Kid has had all smiley faces on our emotions chart all week (so far). This despite having had 3 major review tests already. She also has a 3.62 GPA. (no bell curve either). So, all in all, that's pretty great considering that she has test anxiety and doesn't understand what the hell the teacher is saying half of the time.
Not so coincidentally she has befriended the Korean exchange students (have you heard of this? I find this kind of disturbing... and by 'kind of' I mean 'very'... Korean families send their elementary aged children to the US to go to school and live with host families. Our school is a very popular choice for this and about 15% of the school population are Korean exchange students) Anyway, the point is that Kid has become tight with the Korean girls partly because none of them know what the hell is going on and so they can just wander around lost together. I just think about how hard this is for us and my heartbreaks for these little kids who are away from their families and siblings many of them just learning English.
How long this respite from overwhelming school stress will last no one can guess... but for this week it's been a welcome reprieve.
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9 comments:
Glad Kid has had a better week! I really admire her determination. It's so tough but what a great life lesson. And I love that she is hanging with the Korean girls. Come to DC and we'll all go get some awesome Korean BBQ!!
I had not heard of elementary school exchange students (WTH) but our rink (figure skating) hosts kids from Korea every summer who come here to train. This year the youngest wasn't much older than my daughter, and she was here for a good 9-10 weeks. I can't imagine sending my kid off to a foreign country for that long at such a young age.
We had foreing exchange students when I was in elementary school also. 2 boys and a girl. They were really fun kids. Did seem odd at the time to.
I did some research trying to figure it all out and it seems that often times one parent will come with their kids while one parent stays in S Korea earning money, but here they are definitely here staying with host Korean families. The articles I read said it was to give them more of a childhood since academics are taken much more seriously in S Korea with kids often going straight from school to long after school tutoring and getting home at midnight. Kid says that it seems like they didn't have recess before. On the one hand I get that motivation, on the other being away from your family (kids are as young as 6) at that age for an entire school year leaving behind young siblings and your parents is heart breaking. Kid's friend said she hopes when she goes home at winter break they don't make her come back :(
Your last comment above is heartbreaking. But awesome for Kid wants to befriend that little girl. Maybe she can make her feel less homesick. So glad that she had a better week. Love that she had all smiley faces!
Okay, what is this talk about GPA with a 4th grader (she's in 4th grade, right?). That alone is a problem. At this age, kids are learning "to learn", not have to worry about a GPA. Am I right or am I way off base? For us, our main goal is to get our kid to go to school for a full week so maybe we aim to low;).
I have never heard of this with Korean kids coming over for ELEMENTARY exchange. Maybe I could send Murphy to Korea to go to school;).
Oh, by the way, I hate Murphy's teachers. Totally off topic, but I just felt like saying it.
we aim to low;). yeah, don't listen to this broad. She can't even spell the word "too"
The GPA is 100% ridiculous. I don't know what is up with that. They definitely don't do that in the public schools and I certainly don't remember that until high school.
She got a spelling word wrong because she put a small loop (decorative) on a letter c. The teacher said she knew it was a c but to mark it wrong anyway. So, yeah, I hate her guts.
The Korean thing really makes me so sad. One girl just left her 1 year old sister at home and you know she won't even remember her when she gets home :(
I thought the GPA thing was just you doing a quick calculation. That's for real? Totally crazy. What kind of pressure is that?
K got a point taken off on a 4 question test because he had his heading set up in the wrong order. Even though he got all the questions right, he got a 75%. Really? I can't stand that shit.
Oh I'm being serious. Every single thing they do is graded on a 4.0 scale. Their grades are calculated daily. There is also an A+ wall where all A+ tests are stapled up... not sure if that's normal I kind of assume not. Fortunately Kid always has at least one test up there or I'm not sure how that would affect her self esteem.
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