Dear me, anyone remembers the primary school days where how well we did for the entire year depended on that one final year exam? Thank goodness, such days are over.
Marks do go up and down and there may be many factors that causes that unless we are talking about the children being academically gifted (notice that I used “academically” because people can be gifted with other talents). As parents or educators, consistency in instilling a positive learning attitude is more important for their growth.
So as our children come back to us this time with their grades and all, let us not just look at the absolute numbers. Let us help them grow a positive mind-set towards learning in the following ways:
(1) ASK: “Do you understand now how to do the questions that you had gotten wrong in the paper?”
This question subtly helps your child understand the importance of learning from mistakes. Notice how the word "mistake" is not used in the question to encourage the child to open up to you? Kudos if your child has already learnt from what went wrong.
(2) SAY & DO: “Let’s look through the paper together” or “Share what you have learnt with me?” The focus here to to spend some time together - just listening to what your child has to say about the paper or going through the mistakes together if required in a non-judging manner, learning together if need be. If today is not the right day/time to engage in this, set aside another day/time for it.
(3) GIVE YOUR CHILD A HUG BEFORE THEY FIND IT UNCOOL TO HUG YOU.
Happy Holidays!