Final Exams

A few weeks back Lydia was working on her homework and she was clearly overwhelmed with the task. Not the individual questions which she could mostly handle but by the sheer volume of work and repetition. She was passing the three hour mark in the night’s session. I try to support her best I can, guiding with the English homework and some of the math but there isn’t much I can do to help with Chinese. Most of the time I just surf the net and act as a calming factor when she gets upset.  On this night I was reading a NYTimes article about parents revolting against the Tiger Mom phenomenon by pressing their schools for less homework, not more. In Pleasanton, the article said, there was a measure in front of the school board to limit the amount of homework in primary school to the grade the student was in. For first grade, Lydia’s grade, it would be 10 minutes. 2nd grade, 20 minutes and so on.

This is a preface to Aidan’s and Lydia’s final exams which occurred this week. Three days, three tests in the morning. Day 1 English, Day 2 Chinese, Day 3 Math. Last semester Lydia scored quite well on the tests but poorly for doing her homework. Aidan did all his homework but didn’t score as well as he had expected on the tests and frankly he was crushed. So we spent more time on Lydia’s study habits and helping Aidan make sure he understood the material and wasn’t just completing it. We banned computer games during the school week and complimented them when they completed their homework on time. Still, it seemed like too much work and not very well managed by the teacher, especially Lydia’s. Some days she would have little homework and some days she would have 3.5 hours worth. I mentioned it during her teacher during our five minute parent/teacher conference but didn’t get anywhere.

Leading up to the exam Aidan started issuing his own tests to Lydia. Lydia didn’t care for this much but Aidan insisted. I would often hear Lydia making a fuss in the back bedroom only to find Aidan had just asked her a bunch of math problems.

So the exam days came, for English Lydia said she got 99 and seemed satisfied but wanted a 100. Aidan didn’t know his exact score but said the only question he didn’t know was bus driver. For Chinese, Lydia said she did not do very good. 94.5. Aidan didn’t know for sure but thought he got 100. For math, Lydia again was not happy with her score, 94. Aidan said he did good but didn’t know the score.

We should get the official results tomorrow, but you know, it’s frigging 1st and 2nd grade. As long as they are learning and go on to the next grade, it is mostly enough for me. No need for a Tiger Mom here. The Tiger teachers do that job.