"How did your French exam go?" I asked Tall Girl after the event. She's not too hot on French and uses Google Translate for her homework, but what can you do?!
"I think I did quite well" She assures me smiling.
"Really?" I say, hoping she doesn't pick up on my incredulity. "What about your written paragraph?"
"Yes" She continues "I wrote loads, and when I didn't know the French words I just wrote them in English"!
"Ah"
What else could I say?
Meanwhile Small Sprog stoically rode to school in the car every morning knowing that there was no way he could get out of his exams. "I hate SAT's" was his mantra all week. On Friday morning he was in tears before school. Not only was he still doing exams but apparently he was due to stand up in front of the whole school in assembly and speak. (This isn't on his wish list of things to look forward to, even though, at home, he is the most gregarious of all of us.) Now if this had been Tall Girl she would have wailed and fussed and there would have been much angst and gnashing of teeth about it for weeks before hand, but Small Sprog being Small Sprog uses the 'Ostritch Method' when anything scary is about to happen; he ignores it until it is almost upon him. Hence me knowing nothing of his up and coming speech until we are on the way to school.
I pass him a tissue to dry his eyes. He blows his nose, thinks for a while and then says "Must be awful being a tissue Mum"
I gave him a weary look
He throws the tissue over his shoulder and says "They must feel so discarded"
Honestly, what am I going to do with him?
There's a lot to be said for the ostrich method of dealing with scary events. Too much advance anxiety can turn you into a gibbering wreck.
ReplyDeleteI love his comments on tissues! Anyone with so much sensitivity they even empathise with inanimate objects clearly is not short of imagination.
Knowing that tissues have it the worst of all is actually quite comforting. Unless you're actually using a tissue, of course. Then you just feel guilty.
ReplyDeleteAll the stuff of a great off the cuff speech ironically born in the car...
ReplyDeleteSmiled about the tissues.
ReplyDeleteBoth children have my sympathy.
Hated anything that involved *up front* work.Still do.
Hope it all went/goes OK.
Sats ARE horrid.
Smiled about the English words in the French paragraph, too!
I am like TG and get het-up about things like oral exams..... but am practising being like SS and being more ostrich like.
Maggie X
Nuts in May
I could take a lesson from Small Sprog--the ostrich method sounds much better than the way I worry endlessly for weeks before something I have to do. Smiled at his remarks about the tissues--I can't imagine him being at a loss for words in front of a group!
ReplyDeleteAm an ostrich too, so quite understand that method! And loved the tissue moment... still chuckling. Exams are a bummer.. so hope they have both done well. Hooray for Google translation! xx
ReplyDeleteSmall Sprog will work in a junior school - his mantra sounds like my wifes at this time of year! :-)
ReplyDeleteWe are gearing up for year 10 GCSEs and then next year the next lot and got to pick A level options...
My daughter has adopted a manic laughter problem when she turns over any Physics paper recently.... not good
Oh the joys of exams! I am approaching similar encounters with my two GCSE'ers! x
ReplyDeleteI'm with Small Sprog on the ostrich theory.
ReplyDelete