history

English Blast was founded in 1998 as an offshoot of the Kamakura Playgroup, an
English-language international playgroup for English-speaking children in the
Kamakura City area of Japan. Although now geared toward children ages three
to twelve, the English Blast program was started by parents of children between
the ages of one and four wishing to simulate an international preschool
classroom for their children in the years before they entered Japanese yochien
or hoikuen programs for preschool and kindergarten. In the first year, the group
met once a week as a learning circle on Tuesday mornings for one hour before
the regular meeting of the Kamakura Playgroup. Although there were many
younger siblings, the class was aimed toward three and four year olds. The
program had more structure and educational focus than the general Kamakura
Playgroup (which centered on crafts, music and free play). Classes were taught
cooperatively by parents. The early curriculum included pre-reading, phonics,
science discovery, math fun and drama.

From 1999, with many of the children entering Japanese yochien and hoikuen,
the program evolved into an after-school group completely separate from the
Kamakura Playgroup. The group rented a small space used by a church in the
Yokodai area of Yokohama. Parents traveled from many different areas to
reach the group, some commuting for more than an hour each way by train or
car.

Our reasons for founding this group were varied. First, to our knowledge, no
such English-language enrichment programs existed in the Kamakura/Yokohama
area. Second, several of us with older children had discovered that it becomes
increasingly difficult to find English-speaking peers for our children attending
Japanese schools. By the time our older children had reached mid-elementary
grades, it was nearly impossible to form a new group and to try to coordinate the
schedules of our children, as well as the goals of parents. Our hope was that by
creating a solid peer group early on for our younger children, the group would
last through the elementary years, and indeed this has been the case. Third,
those of us with older children had struggled for years with one-on-one parent
tutoring of our older children. We wanted a different approach in which the
parent wasn't the only teacher, where other adults and peers would help motivate
our children. Learning circles are extremely valuable learning environments -- a
learning circle like English Blast encourages communication in the minority
language; adds language contexts not encountered in the home environment; and
enables a wide range of opportunities for encouraging expression in the minority
language. And finally, we wanted a learning circle whose curriculum went
beyond mere English-language fluency skills to exploration of other subjects. All
parents were anxious to help the children develop a strong intercultural identity,
and all were interested in building language skills through content.

The group eventually decided on the current format of the English Blast
enrichment program, in which a portion of each class is devoted to English
language skills and language arts but most of the class time is spent focusing on
the richly varied Units of Inquiry, the contents of which enable the children to
develop and practice their language skills.

When we searched for names for our new group, one of the older children
suggested "English Blast." The group liked "blast" for its various
connotations: something really fun is "a blast," a blast is a form of explosive
energy, and "blast off" means to launch.

After receiving many inquiries about our group, we realized there was
tremendous interest in the English Blast program. This website was created to
help others organize their groups. It is our hope that parents across Japan and in
other countries will launch their intercultural children into a lifetime of learning
with English Blast.