Tuesday 20 March 2012

Should one leave it at Good Enough??!!


School tells me that Honeybunch is going to have annual exams!!  Spanning the entire year’s curriculum! (Duh! what else would annual exams be all about?!!!!) The school has weekly tests for evaluating the kiddos. So, I had not expected the annual gradation. 
Honeybunch is good at studies. I also have a tuition teacher help her thru the week with her routine revision and homework. So post the annual exam breaking news, I informed Honeybunch’s tuition teacher (and may the Lord Bless Her!!!) about the exam and its syllabus. And she meticulously got down to the task of revising the entire portion. 
And now for the core question….!
Despite Honeybunch’s time with the tuition teacher, I still revise with her. There are times when I feel it may be an overkill….…but there is this….if studying with the tuition teacher gets her the As, just an additional 10 minutes of daily studies with me gets her the A-stars!! And that’s all it takes. 10-15 minutes of a recap with me and her output increases amazingly. With just the tuition lessons, she could get may be a two or three words (usually out of a list of 15 words) incorrect in her next dictation. But if I recap with her for just 10 minutes, everyday, she unerringly tops the class and gets the stars!!!! So Hubs and I think that her recap time with me is good. I only revise with her. I don’t introduce any new chapters or concepts. I leave that to the school and the tuition teacher….
Now the only flip side to this happy scenario is when she chooses to be flippant about the study at hand. Honeybunch tends to be less focused unless I pull the strict card with her. Only when she knows that Momma means business, will she straighten out, get her act together and in all seriousness, give it her “bestest” focus. And that usually means she has cracked the problem at hand for good. Post this “eureka” moment, the lesson stays with her for a long, happy while!
In the absence of this ‘rigor recap’, she just lingers at ‘good enough’.  So the question is should I leave it at ‘good enough’ OR have her stretch just a wee bit (which is well within her easy reach) and achieve excellence??
Should I be satisfied with the 8/10 knowing fully well that with a little nudge she will score a 10/10?? 

4 comments:

  1. I think you should aim for 10/10. Its very wasy for kids (even adults) to get used to and feel okay about being a little less than the best. But the constant nudging will one day become a habit to do your very best.

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  2. If nudging her does not cause he to be any less free willed then it's ok. But remember spontainety for kids is very important to ensure that our edu syatem does not turn them into by-hearting/mugging book-worms !

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  3. @Anon: Agree with your insight. For some time now i have been exploring ways in which Honeybunch can be initiated into free willed recaps/revisions. I have come with a role reversal recap that is fun and ensures learning. Let's see how HoneyBunch takes to it....

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  4. Its better not to encourage kids for a 'Rat race', so I wont ever push for 10/10. At this age what is important is giving knowledge (not just info) and arousing the curiosity of the child so that the child is self motivated to look out for information from various sources. I want to let my kid be at a easy 8/10 and leave space for his mind to explore on his own.

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