2nd Grade

Silence is not a good thing when there is so much to tell. Yet, i have failed to update this blog due to personal reasons. InsyaAllah.... more updates will follow soon. This i can promise you.

Okuma Şenliği

A father who skipped an important meeting to attend his son's okuma şenliği ..a reading celebration to celebrate the success of first year students since they are now officially able to read...
An elder sister who skipped class to attend give support to her lil bro...

Each student was to read a poem written by him or herself (with the help of the father for the correct usage of the turkish language) ...
Oh yes... Baddin drew laughter when he read the line that said something about his cat.......!!


Here is what he said in the video below...

*Anneciğim, seni seviyorum,
Anne, I love you
Doğduğum dan beri beni ne zorluklarla büyüttün,
You have raised me with difficulty eversince i was born
Anne, sen bir elmas dan daha değerlisin
Anne, you are more precious than a diamond
Seni, babama, ablama ve kedimi çok seviyorum
I love you, baba (my father),my sister and my cat
Ellerimdan öperim,
I kiss you hand for blessings
Oğlun,
Your son
Sabahaddin*



Baddin..in serpia

All students singing a song to the audience

The certificate that says..*I have learned to read!*

Ara karnesi

The biggest complain i heard was from his art lesson teacher... of his stubbornness (he refused to wear opron while painitng and had paints all over his jacket) or his inability for him to draw properly (due to his finger muscles not fully developed)...

Next to that.. it seems that the teachers are happy with him... one teacher also commented to his class teacher asking...

*Arzu hanım.. what have you done to Sabahaddin?? he has changed a lot!*

Yes... acadamically.. he is an intelligent learner.. quick to catch what he is learning ...for example.. up till now... he has learned around 10 letters (i think)... there are still more letters to learn in order for him to be able to read.. and baddin... if i or his sister tell him the sound of the letters he has not learned yet... he can read! He always get it right for dictation as well.. and i see this seriousness in finishing his work as well...i think nsyaAllah academically.. he will excell.. my only concern is his stubborness and his social development... i want him to grow up to be a confident man... not as a man who slouches and a nobody in a crowd... my prayers will always be with you my şekerim... always...

incident and lessons...

He was angry at a very close friend (not in the picture).It was during the Friday assembly. I was watching them from the first floor. ..monitoring... evaluating... In his hand, freddy the frog... a gift for him to keep for that weekend since he was among the very few who could answer the questions posed by his english teacher correctly.

I was very suprised. That close friend was pulling and tugging freddy that i was so suprised tto see freddy still in one piece... he kept on doing actions that drove baddin mad, never stopping even when baddin started to cry. It was only until his class teacher, Arzu hanım stayed next to them that the tugging and pulling stopped.It was a tug of war...

The next morning, on instincts i asked him.... was this one friend always like this? I then discovered that it was the case. That friend also took his water and had cut baddin's newly bought sweater with a scissor!! I got really mad and immediately sms-ed his class teacher to consult her if this matter... and on Monday...true to her words, she had a chat with *that friend* and insyaAllah...things will be ok... i am sad really coz that friend was..is one of his closest friends since pre school... I hope things will be ok for him...

How is he in learning to read? I think baddin is doing well... True, his writing will never be as beautiful as his sister but i think he is doing just great....considering the fact that he could barely make a straight line at the beginning of the first grade!! He enjoys reading the words using alphabets he had learnt... and can catch up the phonic sounds of the words he has yet to learn and is able to read them.

But,slow as a snail is still the happenning in our home during homework time... he takes a lot of time in finishing his homework that whenever his dad is at home.. it creates a tension between him and i coz his dad doesnt believe in homework and if the kids do not finish their homework by 7pm... he will tell them to stop....

And baddin does things forever so slowly...though i realize that he takes a lot enjoyment in doing his lesson... when he writes for example the word...

limon...

he tries to read it using the perfect phonetic sound and making sentences to explain the word. He even hums the word in a rythm..which of course drives his sister crazy coz she was also trying to think while doing her homework!!

He is serious in his work and when he isnt... i volunteered to simply close the book coz i told him that...

*if u dont wanna do it serously..then dont! close the book!!*..

but he wouldnt and would do the homework till the end... grumbling perhaps but he simply refused to stop if the homework was not finished...

There is hope still for him... after all he is only in the first grade...

What i ask and expect from the teachers are... for them to give him a chance to show himself. For them to give him the opportunity to prove to everyone else that he can coz i see a lot of potential in him unexplored. The fault perhaps stem from me.. from my failure to train him properly as his mother..... but it will be a real pity to let that potential die... esp since he carries the name of the respected one.

At present

He has changed sooo much from the moment he entered pre school....from a boy who needed to be taught how to hold a pencil and even a spoon.... to a boy who could barely utter a word or two due to his shyness....there is no doubt that Hülya Furuncu and his other teachers in pre school education had planted a firm base in him...

Grade one started as a bit (that's an understatement!!) of a battle between he and i...but like all storms..that too faded away... under his present techer's guidance... he is again striving well to find his potential... his finger muscles are stronger now..his relationship with teacher also involves communication..and everytime he comes home with a dictation test .. he without fail will get all correct... i am seeing a different son...slowly moving towards the type of a person i have been forseeing before...maybe people will laugh when they read this coz to the naked eye... that may not be the obvious thing... ...

But when his class teacher told me that " he is a different kind of boy... intelligent.. mature..but i am still trying to understand his character"... i think he is in the right path.. with the right teacher... i can only pray... insyaAllah..

Reading?

Frankly speaking...for years i was worried... Baddin had not shown much interest in looking at books....He rarely joined us when we all read books as a family.... listening to his siter reading books loudly to me (in grade one) but not really showing his interest.....

I should have guessed... He didnt want to join in coz he didnt know how to read... being the boy he is.. he wanted to be perfect...wanted to read perfectly...since he couldnt...so why bother??

Now that he has learned a few alphabets.. he is eager to read the book provided for his level... and somehow deep down..i can sense that he willbe one into reading... Well...after all.. he wants to be a *hoca*...just like his grandpa... and he did tell me that

*dede dan daha çok çok okucağım!*
(i will read lots more than dede read)

go ahead! i am not complaining oğlum..!

His sis being ill

When his sister was hospitalised for 2 days due to an emergency operation due to a twisted and dead cyst.... we knew from experience never to bring him to the hospital to see her.Eversince his dede being hospitalised and died a couple of months ago.. he had shown a very deep emotional trauma if he ver visit a hospital. It was confirmed when we were in Malaysia...

I had not been home for 2 days....that 2 days... he had stayed at his cousin's place...just in front of our door...till night when his dad came to pick him up home for the nite...

He had shown no emotional distress at all.... acting lke a grown up when my beloved explained to him the situatin at hand... as usual..keeping whatever he felt and thought of to himself..

After his sister was discharged from the hospital.....He tried to ran away from me.... Feeding him his dinner was terrifying... homework time... he wanted my attention... i was unable to make him finish his homework on his own (w had visitors visiting his sis)....him wanting loads of attention from me... yet... running away from me......

After alost two hours.. i finally managed to sweet talk him.. n he did his homewrk while sitting on my laps.... finally surrendering his missing me physically... and finally him finding peace to finish his homework....

Looking back... in the future.... it will be very difficult for people to understand him... to understand his moods... he is not comfortabe telling his inner feelings....will that affect how the teachers will percieve him in the classroom?? hmmm... we will see i suppose...