Revision And Watching Films
A few days before we were due to go away, we found out that there were revision sessions planned for Top Ender during the half term and we weren't going to be here for her to go to them. Flyfour and I were gutted. We had wanted to do everything right for Top Ender with regards to her exams and her revision knowing where we failed when we were her age (we didn't fail our exams, Flyfour did well and I did okay, but we both could have done better if we had revised a little more and I always use this as an example to the children) and wanting her to do better than us, mainly because she is way smarter than us and also because it's only natural that you'd want your children to do better than you right?!
Top Ender has been studying hard, using a mixture of revision guides and websites and the odd moment or two from Flyfour and I. We've kept our help a little low key, mainly because we know how Top Ender would react if we helped her like we wanted to, you know full on one to one sessions for hours on end and so we've been quizzing her in the odd five minutes we get here and there. Pretending that we hadn't understood something so that she'd explain it and getting her to explain it again and again (seriously I think she thinks we're stupid!). We've asked her to teach us, memorised quotes with her and talked about plot points and verbs and equations and everything else we can think of.
As soon as we realised there was a clash, I wrote to each of Top Enders teachers who would be teaching the sessions that Top Ender was invited to join and let them know that we wouldn't be around and that we would make sure that we revised with Tops whilst we were away. I asked if any of them had any papers they could lend us or could direct us to areas that we should focus on with Top Ender and they were all fabulous about it.
Some gave us some past exams papers for Top Ender to practice on, some gave us areas to concentrate on, some said it was more than fine that we were missing the sessions as Top Ender was revising brilliantly already and some even gave us some great ideas of places to visit whilst we were away saying that relaxing and family time was just as important to Top Ender's revision as being in a classroom revising.
So we've spent the week on every car journey going over questions with Top Ender and each night as we sat in our AirB&B, we watched a movie that Top Ender has been studying for her Film Studies GCSE. We've listened to music that she has studied and countless podcasts about various science "things" and Maths "things" and goodness knows what else as I'm sure my brain has turned off.
Our week away hopefully will have given Top Ender the recharge that she needs to attack the rest of her revision heading up to Easter (when we're away again!) and ready for her exams come May.
Top Ender has been studying hard, using a mixture of revision guides and websites and the odd moment or two from Flyfour and I. We've kept our help a little low key, mainly because we know how Top Ender would react if we helped her like we wanted to, you know full on one to one sessions for hours on end and so we've been quizzing her in the odd five minutes we get here and there. Pretending that we hadn't understood something so that she'd explain it and getting her to explain it again and again (seriously I think she thinks we're stupid!). We've asked her to teach us, memorised quotes with her and talked about plot points and verbs and equations and everything else we can think of.
As soon as we realised there was a clash, I wrote to each of Top Enders teachers who would be teaching the sessions that Top Ender was invited to join and let them know that we wouldn't be around and that we would make sure that we revised with Tops whilst we were away. I asked if any of them had any papers they could lend us or could direct us to areas that we should focus on with Top Ender and they were all fabulous about it.
Some gave us some past exams papers for Top Ender to practice on, some gave us areas to concentrate on, some said it was more than fine that we were missing the sessions as Top Ender was revising brilliantly already and some even gave us some great ideas of places to visit whilst we were away saying that relaxing and family time was just as important to Top Ender's revision as being in a classroom revising.
So we've spent the week on every car journey going over questions with Top Ender and each night as we sat in our AirB&B, we watched a movie that Top Ender has been studying for her Film Studies GCSE. We've listened to music that she has studied and countless podcasts about various science "things" and Maths "things" and goodness knows what else as I'm sure my brain has turned off.
Our week away hopefully will have given Top Ender the recharge that she needs to attack the rest of her revision heading up to Easter (when we're away again!) and ready for her exams come May.