Setting pool activities done by children on their own initiative while feeling buoyancy and resistance as the main theme, this study elucidated some of the lesser-known aspects of the raising and development of preschool students by presenting the outline of a swimming pool activities instruction and support plan for a three-year-old class developed by a preschool teacher, who is not certified as a swimming coach, based on a pool instruction plan created by a preschool teacher certified as a swimming coach. It is a curriculum to practice the instruction so that children in the childcare center can develop activities by enhancing their motivation in stages and evolutionally from play in the water to swimming. As the details, we consider to propose instruction targets per class including age development and dividing the instruction steps into three depending on the timing in order to achieve them. We considered that what children in the center learn and what grows in them in stages while they get into a pool for 30 to 40 min × about 30 times during a summer. As the result, “Experiencing comfort by moving body” or “Enhancing motivation to attempt to move body” as indicated in “Health” of the childcare details in “Guidelines for comprehensive type of certified center for early childhood education and care” was firstly embodied. Next, we helped for understanding of children in the center by speaking words that appeal to their symbolic function that is a character of children in the class for three years old. Then, 90 percent of higher of children in the center could achieve the target, “Floating on the water”．Finally, it was clarified that a preschool teacher can provide a childcare practice by which ability of children up to prone float can be revealed reasonably and as natural raising under instruction of play in a pool of the class for three year olds. Pool coaching for a three-year-old class induces the overall physical and mental development of the students. Furthermore, it is a preschool educational practice that is comprehensively related to the five domains of the Preschool Education Contents. It is important to keep in mind that the core of pool coaching for preschool students should be activities based on their motivation and interest instead of focusing only on facilitating the development of their swimming skills.

  The measure against the excessive use of the Internet by children is the urgent issue in the worldwide. On that occasion, it has been pointed out that the necessity to provide children with opportunities to become aware of their own situation. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify the characteristics of Internet dependence tendencies expressed in the sleeping conditions and lifestyle behaviors of junior and high school students as the first work of creating materials to help children recognize their own Internet dependence tendencies. The subjects were children enrolled in four private junior high schools and for private high schools in Kanagawa Prefecture, and data from 3,649 students (valid response rate: 99.5%) with no missing responses were used in the analysis. The survey period was from May to July 2020, during the period of self-restraint to prevent new coronavirus infection and during staggered/dispersed school attendance. In this study, we obtained responses regarding Internet addiction tendency, sleep status, and daily life behavior using Google Form-based unregistered web survey (6 schools) or unregistered questionnaire survey (2 schools). As a result, it was confirmed that the proportion of Internet addiction in the subjects was less pathological internet use, but the addiction tendency including excessive internet use was not much different from the results of the previous study. In addition, in the examination of the relationship between sleep status/living behavior and Internet addiction tendency by decision tree analysis, sleeping status such as “struggling to wake up in the morning” and “getting sleepy during the day” were confirmed. Similarly, behavior associated with smartphone such as “checking one’s smartphone immediately after waking up”, “bringing smartphone to the toilet” and “bringing smartphone to the bed” were confirmed. Not only that, behavior not associated with smartphone use, such as “struggling to remember simple Chinese characters,” “forgetting a lot of things,” and “talking to one’s self” were also confirmed. In the future, the challenges are to improve the accuracy of the materials to help children recognize their own Internet dependence tendencies and to verify this material practically.

  This study examined a scale for capturing the health and daily lifestyles of the final year of kindergarten and children in the first grade of elementary school: that is, before and after the start of compulsory education in Japan. The newly developed scale examined school grade and gender differences. A total of 924 respondents (81.2% response rate) who answered all items were included in the analysis, and factor analysis was conducted. The factor structure consisted of 30 items constituting six factors: “active physical activity,” “well-being,” “mental and physical health,” “sleeping habits,” “life skills,” and “healthy diet.” The six factors extracted in this study included, in relation to “a healthy mind and body,” “the type of child desired to be raised at the end of the preschool period.” The scale was found to be reliable and valid for ascertaining children’s actual state of health and lifestyle during this period. “Health overall,” the sum of all factor scores, was higher in first graders than in the preschool children. “Sleeping habits” was poorer in preschoolers than in first graders, and “well-being” was lower in first graders than in preschoolers. Boys scored lower than girls on “well-being” and “life skills.” This scale may be useful in connecting preschool education with elementary school education.