Star of the Week

Nehir had a great week. He brought home his first official report card and it was excellent. There are three categories, excellent, good, and needs improvement. There are thirty to forty sepparate skills that they grade, and Nehir was excellent in all except about five where he was good. The ones where he was only good were all related to organization and tidiness skills, so, no surprises there. He was very proud of himself and we were thrilled.

He was also very happy because he was finally chosen to be the "Star of the Week" in English class. Once a week the English teacher chooses a student who has done the best in English and puts their picture up for a week. Nehir has wanted this BADLY since school started. Now, given that he is fluent in English and actually helps the teacher with translation during class, İ would have thought he should have earned this honor earlier, but İ guess he either goofs off during class or else the teacher is using this to motivate learning and Nehir didn't seem to need motivation. Anyway, he got pretty discouraged so İ told him to tell the teacher how he felt. A couple weeks later, he finally got selected. Last night, while İ was reading to him, he quietly said with a smile on his face "İ'm the Star of the Week." You could tell he was so proud that his picture would be up all week. He is so cute.

Taylan is learning and growing too. He understands English and Turkish but still says very little. Last night he started saying "bak" meaning "look" for the first time. He loves attention and knows how to get it. He dances, makes funny faces, shows off all his "tricks" and, if all else fails, screams. He and Nehir are playing together more. They like to run around and make weird noises - which İ am sure the lady downstairs is thrilled about.

Selcuk has made the second round of cuts for the W.T. grant and so did his friend so he is very happy. İ am happy too.