Bear and his class have been having lots of tests. I suspect it is the time of year for them, and the school are doing a great job of bringing the whole class on. Bear has enjoyed the tests to some extent, but he was very evasive about his maths. 'Did you see your scores?' I asked.
'Mmm.' bear said, looking away.
'How did you do?' I asked.
'Mmm.' said bear, carefully not looking at me.
'Was it hundreds of questions?' I asked.
'I got sixteen out of twenty.' Bear admitted.
'That's awesome.' I said. 'Is that 75% or 80%?' and we wandered off trying to work out different percentages. Bear is a lot better than me and it cheered him up.
He may not have got them all right, but that's okay. I often come on here and gloat about how clever bear is (and I do think he is bright) but I never, ever want him to feel pressured or to feel a failure if he doesn't get perfect marks. To be honest, as he was a little upset about only getting 16 out of 20, I think I need to give him ways of defining himself without test results. But then, you want a child to try and push themselves and to learn to deal with failing tests.
I wish you got a manual when you got a baby.
I think you handled that very well! It is a fine line between being encouraging and pressuring!
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