KidSchool with its mission ‘to create colorful minds’ is really the culmination of our life’s work. Both Tetsuji and I are artists. I have been a graphic designer for over 25 years (15 of those years in Japan) and I’ve been teaching graphic design at Temple University for the last 5 years. Tetsuji has been an illustrator/painter for nearly as many years after graduating from the Art Center in Los Angeles. For more than 10 years, we’ve been designing ESL books and materials, for all ages, for major English schools such as AEON, GABA, MacMillan Language House and Prentice Hall. In 1997, we moved our design studio to the beautiful country side of Misaki-machi where we thrived as a family. As our children grew, our interest in their education grew. I started researching early childhood education and methods for stimulating learning and tried out many of the ideas with my kids, especially the art programs. I discovered that when kids are having fun learning, they begin to take over the learning. If I gave proper consideration to the activities, made materials accessible and offered helpful guidance, they would return again and again to practice and learn. We watched in fascination as our kids taught themselves to write the alphabet at the young age of 3 and then to read and write words by the age of 4. This fascination turned into a labor of love and Kidschool, an international learning center was born.