Another First

Abang came home from school the other day and told us that he has "exams". I know, I thought the same thing too: What kind of a twisted mind would impose exams on a 4-year old?

Later, I figured that they're not exams per se, they're more like "assessments" for teachers to know what the children have learnt, what they've improved on, what are their areas of improvement. This is so that they can report back to the parents on how the child is doing. It's not really an "exam".

That's my guess, anyway. We'll see how it goes. He seemed rather excited about it, probably because he hasn't a clue what "exam" means, rather like the first time he had "homework". He was supposed to have his assessment yesterday but he missed school because he slept at Atok's house on Wednesday night and Atok was supposed to send him to school on Thursday morning.

Unfortunately, on Wednesday night, Atok had a very bad case of constipation requiring Daddy and me to come over at midnight to send him to the hospital. The next morning, Atok told me, "I've never experienced anything quite like this. Any day, I'll take diarrhoea over constipation."

Which gave me an idea to revise Ant J's curse to "May those %&#$ not rest while nursing perpetual severe constipation."

Anyway, back to this "exam" thing, we'll see what happens next week. I suspect it's only the older children - the 5- and 6-year olds, who will be having assessments. After all, what kind of a twisted mind would impose exams on a 4-year old?