Education in a Foreign Land

Last night we attended our first parents' meeting at Eli's school. I know that Eli is only 2.5 years old but we're sending him to a Turkish montessori school 3 days a week. If we were still in the States he would just be at home with me, but he goes there while I go to my Turkish lessons and it's also to help him learn Turkish. We were more comfortable with that option than with leaving him alone with a babysitter. It's taken him a bit to get used to it, but now he seems to be excited to go and is speaking more and more Turkish by the day.

Last night they showed us what the kids have been doing; matching shapes, using thick yarn to outline things, learning about handwashing, healthy foods, traffic signs and lights, and doing lots and lots of art projects! Here's a sampling of some of Eli's stuff.

A later added note:I should probably write that they MUST give him tons of help because his artwork at home isn't NEARLY this accurate.

Here are just a few of my observations from the meeting:

1. Eli is the only child in whole school who is still in diapers (the youngest class is 2-3 year olds). From what I understand many Turks do potty training early (1.5 - 2 years old) and they do the whole "no pants" method (meaning their child goes around the house with nothing on and quickly learns they have to pee in the potty). I told the school we're beginning to potty train and they told me to bring him in underwear and they'll help by putting him on the potty every hour on the hour unless he says he needs to go before then.

2. There was actually a 5 minute discussion on how you say your child's age. I know...bizarre, but SUPER CONFUSING. To many Turks, when a child is 12 months he has lived his first year of life so they say, "He is finishing his 1st year." Others seem to subscribe to the same way we say it and when he is 12 months old they say, "He will be 1 year old." I'm not sure why it's not consistent but there were literally parents trying to sort out who was the oldest in the class and it turned into a big confusing discussion of naming birth years, etc.

3. Eli is the only full foreigner in the 2 - 3 year old class but there are two other boys who are half Turk/ half German.

4. There were several parents who were lamenting their childrens' behavior at home (won't eat dinner, are agressive in the way they talk to their parents, etc.) and the parents were asking the teachers how to handle or react to this. Zach and I found this very interesting.

Here are just a couple of pictures from the schools' website. One of Eli's "Ah-bees" (Turkish older brother/upstairs neighbor) is in the bottom picture. Even though his "Ah-bee" is in the 3 -4 year old class he speaks English and Turkish so the teachers take Eli to him when there is some sort of communication barrier that they can't sort out. That gives us some relief.