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St. Valentine’s Day Homeschool Freebies

February 2, 2025

One of the things that I really enjoy with my oldest son is doing seasonal-themed homeschool activities.

Since February has begun, we are learning about Valentine’s Day! As a bicultural, international family, it’s exciting to learn about the different aspects of holidays, and create our own family traditions.

Doing fun activities is also helpful for getting over the midwinter slump during the coldest time of the year!

Continue reading below for some Valentine’s Day freebies!! Please note that this post includes an affiliate link. If you choose to use it, it helps our family. Thank you so much!!

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A Reintroduction of Sorts

January 13, 2025

Hey there! I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since we have been active in this blog space.. and so much has happened over the past 12 months! Here are a handful of the highlights of 2024..

My husband opened a church in July 2024! As of last summer, my husband Masashi is pastor of a small, non-denominational Christian church in a mountainous area of Hyogo. It is named “Highland Christ Church“, since it is located in Takanosu, which means Hawk’s Nest, or more historically, “Highland”.

Masashi began learning organic rice farming! He has been working together with a neighbor to farm our fields, and this year the rice that we eat is from the 2024 harvest. It is such a blessing having homegrown rice! Masashi and I have gradually become more interested in homesteading, and have slowly been preparing our land for a bigger garden space. We are also considering getting chickens in the near future.

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Summer Announcements

July 11, 2023

Summer is here, and it has been eventful at the Haruna Home!

We spent much of spring in the garden planting and enjoying the good weather. We also traveled to the city twice so that my husband could do some vocal workshops, as well as meeting up with friends and relatives.

In April through June I was in the third trimester, so I spent the latter part of pregnancy taking daily walks and swimming in the public pool, all in the hopes of encouraging our second-born to make his way into our arms..

But, despite our efforts, he ended up being born at 41 weeks and 2 days.. well past his “due date”!

Our second son, Josiah, was born on June 30th.

We are so happy and grateful for the addition to our family!! I am currently taking it easy during postpartum recovery, but look forward to getting outdoors again soon as a family of four.

In Japan rainy season is now well underway, and the hum of the first cicadas can be heard – a signal that hotter days are yet to come. “Bugs” is also the theme of a unit that will be featured in Hiragana at Home, Part 2!

The Part 2 release of our home-education hiragana program for children is planned for sometime around mid-August, no later than August 22nd. If you already purchased the Hiragana at Home program at Gumroad, you will be able to download Part 2 from your downloads purchase page, as soon as the Part 2 download becomes available.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at our Instagram, theharunahome!

How has your summer been going so far?

Leave a comment below!

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Giveaway Announcement!!

April 14, 2023

Special giveaway announcement!!

The Spring Release Sale of Hiragana at Home has ended..

But, if you missed the sale and would still like to get our preschool-level home education language program at a reduced price, you might have an opportunity to get it for free!!

We have partnered with the blogger Hiragana Mama, and are offering one person the complete Hiragana at Home program (a one year program with a 50$ value) for free!! If you are interested in entering the giveaway, please head over to her blog at the link below!

Enter the Giveaway at Hiragana Mama’s Post, here!

Or, to purchase the full Hiragana at Home program right now, click here!

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The Spring Release Is Here!!

April 5, 2023

We’re super excited to announce that after much anticipation and a lot of hard work, the spring release of Hiragana at Home, Part 1, is here!! Our one year complete program (Parts 1, 2, and 3) will be on sale for ONLY 3 days, starting today!

If you purchase the program today, you will receive Part 1 immediately as a digital file, and Parts 2 and 3 as they release later this year. The normal price of the one year program is 50$ (USD), but it will be on sale from April 5th-7th, 2023 (Japan time) for just 30$ (USD), before going back up to the usual price!

To purchase the program for just 30$, please CLICK HERE and use the following discount code during checkout: SPRING

Hiragana at Home is a gentle, play-based home education resource for introducing preschoolers to the Japanese language, regardless of whether or not their parents are native speakers. It can also be adapted for older children, such as kindergarteners.

If you are unfamiliar with or have questions about the program, please check out the following:

Shop page

Hiragana at Home: Overview page 

Hiragana at Home: FAQ page

Or, if you have additional questions, DM us on Instagram (@theharunahomestead) or leave a comment below!

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Hiragana at Home: Spring Sale

April 4, 2023

The Spring Release of Hiragana at Home, Part 1 is nearly here!!

As long as there are no technical difficulties, we plan to release Part 1 on April 5th, 2023 (Japan time)!

You will be able to purchase the complete Hiragana at Home program at a discounted rate from April 5th though April 7th (Japan time)!! If you purchase the complete program, you will receive Part 1 as a digital file on April 5th, 2023 (Japan time), and will receive Parts 2 and 3 later during the year as they release.

Hiragana at Home will normally be sold for 50$ (USD), but will be available for 30$ for ONLY three days, on April 5th-7th 2023 (Japan time). Then the price will go back up to 50$ for the one year program!

When the program goes live, we plan to release a discount code that you can apply at checkout to reduce the price during the special sale term!

We have also published **brand new** pages on our site about the program, which you can find under the new “Shop” tab in the top bar of our site. Or, click the links below!

Shop page

Hiragana at Home: Overview page

Hiragana at Home: FAQ page

If you plan to purchase the program and use it from this April, you can also DM us on Instagram (@theharunahomestead) for a preview of the supply and booklist of the first week of the program to help you prepare.

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Hiragana at Home: Spring Release Update!

March 24, 2023

In our last post, we introduced a home education language-learning resource called Hiragana at Home.

You can read the introduction post here (which has been updated with some of the new information featured in this follow-up post), and additional details on the program and its 2023 spring release below.

What Is Hiragana at Home?

Hiragana at Home is a home education resource designed to expose preschool-aged children to the Japanese language in a way that is gentle, simple, and play-based. It can be used with children whether they live in Japan or elsewhere, and whether or not their parents are native speakers of the Japanese language.

The program features a detailed daily schedule of language-learning activities and ideas, and is offered in a digital file “pdf” format that can be downloaded and printed from home.

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Coming Soon: Hiragana at Home!!

February 8, 2023

I’ve been keeping a secret!!

We are excited to announce the upcoming release of a brand-new home education resource:

Hiragana at Home!

As a mother living in Japan and a second-language speaker of Japanese, I longed for a home education resource for exposing young children to Japanese language in a way that was gentle, simple, play-based, and not time-consuming or filled with busy work.

Home-educating a bilingual child should not mean that their language skills have to suffer!

However, there are few home-education resources available for people who desire to teach the Japanese language to young children (including overseas), and little support is available to families in Japan who decide not to enroll their child in preschool.

Eventually, I realized that if I wanted a home education program for our family that met my expectations, as well as would allow our children to thrive without losing out on their language development, I would have to make it myself – and so, I did!

**Note: this post was updated on March 24th, 2023, to reflect updates regarding the spring 2023 release!!**

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Purchasing an Akiya in Japan

September 3, 2022

Photo: sunflower fields in Saiyo, Hyogo

It has now been a little over 2 months since we moved into our new residence!

Our “new” fixer-upper home located in rural Hyogo, Japan, was an akiya, a Japanese word used for homes that have been unoccupied or abandoned for some years.

In the past, Japanese houses were thought to have a “lifetime” that could be used up.

Older houses often fall into disrepair after their owners pass away and younger generations choose to remain in the city (resulting in over 8 million unoccupied houses in Japan!!), and newer houses, similar to housing boom suburbs in the U.S., frequently have weaker building standards than traditional houses and are often not built to last.

However, while newer homes and apartments are still generally preferred by consumers, reforming old houses is gradually becoming more popular in Japan.

There are many reasons to buy an akiya instead of a newer home!

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