The Big Day

There is a buzz in the air. The streets are bustling. Enormous flags and pictures of Atatürk adorn the sides of school buildings. Parents are accompanying their crisply uniformed children to the courtyard of their school, where they will stand and listen to a welcome speech and pay tribute to Atatürk (the man who implemented major educational reforms in Turkey after he became the leader in 1923). Then, they will kiss their children on both cheeks and send them off to the first day of the new school year in Turkey.   

The Turkish school year runs from mid to late September through the end of June. The children receive several school breaks for Kurban Bayramı (Sacrifice Holiday), Winter Break, and Children's Festival. The government requires that children attend at least 8 years of primary school beginning at age 7 (although in American minds it's age 6 since Turks count 0 - 12 months as "completing the first year" and entering age 2). Many kids go on to complete high school and university.

Eli is continuing on at his Montessori School and has just entered into "the big kid class" (ages 5 and 6. Although he's 4... just apply the same reasoning as above). He has a more set schedule this year with math class, art class, reading class, English class (which he dislikes), dance class, music class, and aside from the English class his entire education is in Turkish. We are sending him Monday - Thursday so that on Fridays we can do English reading and writing lessons, and Bible lessons at home.

While the first two years at this school were long and hard for him, his Turkish has gotten to a comfortable level and he is able to communicate solely in Turkish for an entire day (which is good because his "Ah-bee," our Turkish/American neighbor, has graduated and moved on to a different school and Eli is now the only foreign kid). What's funny (or not, I suppose) is he's figured out how to use his two languages to his advantage. For instance, Eli hates coloring. Seriously, the kid will sit for approximately 2.2 seconds and color and then he's ready to go and build something, destroy something, climb something, etc. Last week his teacher informed me that when Eli doesn't want to do something (i.e. color) he pretends he doesn't understand the instructions. The little stinker.