Parental Exam Stress

I can’t believe that my girl is almost completing her Standard One very soon. It seems like just yesterday that I was wondering which school to send her to.

She will be having her final term exams in about 2 weeks. I often hear most parents telling me that they are more stressed than their kids during exams. Strange isn’t it? So do I feel stressed? I suppose so. I feel stressed not because I expect my girl to do well and nothing else is acceptable. No, that is not the reason. I feel stressed because I am worried about how she feels. I am also worried about how she will cope and whether she will be getting enough sleep and rest.

There is revision to do. The teachers have also started to pile up the  homework as they rush to finish off the syllabus. Yesterday she came home with a lot of homework. 12 homework, according to her. 🙂 Do we still have time for revision? Naturally not. Will we feel stressed if we are not prepared by now? Yes, of course. We just received the exam schedule and syllabus this week. Fortunately we have prepared ourselves ahead of time.

Can a child of 7 be expected to manage to complete their homework, pack their bags for the next school day, study for spelling the next day as well as to revise for tests in 2 weeks time? Errr…. I don’t think so. I think they need lots of parental guidance. I have to give her lots of supervision and suggestions.

I do want to instill in her good study habits for life starting from young and I want her to do well so that she can feel more confidence in herself and in her own achievements. Doing well in studies is just another way to boost her confidence. She is somewhat shy and a bit timid so we want to find as many ways as possible to help her build her self image and confidence.

I want her to know that “studying” is not something that you do last minute just before the exams. “Studying” and Learning is done throughout the year. Fortunately she has not complained too much about “studying” during the school holidays and weekends. I always tell her that “we work hard but we play hard too” and I try to make sure that there is time for fun, rest and relaxation as well. Oh, she does grumble a little when we are doing revision at home but then she smiles from ear to ear when she does well. We remind her that it is a result of her working hard then we give her a little reward for her hard work. Hopefully, we can establish good habits this way.

I do want her to go to a good class next year if possible. (In my girl’s school streaming begins in Standard Two but there are other schools which have assessment tests and stream the kids from Year One.) The reason is because good teachers are assigned to better classes. Thats really strange. I thought that it makes more sense to have better teachers for poorer classes but then… its not how the way things work around here.

Anyway, we do hope that she will get a good teacher next year. I think the class teacher is so important. It really helps if the class teacher is understanding as well as really good at teaching and bringing out the best in the kids. It also helps if they can communicate well with us parents.

She is almost ready for her tests now. After it, she would have almost completed her first year in Primary School and going to Standard Two soon. Time really flies. Our little girl is growing up so fast. We love you sweetie pie. All the best for your tests.