Its always hard to start. Many experiences ran through my mind. Almost 1.5 years of anticipation and preparation for my older boy’s PSLE exam started mid of his primary 5 school year. At that point, he was still trying to get use to the fact the school was starting to prepare them for that ultimate exam in his 6 years of primary school life.
The pace got faster. The way teacher asked questions started to gear towards the exam format. For an average 5th grader, their result will dip due to this change, but don’t worry. The good thing is, because of these change, the baseline is low. They will have a lot of room for improvement and these improvements if happen, will boost their confidence level tremendously.
Now, back to “where I should start?” I started with “Having the right mind set as a parent.”
Mindset 1: As long as he try his best, that’s good enough,
Mindset 2: The more and the earlier he start preparing, the less stress out he and I will get during the PSLE season.
Mindset 3: Must let him have time to chill. Not just STUDY, STUDY, STUDY.
Mindset 4: No matter how is the final results, mum and dad still love him dearly.
Next, I communicate these mind sets clearly to my boy, getting him on board. I had to continuously reinforce these mindsets both to him and to myself. Even till the last days before the exam.
I have not regret taking this as the starting point. Though during that initial point of time, I was also not sure whether I will be able to adhere to these mindsets. Now, I am glad I did.
PSLE Dad 