Annelar gunu toplantısı

There is a meeting day for all mothers of the kids in hatice's class twice a month.. every tuesday. I was dreading the day when someone would call and say that there would be a meeting. Last weekend, someone did... i even *chopped* halil's head for his teasing on that matter.. i had missed these meetings for 3 times.. ok..ok..i thought.. let me go once.. let us see what happens...

Yup.. it was freezing.. it was snowing on n off..i scooped my son's hand into mine and we headed off towards the school....it took us almost an hour to reach there..the mini bus was overcrowded... the traffic..but we reached there in the end. It was to begin at 1 pm.

Frankly speaking, i didnt know what to expect. Anyway.. met another *mom* there.. and together we went to the meeting place.. It was actually a small building wth cozy sofa n carpet in it. The heater was not working..and guess what? i wore thin!! stupid stupid me.. The rest of the moms wore nice clothing as well.. contrastively.. i wore my customary jeans n t-shirt.. i find wearing jeans is much more comfortable than wearing proper clothing...with all the walking n mini bus experience....jeans is what i will wear everytime i go to hatice's school... appropriate or not.. that is the least of my concern.

Nobody brought any child. baddin was the only one.. i was afraid he would not be able to stand the meeting... luckily he was quite ok with it.. i gave him my handphone to play with hehehehehe.. though i couldnt help but sense that someone was not that happy that a child was around...the rest of the moms were cool about it though...

The meeting... a total of 8 moms were there.. hatice's class teacher ..nilgün gülen was there as well..

My conclusion?

The meeting was nice.. Nilgün hanım introduced topics to talk about..but it was a chance for the moms to exchange thoughts n ideas of their childrens' development both in school and out of school.

The disadvantage is..
the meeting was too long. It was supposed to start at 1pm.. i left by 3 pm n the meeting was still ongoing. The fact that it was long made it impossible for me to attend it often coz to go there with baddin every forthnight would be impossible..and i do not have anyone to leave him to...and i dont want to....occasionally, i will go..but not often..

I also noticed that there r only one or two dominators in the discussions.. at times, the dominators left no room for other mothers to join in the conversation. Other mothers were not coaxed to join in more...some may not be talkative..but if coaxed..if encouraged.. others will have something to say as well.I was not the active participator. I was more than happy to observe the ongoings of the conversation...to have my own evaluation..maybe next time...

I also conclude that Nilgün hanım is a very very sweet lady... i am so happy to have her as hatice's class teacher.. she is someone to talk to..

What i feel.. the topic on sending ur kids to school earlier than their age.. i agree withg the saying that it will be difficult for that child to reach to the standard of those around him or her.. as nilgün hanım had experienced it herself..

when i look at baddin and hatice.. both r developing at their own pace.. yes..there r ways to speed the process..but i feel that when they r ready..they will be ready... i used to worry a lot about hatice. I thought she was a bit slow in the mental development.. esp when it comes to numbers ...she has talemts in some fields..but in other fields..she worried me.. now..i see that she just need s some time to develop herself..to be ready..mentally.. now i think she is ready..

Baddin is the same... he is preparing himself too.. though he has a sharp mind.. in some areas he is not so speedy.. n i sense that he too will be prepared when he has reached that level of readiness..

my conclusion is.. unless ur child is super genius...high IQ...a mensa.. let ur child develop at his or her own pace.... let her or him enjoy her/his childhood!!

My little star

My two angels..hatice holding something n baddin with his special pose there hehehe

A closer look

The Certificate

am back again!

Yeah..i know.. i have been quiet for quite some time.. i dunno why.. i was not in the mood to blog too much these days..

benim çiçeğim hatice..whatz her development?

so far she is still loving her school life..it is quite difficult to convince her not to go to school even when she was not feeling well.. but of course as parents..when we said.. *dont go* to her.. she had no choice but to obey... she is masyaAllah an obedient child to begin with..

I am really happy with the fact that each month, a timetable of each day's main activities for hatice will be delivered to me... her eating timetable with the calories of each food in the menu for each schooling days will also be delivered to me each early of the month.. I always check with her to see whether the timetable is accurate.. so far i have no complaints..

She has also become the *yemekhane parlayan yıldızı* ( see the star on her shirt in the picture below) 7 times .. the star is granted for the student in the class who finishes most food during that day for lunch .. I think this is to motivate the students to finish the menu of the day.. for hatice, i think it works coz when she started her pre school education, she didnt touch her soup..only the main menu n dessert... but now..she tried to finish her soup as well so that she will be able to wear that *yıldız*..

My complain is i think the kids r given too much sweets in the school..maybe they r used as motivations for the kids to strive for the better in their studies..but i completely am so sad that hatice is eating too much sweets nowadays.. many days than not, she will tell me that she had eaten sweets at school..maybe her friends brought those sweets from home? i dunno..but what i know is that, hatice is eating too many sweets.. even nowadays at home, she eats sweets as well..this sadden me coz i do not like my kids to eat excessive sweets... hatice; before her pre school life..she very rarely eat at sweets.. more often than not, she would reject the sweets offered to her... not anymore... i know..i know..kids like sweets... she didnt used to like it.. now she does...far too much i am afraid..

The school system is good.. they try to get parents to be involved in the child's activities.. even the homework.. but i find that it may be too much for me.. for example.. there is supposed to be a some sort of competition among the mothers in particular.. each mother will buy a set book from the school office, and within a month,the mothers will read the book and there will be a competition among them.. participation for mothers r compulsory.. the aim? to incultivate the reading habit within the family members..if the mom reads for example, the child will want to as well..

Will i join in? of course not! i think this is absurd. I agree the aim is divine.. but for a foreign mom like me..i think it is a waste of my time.. i am not going to read a book in turkish n join the competition..i read at home.. my kids can see me read.. we have our own ways to create a reading interest within our children.. n i certainly do not need this kind of competition ..reading by force is not my cup of tea.. no offence dear school organizer.. i have nothing against u.. but i am not joining this competition.. n i am also getting bored with the meeting...i think i skipped the meeting twice.. n i really dread to see a call for a meeting the next time..

there is however, one thing i like that day... there was this mevlana celebration of some sort that other day... parents were invited... coctail was provided as well... halil n i came later after the cocktail.. but from what i saw.. the school had prepared many nice food for the parents n students to eat... for the mevlana night, a speaker was invited to talk about mevlana..i have to say, i was nearly asleep with his explanation but the show after that..the *sema* was wonderful.. i will add in the video clip later..for now, i will just add in the sema picture i snapped...

I think that is all for now... will write in later...........

Ödev Zamanı

Every Friday, hatice will come home with a file containing her homework for the week.. Again..as to be fair, i copied some of hatice's homework for baddin as well.. Here r my kids at work..HOMEWORK TİME!!