Finally the end of the week is here! It's a relief especially for this week because it's also the last day of mid-year exams for my kids...YIPPEE!! I believe it's a similar situation for most of you who are parents too....
Speaking of exams...the first word that comes to the mind is usually - 'STRESS!!' I think this word is popping up more frequently and is often verbalised by the students and parents alike.
Personally for a parent who's son is facing the
PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) at the end of this year (OMG...it's going to be VERY SOON!!!)....I can feel the stress level creeping up in me slowly but surely!
But I wonder if my son is feeling the heat too because as far as I've been noticing lately, he's been rather relaxed and cool about it. I know this is a good sign but to be honest, he's making me more of a nervous wreck with this calm and collected attitude! Why? Well....my son is just an average scoring student and out of the 4 subjects he takes, he fairs either on the borderline or just under for 2 of the subjects....SO, that's why! :(
On the other hand, I know that some kids react negatively, i,e. expressing their stress through stress-related symptoms such as headache, fever and crying. Recently, my friend has been sharing that her son (same level as mine) has been unwell and occurs frequently. When probed, he admitted that he was feeling stress about the upcoming papers. Just today, another friend told me that her daughter ( a 3rd year secondary student) was in tears since the night through morning before going to school. Her reason for the outburst - not confident that she could pass the math paper....
DOWN MEMORY LANE...
I'm now going back down memory lane when many years ago I had to take
my PSLE. My recollection of school and exam life back then was 'CAREFREE'. I don't remember having my mom or granddad pushing me to study, do homework, etc. The only nagging I got was "Memorise your time-table!" Most of the time, the memory that I had of that period was filled with lots of playing time both at home and in school. Did I have tuition? Hmmmm....I don't think I had any except for the last year when I joined a group tuition on the weekend. Even then, I dreaded going for it and thought it was such a waste of time as I'd rather be home playing or simply do nothing.
When the big day came, again I don't think I was feeling 'stress', except for just a tiny-winy bit of nervousness. The funny thing was that I did pretty well for the exams. I spent my holidays in Malaysia and remembered gettnig a call from my mom after she had gone to collect my results. Incredibly, I passed! (3As & 1A*). My mom even asked if I had cheated....LOL....because my friends were incredibly surprised too with my results as they told her that all I did was play in school (I was always initiating the play time during recess!)
BACK TO REALITY...
So back to the present.... I know times have changed and the standard has gotten way too high for the kids (I'm not going to start lamenting about how tough the education system has become lately!) As much as I want him and his siblings to experience the carefree days that I had during my childhood, I know that if I totally slack in giving him the push, he would suffer the outcome. So I've become one of those typical parents who has to succumb to signing up the kids for tuition & enrichment classes. Even with these, there's no guarantee that he would do well enough to pass through the year with the minimum benchmark. On top of that, I also have to deal with helping him to improve his overall well-being from the social skills perspective.
As the timeline draws closer to September, I think the best that we can do for them now is to continue to pray and provide the unconditional emotional support for them!
Anyways, it's TGIF and whatever it is, the mid-year exam is done! The weekend is here and I'm going to make sure that they get the much deserved breather after the past weeks of slogging out.
So please my friends....be happy that it's TGIF! We are looking forward to go a birthday party tomorrow!!
No comments:
Post a Comment