Because this is the final week of T1’s school before THE FINAL EXAMINATIONS, I have been spending a lot of time thinking and thinking about the best way to approach this. In the past, we had never bothered so much about exams of any sort because she seemed to do just fine without studying for them. However, now that she is 2 years younger than her peers, she is falling behind a little, which is completely fine but it is so hard not getting caught up in the crazy school rat race when everyone is fighting to get 100% for all subjects and here my T1 is gliding along with a range of 80-100%…….

I really don’t want to tell her to study nor push her nor make her do anything that she does not find joy in doing, yet the Hubs feels that a little discipline is OK. He reckons that an 8 year old child should get an hour of work in every day after school. I explained that an hour isn’t enough to cover her entire syllabus but he said tough then. We do an hour every day and that is it.

So I went searching for the other international school Moms and spoke to moms in the UK for a basis of comparison. I even spoke to my friend who works with the University admissions in the UK and another education specialist from the UK and they all say that the UK Government is gearing towards a no exam policy for the kids primary years. It is found that the child’s first 6 years of school life, or their earlier years, should be spent building emotional intelligence, confidence, self-assurance and taking correct instructions and implementing them, working in teams, working in solo projects, forms of expression, learning to communicate well. Not memorising stupid facts of the past but really just learning what needs to be learnt and understanding them learnings.

They will test the students privately through secret assessments just to make sure that the students are indeed understanding what is taught but students are not given exams and they are not told when they are about to be tested. So really, everything stems from whatever they retain from their school classes and their homework.

So my friend who has a girl in Year 6 says that every day, her girl goes for some extra curricular activity such as tennis or dance class or art class or whatever the girl finds fun and if there is no activity, then she just goes home to read her story books or do whatever she feels like doing. Not study for exams for there are no exams to study for!

So I’ve been researching and researching still and saw that in orton gillingham ny, they have this orton gillingham programs that help students address their strength and weaknesses through a 45 minute daily work programme for kids up to Year 6. This ties in with how much work a child really is supposed to be doing up to Year 6. From Year 7-8, it is 90 minutes daily and for Year 9-11, it is 2 hours daily. By then, they can start studying for real!

All Asian Moms will think I’m crazy but I’m going to do what the Brits are doing since I believe that developing the soul at an impressionable age is far more important right now than developing their memory bank! Thus despite our final exams starting next week, I shall be taking T1 to a Bollywood Bhangra Dance Class at Fit For 2 this afternoon to Bhangra it out! To hell with exams! If she gets 80% for ALL her subjects and be lowest in class, so be it!!! Even if she gets 70% or 60%, I’m still chilled. Perhaps if she gets 50%, I’d take a look at the paper to see what she was having trouble with, but nehhhhh…….she’s a bright kid. She’s only doing Year 4 so after her Bhangra dance, we can always do the 45 minutes that is the set standard for her year and we can do it partly in the car by practising her times table or spelling!

 

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Who is Mamapumpkin?
Mamapumpkin spent 7 years in London committing crimes to gain her Bartlett degree in Architecture. She then spent 7 years as a Stay At Home Mom raising her children as documented in this blog of over 15 years thereafter returning to the Corporate World stronger than ever as the Country Director of a British Multinational. She sets out to prove to all, that you can have anything and everything that you want; if you have that fire of desire burning within and the drive to work hard. Even better with much love.

Mamapumpkin has not only grown corporate businesses successfully in the past but has grown not one but TWO network marketing businesses in the notorious MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) industry, achieving success in under 2 years. She believes in the MLM business model but realises the DRASTIC PITFALLS and great stigma attached to it, understanding EXACTLY WHY the majority would shy away (or RUN for their lives) from ANY MLM business. But open your eyes and take time to understand it intellectually, remove your hang-ups, confirm your research, and you may just want to seize an opportunity. She did. And no, she never went about chasing people for sales. She had a sophisticated system work for her through technology and a smartphone.

She now impacts lives authentically with proven strategies amassed through the last decade of her own transformation offering online coaching programmes and always supports the underprivileged. She believes that we can all have a life of our own desires to enable real contribution into the world. But first, one needs to understand what this all means.

A beautiful life without limits.

If you wish to learn some tools to propel your life forward guaranteed, be brave enough to make contact as her life's purpose is to build people. She operates through a discovery call after which she will commit to helping you. Or not.

Most lose out on an opportunity because they are afraid they would be sold to, conned or whatever fear resides in their brain without even trying. And that's on them.

Mamapumpkin is a living testimony that women really can have a lot. Being financially and time free has enabled her to travel the world anytime, anywhere, doing anything, and she spends most of her days with her children, having fun, and supporting others wherever she can. Also having fun.