠席することなく通いました。

ところで、中学校を受験する子は、3学期は小学校を休むケースが多いようです。試験当日に備えて、集団生活でインフルエンザやコロナを貰わないようにするためです。また、受験勉強のラストスパートをかけるため、という目的もあるでしょう。受験の際に中学校に提出される調査票には2学期までの出席日数しか載らないため、3学期に欠席しても受験に不利になることはない、というのも理由の一つみたいです。

ただ、私はあまり長男に学校を休んで欲しくないんですよね・・・というのも、家では集中して勉強できないだろうし、塾は午後でなければ開いていないので、結局午前中はゴロゴロするだけになるでしょう（あと、邪魔だし・・・）。

念のため長男にどうしたいかと尋ねたところ、「おれは学校に行きたい！」と即答だったので安心しました。多くの子が学校を休んで受験勉強に集中することを考えると、その時間がない分息子は不利になるのかもしれません。でも、受験のために1ヶ月も学校を欠席するという風潮に私は違和感を感じるので、不利になっても構わんという考えです。

今日は午後、小学校に捺印済みの願書と調査票を受け取りに行くことになっていました。受付時間は15時から18時。私は15時少し過ぎに家を出ましたが、早い方だったようで、他の保護者はちらほら・・といった感じでした。職員室で担任の先生を呼んで書類を受け取る際、先生にキラキラした目で

「〇〇（息子）君、冬休みに過去問を解いたら満点だったと言っていましたよ！頑張ってますね！」

と言われ、もう・・倒れそうになりました。模試では一度も良い結果が出ないまま本番を迎えるというのに🤣

「いえ、とってないと思います。激甘の自己採点ではないかと・・・」

と答え、書類のお礼を伝えると半ば逃げるようにして学校を出ました。明日は書類を発送し、受験料を振り込む予定です。

その後、トイレの電球が切れていたことを思い出し、電気屋さんへ。LEDの電球を買って帰宅しました。

それほど寒くなく、歩くのにちょうど良い日でした。夕方の空がとても綺麗だったので、何枚か写真を撮りました。

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