Exams & Coping Mothers

Exams & Mother’s Stress is directly proportionate… when I flashback my memories I can still see the palpable stress on my mom’s face, but today I can just smile and tell her; “Hey! mom, see I have made it through”….

The time has shifted it’s course, today I am a Mother and braving the exams will be my junior. She’s on the first step of schooling (4.5 yrs) and exams are not that far.. probably in couple of years she will be writing her very first time-bound alphabetical races or some short sentences. Will I be ready for that challenge….???

I am a firm believer of logical & visual styles of learning among kids, when it comes to accepting new concepts; brain must reciprocate with correct reasoning towards the challenge. Hence, when I sit with my kid to teach her any new concept… I keep array of things to explain her the reason behind it. For example, last fortnight she completed the Dinosaurs, their types and Earth’s evolution in her class. When we did it at home I weaved a story around how Earth was formed and with the help of ‘play dough’, we made meteoroids and Earth’s sphere colliding, great craters, etc…. and call each other carnivorous/ herbivorous dino’s based on what we having on our plates. 

The best part with this style of leaning is: you are just not teaching your child something new, but also telling them the whole concept behind it…

Human brain is funny, it works all the time throughout our life;

stops only when…. we fall in LOVE or Talk about EXAMS!!

I have seen my friends and family members getting paranoid during exams, but honestly I do not agree to that. More the pressure you build in child’s brain, more he/she will go away from it. I know this lady, who wakes her 6 yrs old kid (studying in first grade) at 4 in the morning just to revise what he learned last night!!

How can you reduce the stress level (your & kid’s) during Exams?

• Do not wait till the last minute, keep working on the concepts & syllabus all around the year. As a mother you know with experience, which concepts are more dear to gaining knowledge work extra on those.

• Gauge your child’s weak points and work on those areas first. Never point out weak areas as ‘problems‘, always remember there are million ways to put the message across. Never bring negativity forward, work in tandem with school teacher and ask her for ways to improvement. (they are experts & highly trained)

• Make a habit of doing home – extensions regularly, good habits are tough to implement but once inculcated in routine they stay for good.

• Do not sit to study in a single stretch of multiple hours, take regular breaks, munching breaks, dancing breaks, singing breaks, chatting breaks. A little breather is always welcome.

• Do not make study monotonous by repeating same example and concept time and again. We are in the process of making our child smart NOT robot.

• There is no set time for revisions, you can help kids revise the concept anytime of the day; I take along mine to kitchen while preparing food give her simple tasks of passing veggies or vessels and keep asking her questions to revise the concept.

• Every kid has their own abilities, hence PLEASE do not ever compare and give examples of other kids. Negativity creeps inside much faster in child’s innocent mind then one can imagine.

• Cognitional training is the best  practice, make your child aware of surroundings and let them learn from experience.

This is my little list of Do’s & Don’ts to curb the exam pressure among Kids & Mommies. We all wish to see our child on top, but please also remember; Kids have JUST one childhood!! DO not snatch away tiny happiness from them under the peer pressure of performing better then ‘them’.

Thanks for reading…

Linking this with my all time favorite prompt #MondayMommyMoments by Amrita & Deepa. 

Also, linking this post with MyCity4Kids Blog.