This was an emotional week for me. Early in the week, I was so frustated with BB and his inability to do his school work, especially given that this is a crucial year for him, I decided to have a very emotional heart-to-heart talk with him.

I reached out online and found some answers which I used as ammunition to speak with BB. I told him bluntly how his life will turn out to be if he continues in the same vein and shared statistics with him on what kind of income levels he can expect. There was a bit of crying and the offshoot of this session was that he has decided to work hard so he can get into the course of his choice.

This week is the school term break. While BB does not have to go back to school, GG’s school is asking them to come back almost daily, whether for make-up lessons or for CCA practice. She was moaning the other day that holidays is just a misnomer in her case.

Happy Sunday folks and have a wonderful weekend!

This was mostly test week for both BBc& GG. BB’s school still continued with the traditional common tests, while GG’s school started on the newly introduced weighted assessments. They have not gotten back most results, so that’s news for another week.

Next week in both schools is some kind of learning week. BB’s school has contracted an external vendor to come and do a motivation camp for the O level cohort which means long hours for two days, till 6 pm and then on the last day it will be till 9 pm! The last day is also when parents are invited. I am really looking forward to tips that I can use on BB to get him to become more motivated.

GG’s school, on the other hand, is doing a series of talks by alumni as well as talks on how to get direct and early admissions plus talks on junior college versus polytechnics. They will also be going to Universal Studios Singapore at Sentosa as part of a learning journey. This is something she and her friends are very excited about and have been talking about since school started. There was some talk at the beginning of the year that this excursion would be cancelled this year due to budget constraints and the kids were very disappointed, but I am happy the school decided to keep the tradition alive for the 2019 cohort too.

In other news, the Singapore Examinations and Assessments Board (SEAB) released the timetable for the O level exams and it’s real now! The exam timetable is a convoluted one because they have to take into account all the different subject combinations and this means some days they have more than one paper which means not much time for last minute revision, while for other subjects, they get a couple of days in-between to revise. GG’s exams end earlier compared to BB, mostly because he has an extra subject. She is planning on celebrating while BB continues to study!

That was our news for the week. Have a wonderful Sunday people!

This is a normal week for both BB & GG. GG had some weighted assessments (one of which was very sudden for her as she had not seen the date for this exam) and so is currently busy studying. BB, on the other hand, has his common tests starting from Monday and is still blase about it as ever.

GG suffers from examination anxiety where she pretty much freezes and forgets all her learning during an important exam. This happened to her four years back during her PSLE exams and I very strongly believe that this was the cause of her lower than expected marks in the exam. She seemed ok during the first few years of secondary school and I was relieved that she had overcome this fear. But this year, with the O levels looming, I fear this anxiety is making a come back. I have been coaching her constantly and try to motivate her, and I hope this is working. This is going to be a year-long project for me, so wish me (and GG) loads of luck.

That’s all folks from the children this week. Happy Sunday everyone!