What i discovered..

There we were... hatice, baddin n i...it was friday yesterday. They day my dear princess will bring back her weekend homework. We were sitting in her room. As usual, i made a copy of the homework for baddin. I assigned him the same homework as his sister but with a modified instruction... on skills he needed to sharpen up... he is after all 15 months younger than his sister...There we were working peacefully, hatice suddenly asked me whether she could color one of the homework page. Though the instruction did not ask her to, i consented.

I was suprised at her request. As i remember it, she used to dislike colouring and she used to do it quite badly too. Baddin is the same. But yesterday, she did it happily and in a relaxful manner. I softly enquired the matter. I was very curious of the change of heart.

She admitted that she used to hate doing her homework because i used to get angry so fast. She said that ever since she had her own room, her own table, I had changed into a more fun person to do homework with.

Yes. I think she was right. Before she had her own room, we used to do the homework on Saturdays on the dining table where there was the tv distraction. On top of that, her dad used to interfere since he is very against the concept of doing homework ... i do too..but someone had to do it... so...the job fell on me. I was stressed out due to all of those..esp with the dad negative aura homework presence...Nowadays, we do it in her room every friday without the dad n tv distraction. Even baddin has become better in his homework...He is in fact eager to do it every friday..though of course his concentration span is much much shorter than his sister's.

2 weeks ago, i accidently sent baddin's homework together with hatice's homework to school. The response that came back with the homework from her teacher (NilgünGülen) was...

Hatice's homework:
"Kardeşine yardıma olduğun ve ögrendiklerini onunla paylaştığın için güzel kızma teşekkür ederim"
(I thank you for helping and sharing what you have learned with your little brother)

Baddin's homework:
"Sabahattin'e teşekkür ederim. Ablasıyla birlikte ödev yaptığı ve ona destek olduğu için"
(I thank you Sabahattin for doing the homework together with ur sister and giving her your support)

How sweet ...

And so my lesson in the growing up of my children continues... they r teaching me as i am teaching them...

Nisan Project

Yes. This is the project of the month... to create shapes using *kil hamuru*..some sort of play dough which gets dry and stays dry n tough...the flower vase unfortunately didnt get stuck to each other once it dried up..thus, leaving the flower without the vase...(well..at least i got to snap the picture eh?)

I am guilty big time for not updating this blog for a long time. So many things has happened since i last updated this blog.

For one, hatice is being kept up to date of the latest music in turkey by Ramazan abi the school service chauffeur since he turns on the radio in the vehicle everyday. Halil and i are both impressed how up to date she is considering that her dad only listens to songs that lul u to sleep (esp of the slow type).. and i for one r more into english songs...songs which r usually found on mtv....my kids r more used to my songs... esp the ones i put on my quill of my heart blog.

The second main happening to me was... well....hatice has always loved her hostess abla..the sweet lady who picks her up from the apartment door into n out of the school service every day... she is really sweet..totally. Hatice loves this abla so much. One day she decided to draw a picture and gave it to this abla...and she came home with a cute pink hair band on her hair... a gift from her beloved abla.... u bet she was very happy...

From what she told me, i think hatice is an example student in her class. It doesnt really suprises me coz ..for one, she is among the tallest in her class. Apart from that, she has this characteristic of being a big sister...an abla.. something she is used to at home... From what i see..she is very well liked. ... at times some friends gave her small gifts even though it was not supriz gunu... Naturally, she had complaints ...once she told me how sad she was of this one friend... but then, one day, she said she doesnt wanna play with this friend.. and the next day, that friend is her best friend hehehehe kids!

Last thursday was her lezzet gunu... she was on dutyto bring something (food) from home.. she had always wanted to bring home made cookies for her lezzet gunu.. so what we did was, i prepared the cookies dough for her n she had cut the dough into heart shapes. it turned out very nice too... next to the cookies, i had also prepared sandwich fr her friends...a hot dog bread filled with kaşar peynir (cheese) and slim cut hot dog (sosis) with ketchup mix. I also sent the small pack fruit juice for everyone... Her friends loved her lezzet gunu.. she came home happy naturally.

Her report card came too. this time she got all excellent..even for the english report card. How suprising. I was beginning to think that her english teacher was too keen not to give excellent to my daughter. I guess i was wrong. Hey! I am an english teacher. When someone doesnt give excellent for my kid's english report card.. i feel sad... i am a mom after all :0)

I guess thatz all for now. Will try to update soon... There is another project next month. and very soon, the pre school students' performance will beheld as well. I cant miss that. Woah... it is only in less than 2 months that hatice will end her pre school education.. how time flies o fast..

before i know it... my kids will be all grown up....