Week 4

Yup... u have guessed it... today is friday.. the last day of schooling for this week n next week on monday... BAYRAM!! Eid Mubarak...Salam Aidilfitri..yeahhhhhhhhhh!..

This is a packet of sweets given to the students on kadir gunu (hari menyambut Lailatul Qadar) on Thursday. Hatice was absent from school that day..so she recieved this sweet on friday..

*Kadir Geceniz Mübarek Olsun*

This handkerchief was the bayram gift for the students..with the tag written
*Ramazan Bayramımız Kutlu Olsun*

*Haftalık Öğrenci Ajandası* (Students' Weekly Agenda)..This is specifically for parents..where the sections r divided into several sections...like *reminder* -Thursday n friday next week r school days (hehehe it is just like we..halil n i wont be sending her to school on those 2 days..pontengggg)..*lyrics of songs taught to the students* n parents r expected to drill their kids on it..*what the students have learnt so far*, *questions of the week* and *family involvement*... what parents r expected to let their kids do starting from tomorrow (saturday) till friday next week.. Frankly speaking.. that is the job perfect for halil to do heheheh i dunno turkish perfectly, remember?



This is a letter from the school informing that sports actvities n music lessons will be starting (duration of 12 weeks) during winter. Each type of activity will cost 300YTL n will be held on Saturdays.. Hatice said next year she wants to join in.. her choice..she thinks she wants to join violin class.. we will see..

Colouring activity..i specifically like the polka dot pony..cute isnt it?

Hmm.. this is using water color... she is not careful with the color..the outside part is dirty.. kızım!! dikkat et :0)

p.s- i didnt know that u can scan real things as well..i thought u can only scan papers etc.. hmm..

Salam Aidilfitri utk Semua... Maaf Zahir Batin
Hayırlı Bayram Kutlu Olsun

Week 3

These r the work she brought back home by the end of the week..

tear the papers n paste on the provided lined picture

Drawing
(Pls dont strain ur neck while trying to look at this upside down picture heheh)
hatice2s anne is lazy at the moment.

Colouring (as part of her English lesson)

water colour drawing (pls dont ask me what that is...need to ask hatice what these colours r meant to be..can u guess?

Woops..

2 nights ago..i looked at the timetable to see what the activities would be for hatice on wednesday.. i saw this * bring 5 seeds..ie peas or beans, or corn or whatever*..i got that ready for her. put the 5 dried chick peas in a small plastic bag n later i put it inside her bag..She came back after school hour telling me...*anne..u forgot that today is toy day* !!

wooops... i went to check the timetable which is magnetised to the fridge.yup.. toy day... heheheh.. i asked her whAt happened.. she said the teacher just told her to share her friend's toy...luckily the teacher understood the fault was not hers..it was her mom's..her anne's..

Gotta check her timetable much more carefully from now on... there is some sort of a coordination competition.. i have no idea what it is... when i told hatice about it... she said..parents will be watching the competition..oh geee... why was i not informed of this if this is true? hmmm..need to call her teacher tomorrow to confirm.. i just hope if it is true, it wont clash with cuma prayer.. coz i need to bring baddin to baba's place so that mıstık can bring my son to the cami (mosque) for cuma prayer...we will see..and please Allah..let it not be rain tomorrow..

Monthly timetable

I like this one system... remember the timetable our classroom teachers always make us copy from the blackboard of what we would learn each day during the week? For Anaokulu (pre school)..it is not as strict as that... they have sort of different activities each day... less heavy than the normal primary school (ilkokulu) of course... still with a timetable...n 2 weeks ago, i was presented with a piece of 2 sided paper with the activities of the month, with each day outlined... like this:

I think it is extremely useful coz for these kids, there r special days allocated to special activities...To illustrate:

Colour Day

This is when the students will bring things from home (clothes, hair band, ayakkabı etc) to school depending on the color of the day... ie.. red day...The color is determined by the teacher n is written in the timetable. I think the idea is to teach the kids colors..n to make sure the learn the responsibility of bringing something to school n then bringing it back home. Yesterday was red day.. i misunderstood the instruction hehehehe it was red day yesterday. i thought the kids will have to wear the things.. so i made hatice wear a red pant, a read t-shirt n a few red hair accessories...a girl in red ....when the teacher asked her for something red that she brought from home...luckiliy she was not short minded.. she found a book in her bag ..a book with something red in it..n gave it to her teacher... aferin kızım :0) ..no aferin to her mom of course..*read the description of the activities!!* hehehehe

Tekerleme Yürüyüşu

This is more like holloween's trick a treat..but this time, the students will walk in row.. sing a song loudly... n head towards the staffroom. Then, they will collect sweets from the teachers there (it is prearranged i think).. They will collect loads of sweets n each student has the right to eat one sweet.. (this is what i understand from hatice's explanation)..The moral of the activity? Hmm.. have to think about it... walking in a line..*order of teamwork?*

Kitap Gunu

Book day. It is normally on monday. The kids will try to explain the book to the friends of the story (they dunno how to read) n together they will look at the photos in the books n talk about it. To enhance the turkish language of the students, the teacher will pick a book from the students n read one story from the book. I think language enhancement n social interaction is the main aim here along with the children taking responsibilities in bringing the book to n fro the school to home. It is also to enhance the reading habit of the students.

Numbers

The students will be expected to bring something from home to school. For example.. today is number 5 day.. each student will bring 5 things ( it can be anything..from pencils to apple to stones)..They will count the things...the things brought will be put on a table in the classroom n the counting of the numbers will continue as an ongoing process of that day. Yeah.. LEARNİNG TO COUNT..

Toy Day

A student can bring a toy to school on that day..only one toy. They will play with each other. The idea is again sharing n taking responsibility of the toy brought.

Culinary Day

Once a week, one student will be in charge of Culinary day. The mother of the student in charge will prepare food (ie cake, biscuits, poağca etc) n drinks for each member of the class (preferable prepared together with the child). The student in charge will be the head of the day where he or she will be leading the prayer (dua) before eating..The timetable of who is in charge n when is in the timetable given..

Suprize Day

Once a week, one student will bring small gifts for her or his classmates..the gifts can be sweets, pencil, small toys, keychain etc...that student will be the main attraction of the day. It is all about SHARiNG..Again..who is in charge n when is in the provided timetable..

*ÇOCUĞA KÜÇÜK ŞEYLERDEN ALMASINI ÖĞRETEN, ONA BÜYÜK BİR SERVET BIRAKMIŞ OLUR*

İlk İftar - Second iftar..third iftar..

Ring ring... the phone rang today...

My daughter had got her first phone call from a boy!!! hahahaha

Ok..ok.. i am just joking... the call was from one of her classmates' mom who said that her son wanted to speak to Hatice...well.. u can consider that as a phone call from a boy, right? No luck though coz my daughter was not at home at that time...

Her class teacher had called the other day to ask permission for her to join the other of the girls' classmates for an iftar at Elif's house tonite (Excuse the short name..i dunno her surname etc)..Anyway, i consented.. besides, she missed the school iftar the other day.. to say no would break her heart especially when her other friends would be going...

And there i was... at 7.30pm..dragging baddin..stepped into th mini bus n headed towards the school area. We reached the school exactly at 8.30pm...Chatted a bit with her class teacher..n discovered that another iftar was to be held the next night!..Yeah great!! Halil had iftar from monday to thursday that week....her second iftar... and again..her anne ha to drag her bro on a minibus again to pick the liltle girl...

Come friday... an iftar at our house... we invited halil's friends from the previous working place....n guess what? the teacher called me at around 3.50pm insisting that she wanted to join the iftar at another of her friends.. would i pick her up later???? I remembered that keremcan had iftar at his friends as well.. so i asked halim whether he could pick hatice up as well... phew... settled..Thanks Halim! :0)

and tomorrow night.. (tuesday) another iftar...halil just told me.. he has iftar somewhere else tomorrow night.. oh yeah... just great! :0(

I dont mind these iftars actually.. but i do mind having to take a mini bus at night...if the bus stops in font of the school then i wouldnt mind at all.. but we have to walk another 10 minutes in a less light street..if it had not been the lights from the big hotel there...the road would be quite scary...bad guys can easily snatch ur bag n nobody would be there... etc..etc..i usually just pray a lot everytime i pass that street...takuttttt... why dont i take a taxi? dont ask....

I dont really want to forbid hatice from attending these iftars.. i strongly believe this is a way for her to get to know her girl friends better..she loves going to these iftars of course... besides being able to eat delicious food, the host also presented the liltle guests with gifts...sometimes cute bag...books..etc....

so young n already going to iftars...

Just mumbling

My dearest angel was absent from school on Monday n Tuesday..actually i had doubts about sending her on wednesday..with strict instructions for her to tell her class teacher to call me to pick her up if she was not feeling well... she didnt..but she did go to the school doctor ..though the doctor was not around.....n she was soooo looking for the first school iftar..on wednesday..

But then..*we can only plan but Allah decides*.. Wednesday was the iftar.. it was also my birthday.. i even brought forward my birthday to last saturday* without telling anyone of it* (there goes my birthday gifts hehehe..yeah yeah... meşe kızma..) ....so that we could go to the iftar...

I got worried when she got sick on monday.. i was hopeful by tuesday..n i called her class teacher telling her that we would be coming for iftar... Come wednesday..Hatice was quite ok..(meaning we could go).. but..that morning... baddin was with fever...he too started antibiotics...bricanyl...n as usual.. the cold vapour...he was coughing as well...nose running..halil called from the uni..he too was not feeling well.. (i guessed already since i saw the opened blue tylolhot in the kitchen) ...what a happy ending..masyaAllah... we had to break hatice's heart..but then we had no choice...if i could leave baddin to halil at home, i would bring her to the iftar.. but it was not possible.. baddin kept wanting my attention...he kept wanting my hug...So sorry princess..next year ok?...

They r all getting better now...not as bad as monday.....on thursday, she came home telling me that friday would be a holiday..i didnt believe her coz the previous day she misinformed us about something .....i thought she must have mistaken again...called keremcan to confirm her story.. true..she was correct this time..

Mistake number ONE: Trust ur child..or at least pretend to believe her n confirm the words secretly...without her noticing it...it is not good for a child's self confidence to know that her own mother does not trust her words..

I apologized to her...i told her i was mistaken...Need to remind myself not to do the same mistake again..

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Hatice going to school means that i have time to concentrate on baddin's writing skills..or the lack of it... before this, i had not forced them to write or draw... hatice loves to hold a pen n do something with it..baddin on the other hand... is the opposite..he very rarely holds a pen..as i have mentioned in one entry in my other blog... maybe he felt overshadowed by his sister..n definitely not from the lack of intelligence...Thus, the moment hatice started school, every morning i made him work with the pen under my close supervision...he has a lot to learn.. but i think he is slowly learning... my first aim is to make him be able to learn to make a straight line..he is trying...n i hope he will be able to soon... there r so many skills to teach him.. i have got one year...

Hatice is different nowadays..two weeks in school means two weeks of activities she had never been involved with before...before the school... she walked with a bent back...indicating a certain level of lack of self confidence... now... her back is straighter...the way she talk..the way she hold herself ...i can see that she is feeling good about herself..she is gaining her self trust..i am glad...though i think she needs to learn to control her temper a bit...or at least try to deal with it...nothing volcanic like her mom...still... i dont want her to be like me...anyone? any clue? gee..i wish i can add in her recent pictures..but that will have to wait till halil buys a new handphone..n that will have to be after November.....when he will get his new salary.. we r living on his savings at the moment...cant afford anything at the moment..

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Remember that i am trying to teach baddin to write a straight line? Hatice came back on Thursday with a homework for the weekend... 2 sided homework.. it is about lines....just perfect for baddin as well...!! So i made a copy of her homework for baddin as well..the one with the blue ink is baddin's while the one with the pink ink is hatice's.. please bear in mind that baddin is 14 months younger than hatice...just learning to write...so naturally, my eldest angel's work would be better.....i am using what hatice learns in school as a guideline to teach baddin the skill he needs for next year...

Baddin's work

Hatice's work
Baddin's work
Hatice's work

What i notice while watching them working... hatice is much slower in finishing her task but she was more careful in trailing the lines..Baddin on the other hand... he was very fast..but....i could see his mind trailed the lines faster than his hands that in the end, his written lines were not straight at all... hatice..because she was much slower...her lines r better..But notice that her lines gets worse towards the end? I think she was either too exhausted...too bored or just too tired coz i made her do the homework half an hour after she got back from school..(before her dinner).. so my question is... should i feed her first before her homework or should i make her do her homework first with a hungry stomach...but if i feed her first, wouldnt she get sleepy after that?.. what is ur opinion?

well..that is all i think for last week..i know that this is hatice's blog but i think adding baddin's development in line with her learning development is unavoidable... well..at least till next year when he too will own a blog dedicated to his studies... just like his abla...

Absence from school

On sunday, she had a mild flu.. That night she couldnt sleep properly n was quite bad from her nose being stuck..we decided not to send her to school on Monday. It was a correct decision coz she woke up in the morning with cough n stuck nose. Baddin was happpiest of course to have his abla all to himself the whole day..

After talking to Meşe during the night, we decided not to send her to school today as well.. she is on mukotik, tylolhot n antibiotics right now...will she recover by toorrow? i dunno... she really really wants to join in the iftar in school tomorrow..we will see... n mutlu son... baddin is also with flu as in last night... yeayyyyyyyy..i was moving from one bed to another last night...comforting hatice... hugging her n lulling her to sleep..n baddin crying coz his nose got stuck...cant explain my back at the moment...sleeping in odd positions is sooo not good 4 ur back...

I hope they will be ok soon.. squeezed them the oranges...2 packets of oranges..costed me 24 YTL!!.. out of season it is wayyyy to expensive.. anyway..for them i will do anything..need to buy other fruits as well today for squeezing..maybe apples n pear...n greyfruit?..Alhamdulillah..i am so glad we bought the juicer last year....still aiming for my magic bullet..heheheh..i dont feel so nice either..cant afford to get sick....

waking up early for one week (even during the weekend) i think had lowered her defence mechanism..it was ok during the week days coz she slept early n woke up early..on saturday she woke up at 6am!! n slept really really late...must remember to tell her not to wake up too early during weekends...rest çiçeğim.. rest

u should hear her talking to her classroom teacher when she was informing her teacher about her absence from school......it was something like (translated from turkish)

Conversation one: I am sorry my teacher, i cannot go to school todayç i am sick
(to inform she cannot go on monday)

Conversation two: I am sorry my teacher but my doctor hala (auntie) said i cannot go to school tomorrow.
(to inform about her absence from school today)

Get well my little ones..get well soon ...

School Timetable 2006

Definitions:
Tören = Morning ceremony
Ders = Lesson
Teneffüs = Break
Öğle Arası = Lunch Break

1 Kademe

8.20- tören
8.30-9.25 -1. ders
9.25-9.40 -teneffüs
9.40-10.20 -2. ders
10.20-10.30- teneffüs
10.30-11.10 -3. ders
11.10-11.20 -teneffüs
11.20-12.00- 4. ders
12.00-12.45- öğle arası
12.45-13.25 -5.ders
13.25-13.35 -teneffüs
13.35-14.15 -6. ders
14.15-14.25- teneffüs
14.25-15.05- 7. ders
15.05-15.15- teneffüs
15.15-15.55 -8. ders

2 Kademe

8.20 -tören
8.30-9.25 -1. ders
9.25-9.40- teneffüs
9.40-10.20- 2. ders
10.20-10.30 -teneffüs
10.30-11.10- 3. ders
11.10-11.20- teneffüs
11.20-12.00 -4. ders
12.00-12.10 -teneffüs
12.10-12.50- 5.ders
12.50-13.35 -ögle arası
13.35-14.15 -6. ders
14.15-14.25- teneffüs
14.25-15.05 -7. ders
15.05-15.15- teneffüs
15.15-15.55- 8. ders

PT Meeting

PTA
Parent(s)-Teacher Meeting..
For a Pre-School??
Yup.. believe it or not..it is..I think it has got to do with the fact that the pre school is within the primary school compound itself n the management is under the school...that made the basic rule of the school is observed by the pre school too.. n yup.. Parents-Teachers Meeting..

As u can see above, the first formal letter of PT meeting..(notice i omit A..coz i dunno if PTA is what it is...)..sent to us thru hatice on Friday for a PT meeting on Saturday from 12 noon till 2pm...in which it so happened that that was also the day we were giving our iftar to the zaim family members...

To go or not to go...that was the question... halil said *no need to go*.. but i felt that not going would be not *ok* esp since we missed the pre entry PT meeting..but the iftar??? n hatice was bugging us to go as well.. as a solution, i woke up at 2am that morning....cooked whatever needed to be cooked..cleaned n tidied whatever needed to be tidied..n by 11.40am..we left the house....Halil suprisingly joined me for the meeting hehehehehe..We were a few minutes late..listened to hatice's class teacher explained things about things..about the system..bla bla bla... (n she is such a sweet lady!!)...ı was trying very hard not to fall asleep (from exhaustion)...a few mothers posed questions..etc..etc..... Later, the english teacher came n explained a few things...i suspect other teachers would come in to explain things as well..but it was almost 2pm..we had iftar to give... i needed to prepare some things as well (ie cooked börek etc)....n therefore we left early.. i assume that the meeting would end only after 3pm..

What did we do with the kids?? Parents who have to come to the meeting with kids... the teachers brought the kids to th schools theatre room n over there they watched movies!! It was just like a cinema..a mini cinema..n on the way to pick the kids on our way home, i saw the eating room (for lunch)..i think it is cool..very fancy ... n i also saw the school's swimming pool... it has a few lanes..hmmm..not bad at all...too bad the hp is dead..else i could have snapped a photo or two...

The meeting? In my limited turkish.. in my drowsiness from exhaustion, i understand that the pre school aims at teaching the basics of life structure to the kids.. For example, the moment the kids r about to enter the pre school building door, they r to take off their outside shoes, say good morning to the teacher there...put the outside shoes to a specific place, put their bags inside their personal cupboard s, wear their inside shoes or sandals..n so on so forth..the kids r also taught responsibilities like bringing letters from the teacher home n vice versa etc etc..basic values r in the curriculum with hope that when these kids enter primary school... they will be able to adapt themselves much more easily.. there is a system in the teaching.. a set syllabus..a set textbook..n i think that our choice of sending hatice to this school is correct indeed..this is my impression after one week..will tell if my impression is still the same by the end of the year...

30th September 2006
Saturday
1200-1400
First Semester
First PT Meeting

P.s-

Halil said

*this will be the first n the last PT meeting i will be attending!!*

hahahahahahahahahahaha

Hatice n Baddin- please take note

hahahahahahahah