Reading n Sums at Skool
7Friday 04 October, 2013 by Uncle Spike
Cousin Spike Jnr started primary school this year. However the concept is nothing new for him, having attended kindergarten full-time for two years (2½-4½), then one year of pre-school (4½-5½).
So every morning he gets sent off on his school bus at 07:45, returning at 17:15 at night – all pretty much ‘normal life’ in our household when it comes to our short person.
Generally he loves school, but is really not so keen on the whole ‘leaning to write’ shenanigans – a subject which is religiously taught every day here. Mind you, they are learning to write ‘all proper like’… I mean, real fancy joined-up handwriting from the age of five. Fingers crossed he will therefore be able to achieve a far higher level of penmanship than his dad, who (I ashamedly admit) scribbles worse than the average doctor – be thankful that this blog is typed on a computer!
His two ‘relaxing’ subjects are Foreign Language (i.e. English) and Mathematics.
First of all, he is bi-lingual, with Turkish and English as his two mother tongues, so I guess he challenges his English teacher no end – poor woman. He loves reading, and at five is happily reading Level 3 books with very limited help. This is his current reading book :-
COUSIN SPIKE JNR LIKES TO READ STAR WARS BOOK BEFORE BED – NATURALLY
DK Readers – “Feel The Force” by Benjamin Harper
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As for math, or mathematics, well this is taken from his second maths school book (not his first, which is with him at school now).
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Trouble is… he was doing this at age four at home with mum and dad. This was his ‘home school’ about one year ago 🙂
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And now this is what he has on his whiteboard in his bedroom. He tried to explain to his teacher about negative numbers, but I think she just thought he was bonkers, as he likes to do sums like 17 + 4 – 25 = -4 in his head.
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It’s going to be an interesting year!
Uncle Spike's Adventures 
Are you sure he is a real child and not a figment of your imagination?
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I wish… nope, there was 20kg of mischief bouncing round at 06:50 this Saturday morning, raiding the Coco Pops before his mum got up – he’s real all right 🙂
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He’s a genius! Will easily fit in to a typical school in Asia. They push kids really hard here.
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Sounds great, we’ll send him over!
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Whole day for a 5yr old? Over here, primary starts at 7 and are dismissed by 3pm, with an hour and a half lunch break. Is that the regular primary school schedule in Turkey?
Come to think of it, that’s just one hour shorter than the schedule there. haha.
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**I meant our school schedule is just an hour shorter
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His school has 1 hour more than state schools, but the long day is also due to travel, as it’s 25km away.
Not posh private, but just decent education – state education is ‘a little different’ to the west, to say the least, so we had to go private.
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