I saw others mom's blog about their children school reports. I normally don't blog about this. Her first term result was not bat either (Average of 98) , the same for the 2nd term, her average is 98,92. Which I think not bad at all. Her school system do not have rank. Like I mentioned before, it has a independent learning system. And I am glad I can see the result in her. She doesn't depends on me or teacher to do homework. She will try to read the instruction and read the whole page and do the questionnaire . When she is having difficulties then she will ask me. I think this attitude is great. Because learning is attitude. I am glad I don't have to ( or not yet ) to sit with her with a cane /rotan to force her to learn.
What to do this holiday? I am planning to do some experiments with her. Simple one. So far she made the homemade thermometer, the phone with string ( the one where Alexander Graham Bell's discovered that voice can transfer by "waves") , the next one will be a flying this with balloon ( the base theory of the flying hot balloon). I will need to google more experiment that is interesting for kids to do. I do believe that learning is no just try to memorize the text book. It is more into "life experiences".
If I could find the ant's farm set here ( you know where you put ants and soil in the jar and you cover the jar with black cardboard and after a while you open it you can see the "house" of the ants including the "Queen" room.) And too bad I couldn't find any caterpillar in my yard. I like to keep one and see how it metaphor into pretty butterfly. Or the tadpole that "change" into a frog.
Learning things by witnessing it with your own eyes is so much different that just to read from a text book.
I did this for many times during my childhood. Or the simple trap to catch flies. Yup that was some of my childhood self experiments at home. Will try to refresh my memory to find more simple yet interesting thing to do around our home.
Another interesting conversation between me and one Indy's classmate mom. We are talking about their BM and Mandarin's grade. Her dd got 70 for BM and 95 for Mandarin. But she can communicate in BM very fluently , on the other hand she can't speak Mandarin.
So there is the dilemma . Which one do you prefer? Grades? or the REAL skill?
I told her, that is fine. The important is that she can speak BM quiet well. The grades is just a number. And the grammar. Now about the Mandarin. Ok she got HIGH MARK, but she doesn't have the confident to speak it, it is either shy, or she doesn't have the confidence to speak ( they come from a non -mandarin speak family/environment).
Imagine to have a perfect mark of Mandarin in the report but then when she will be at the Mandarin speaking place only, if she can't communicate , the HIGH MARK wont be useful right?
The same with the BM, her mark is not that impressive but living in a country where most people speak BM, I think her speaking skills is more important than the MARK on the school report. So I told her mom that is ok. The important she can speak quite well and just need her to speak Mandarin more often.
Indy got 73 for BM and 72 for Mandarin, not that impressive either, that could been better, but at least I know if she is in the situation where she needs to speak that language she can manage it well ( think about emergency situation). My Niece and nephew were lost one time in the big mall in Jakarta. In situation like this, your school grade won't help. The important is your communicating skills ( BM or Bahasa Indonesia will HELP A LOT!) and the ability to stay calm and focus. Even that you are a straight A's students won't help much. Fortunately my nephew still can manage to spill out the " AKU HILANG" to the mall's guard. They were 10 and 9 years old by that time and he speaks a minimum B. Indonesia while my niece speak none ( English and Cantonese only) . That is why I want my children to speak Bahasa Indonesia and learn BM while we are living in Malaysia ( even that means they will speak wtih different accents and words and people will find it funny ). There is nothing to loose when you learn something new, you will never know when that comes in handy ( my dad's motto to me)
Have a great week a head!
2 comments:
I like this article. Totally agree that school marks are just numbers. There are more skill to learn than just passing school exams, and I also believe that learning is an attitude. The problem is a lot of parents sees that LEARNING means learning things from the school textbooks and SMART means when kids can score high marks in exam. But that doesnt mean the kids are street smart. Any occupation requires different level of skill, like a doctor vs a car mechanic. Neither one of them are not smart, vice versa. :) Main important is that as long as they are happy with what they are doing.
I also like the way you bring up your girls. :) Enjoy motherhood.
hi Cel! yes sometimes we tend to forget that test is just one time , they can get the high marks but then after that what ? they will forget all the knowledge? I prefer they got the reasonable mark but will use the knowledge in real life. How many school age students with a good rank in the classroom but can't carry a conversation with an adult? When you asked them question about common knowledge and common sense they respond is just : dont know... dont know oh.
They tend to be "dull" I prefer learning that stimulate the students rather than to force them to swallow down everything.
And the "journey" is as important as the "destination."
I still need to learn a lot from you. Sometimes the purpose to write this post is also to remind my self. The society tends to put pressure on us ( you know like : ah still so poor her reading skills? So easy her homework? and for the young one: ha you haven't teach her abc yet? She can't color inside the line yet? ). By writing down like this, it will remind me that the marks is just a mark. I prefer my children to have some "passion" in life rather than be the "yes , sir, no , sir" type .
Whoa so long this comments! hahaha
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