About

English Blast is a cooperative, parent-taught program of enrichment education
designed to provide bilingual, intercultural children in Japan with an exciting
year-round learning environment in English. Started in 1998 by parents
seeking a low-cost alternative program for their own bilingual children, English
Blast values individuality and the creative process and strives for
English-language fluency in all skill areas. All themed Units of Inquiry are
created, organized and taught by parents with the help of the children. English
Blast is not a drop-off program, but a life-long approach of cooperative
learning -- between children, between parents, and between parents and
children. The program aims to improve self-esteem and help children develop
legitimate pride in their intercultural identity.

Intercultural families in Japan face particular challenges in developing and
maintaining fluency in the minority language, particularly as growing children
spend more time outside the home immersed in the majority language
(Japanese). English Blast seeks to provide intercultural children with an
exciting learning environment in the minority language, English. The program
creates a peer group of English speakers that explores topics together through
themed Units of Inquiry, all of which are designed to foster critical thinking
skills and creativity in children from an early age.