About Tousokujin: The World Only You Can See

A tadpole figure is a drawing of a person that young children often make, with arms and legs extending directly from the head.

When my children were around three years old, they often drew people this way.

Watching my daughter draw, I remembered that my son had drawn people in much the same way when he was little. Looking around, I noticed that other children of about the same age drew them this way, too.

I learned that young children around the world tend to draw people in similar ways, across different cultures and countries. In English, these drawings are known as tadpole figures.

I began to wonder: What if this is genuinely how children see people at that age?

Perhaps my assumption that everyone else sees the world the same way I do is just that—an assumption.

And perhaps the idea that children's drawings are "unfinished" is also an assumption, one based on how adults see them.

Each of us sees the world in a way that is uniquely our own, at a particular moment in our lives. Growing up brings new things into view, but perhaps there are also things we stop seeing as we get older.

Rather than teaching children to draw like adults as quickly as possible, I wanted to make room for what each child sees in the world and for what only that child can express at that moment.

At the same time, I began to wonder whether there might be things that only I can see from where I stand in my own life right now. Perhaps something I notice or discover today might one day offer a small insight to my future self—or to someone else, somewhere.

That is one of the reasons I started this blog.

Through raising children in both Japan and the United States, I have encountered many different approaches to learning, including public schools in both countries, forest kindergartens, alternative schools, and home education.

I now live in Kanagawa, Japan, with my husband, our two children, and our Miniature Schnauzer. My daughter and I are currently exploring home education together.

Here, I hope to share the things I think about, the things we try, and what I come to see through everyday life with my children.

If you are thinking about children's growth and learning, I hope you might find a small idea or a new perspective here.

And I would be glad to meet others who share a desire to value the worlds each of us sees, and the things that belong uniquely to each person, in each moment of their life.