29 October 2009

Exam, exam & exam

It is the final term exam for Werney this week and the word EXAM seemed to stress her out! Both DH and myself are definitely not kiasu parents and we have never demanded that she must score all As or 100%!

Werney has been stressed out coz' after the first day of the exam (which is Number), she came back home, thoughts hard and long and during bed time, she told me she can't do this question 18-4=?. Well, it is definitely easy for an adult but this simple subtraction exercise could be difficult for a 5 year old! I've reassured her that it is okay if she doesn't know how to attempt the question and we could always do correction once the teacher returns the exam paper. She was so worried and terrified of exam now!

Gosh, it is our education system or what? Even a 5 year old can get so stressed up for exam? I don't remember that I had fear of exam or anything during my kindergarten years and it was so much fun back then! I am not sure whether Werney is just taking things too seriously or is this phenomenon affecting other kids too?

Werney is currently enrolled in a Fungates system kindy. Although the teaching methods and systems are quite good, I find it too "academic". There are homeworks almost every other day and kids have to sit for formal written assessment twice a year. Werney has been complaining that there is very little "play time" at kindy, it is usually study, study and study! I am just wondering whether I should let her continue in the same kindy next year.

Mommy and daddy bloggers, please share your thoughts on this? Anyone else have kids facing the same issue?

I just do not want Werney to grow up thinking life is just about study & exam!

3 comments:

michelle@mybabybay said...

Wow exam for a 5 year old, maybe you should change school.

Many school does not teach the child how to do math rather they teach them to memorize.

I teach my children how to use fingers and drawing balls to get to the answers. But still 5 year old is a little too young.

Mamapumpkin said...

Life is certainly not about studying and exams but the reality is that in Standard One (7 years old), your child must be able to cope with the requirements or get left behind. Perhaps you should take a look at the Standard One syllabus/textooks and then decide if you need to continue her at such an academic school.

My approach always is that the child has to be happy. And if the child comes home unhappy, then it's time for a change. I'm not sure where you live in KL but check out Insight Kids preschool www.insight-kids.com , all the kids that go there are happy! And my daughter can still do difficult maths with her eyes closed. I don't know how they make learning fun but it seems to work!

Blog's author said...

hi mamapumpkin...i've checked out the website of insight-kids...it is a little too far from where i am staying. thanks for sharing anyway!

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