Week 7 has been a very short week for BB & GG because of the Chinese New Year holidays. They went to school only 2.5 days, of which the last day was extremely short. The first day of the week was the Science exam, so essentially only Tuesday when they did any work in school.

The children have started reviewing their  CA1 papers in school, but I suspect the teachers want them to have a good CNY break as they don’t seem to really know their marks. BB came home on Wednesday in tears – I was working from home and initially thought he was being bullied in school, like what happened a few years back, but I was wrong. BB knew that he would not score the marks he was supposed to score in Maths, one of his strongest subjects, and he was scared I will scold him!

We’ll know next week, when the teachers go through the papers with the class and also when we meet the teachers the week after next! Right now, they are enjoying the only good break they will probably have all year!!

Exam time this week for BB & GG! They had their English and Maths Continuous Assessment (CA1) this week, followed by Science tomorrow. After this, is the Parent-Teacher meeting before the school ends Term 1.

Stress is slowly becoming a way of life for us, though I can see it is affecting GG more than BB. BB is more ‘happy go lucky’, but I think I stress for him. He is banking on getting into his first choice school, where the PSLE results are not very important.  I keep telling him to have Plan B, but am not sure if this has entered his brains…I can only hope and pray that he does make it to his first choice school.

Yesterday at the library, GG asked me if she could have a trip to a country she is currently obsessed with – Japan – if she does well in her exams and makes it to one of her schools of choice. BB also chimed in with a trip to either Europe or the US if he makes it. I’ve said YES….praying hard it comes true…

Another week has gone by. This week has been marked by sickness in the house. BB started it last week, followed by S and then GG who had it the worst of the three.

BB bounced back with a one-day course of Panadol, but when GG started coughing last Sunday, I gave her some Panadol and cough syrups that night and though she seemed a bit warm on Monday morning, she felt ok enough to go to school.

Back from school she was miserable. Coughing, a bad throat and even difficulty in breathing. Took her to the doctor who gave her two days of medical leave. But she insisted on only staying at home for a day. She didn’t want to miss school as its the PSLE year. My gut feeling is that yes she caught it from GG and S, but it’s also stress-related from the big exams she will be facing in October.

Not even 12 and stress like this! How i hate this system for making our children go through this at this age!! But we don’t really have a choice, but to make the best of the situation and equip the children to be resilient and to be able to face everything they encounter…I’m sure now I sound like one of the official government adverts 😉

And we’re in February! Where did January go and that too so quickly! Now the countdown to the PSLE exams is just eight months! Yiikes!!!

BB & GG will their first Continous Assessment (CA1) in week 6, which is next week. They have English on the 9th, Maths on the 10th, Mother Tongue on the 12th (which BB & GG will sit out as their school does not offer their choice) and Science on the 13th.

This test will be followed by a Parent-Teacher meeting just before they close the term. We have to go on two different days as both BB & GG’s classes have PTM on different days. This means taking time off work twice. Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

This test is important for all of us as it will show where our children are and what course corrections we can do so that they shine at the PSLE exams…

Other than the pace really picking up, this has been a fairly quiet week for BB & GG. They do have homework every single day – even on Thursdays, the CCA day – when teachers used to go easy on them as they would be in school for almost 11 hours that day!

Teachers have started testing the students already – every week, both come back with some test paper to sign. I see this as a good sign, keeping the students on their toes!