Adjusting to life in Primary one, adjusting my expectations

The year is almost half way through and time isn't slowing down!

Madison is settling down to life in primary school. We've had our hiccups and I'm also trying to find my way around the education system.

It's quite scary when you talk to other parents and their kids seem eons ahead with multiple tuition lessons. And the mothers ( usually stay at home ones ) have all their lesson plans set, with the entire year mapped out.

But I got a reality check when I realized Madison gets stressed, and she doesn't even tell us about it.

She had that one episode earlier in the year when she did that weird crying and walking around her room at midnight thing because she was stressed about being bullied in school.

After that was resolved she was fine.

Then just last week she did that crying and walking around thing again! She initially denied it when I asked her the next day, then finally admitted that she was nervous and scared about an oral presentation. ( which went fine the next day )

And at work, one of my patients came back after not seeing me for 5 years, and told me that her young sibling had passed away. It was most probably self inflicted and it is terribly sad.

So I realized: it cannot be about the grades and trying to just score marks in school. It is more important to be adjusted, to have friends and be happy. Of course it doesn't mean not even trying, but if the kids have done their work, tried their best then the mark is simply to demonstrate where they could learn more. I was speaking to a mum and she told me her husband lost one week's worth of sleep because he was upset his kid scored 95% instead of 100% because she made some silly mistakes.



I think I want my kids to understand that the mark they get from a test should be just an indication of where they could improve on, but ultimately I must also realize that even adults still make mistakes and forget stuff on tests! Given an open book test adults STILL make mistakes! How much more a kid?


It's a work in progress, and I have to remind myself of the BIG picture, of what's important in the long run!