Under the Turkish Ministry of National Education's (MEB) calendar for 2026-27, the first mid-term break runs from 16 to 20 November 2026. With the weekends either side, that is nine days without school, from 14 to 22 November, and lessons start again on Monday 23 November. For English, the best use of those nine days is a short review of 10 to 15 minutes a day, with two full days off.
What happens if they don't touch English at all?
A week's break is not a disaster. But some of the words learned in September and October are already close to being forgotten. If nine days pass without anyone seeing them, part of that vocabulary will be gone when school starts again, and the next unit begins with the gap. Here is why and how words get forgotten.
Cramming on the last two days before school will not win them back. A 2006 review by Cepeda and colleagues brought together a large number of experiments on remembering words and facts, and the conclusion was consistent: the same amount of study lasts longer when it is spread over several days than when it is squeezed into one session. That is why this plan is spread across all nine days.
Before the break: a word list
Before the break starts, copy the words from the units covered in September and October onto a sheet of paper, from your child's notebook or textbook. Thirty or forty words is enough. If the teacher can give you a ready-made list, even better.
The plan, day by day
| Day | What to do | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday 14 Nov | Rest. No English. | none |
| Sunday 15 Nov | Your child teaches you the words on the list. Mark the ones they stumble on. | 15 min |
| Monday 16 Nov | Sound day: listen to the marked words in a dictionary app and say them aloud. | 10 min |
| Tuesday 17 Nov | House hunt: label things around the house with their English names on sticky notes. | 15 min |
| Wednesday 18 Nov | Rest. | none |
| Thursday 19 Nov | Mix-up day: lookalike words and false friends. | 10 min |
| Friday 20 Nov | Reverse quiz: you say the Turkish, they write the English. | 10 min |
| Saturday 21 Nov | Game: guess the word, or hangman. | 15 min |
| Sunday 22 Nov | Only the words that tripped them up on Friday. School tomorrow. | 10 min |
All nine days together come to less than an hour and a half. The rest days are there on purpose, because the gaps between reviews are part of how this works.
How to play the house hunt
Your child writes the English names of things around the house on sticky notes and puts each note on its object: window, door, table, fridge. Any they don't know, they look up. Leave the notes in place for a few days, so the word gets seen again every time someone walks past. If a note ends up on the wrong thing, that word goes on Thursday's list.
Mix-up day
Thursday is for words that look alike. Ask pairs like kitchen and chicken, or thirsty and thirty, side by side. Then there are the traps that look like Turkish words: in English, pasta is spaghetti, not cake, and a basket is something you carry. We collected those false friends here.
If you don't speak English
No day in this plan needs English from you. On Sunday your child teaches you the words, and on the other days you only ask and check the list. Here is more on what a parent without English can do.
The daily goals and short review sessions in GetSpeakin's mobile app carry on through the break and bring up the words a child is starting to forget. If your child's school uses GetSpeakin, the app's daily session can stand in for the review days in this plan.
For tonight: make the list now rather than waiting for the break. Go through the notebook together and write down October's words. With the list ready, the first Sunday of the break takes fifteen minutes.
Related: twelve minutes a day, the ear learns the word first
Dates follow MEB's 2026-2027 school calendar. Last updated: 1 October 2026.
Try it with your class. GetSpeakin reads every answer and puts the words a child actually needs in front of them. Book a demo for your school.