Shen Rongzhou was immediately charmed by Shen Qingqing and beamed with joy.
After clapping, Shen Yangyang looked at her parents, then at her older sister, and tugged at Shen Qingqing's arm: "Sister, what about me!"
Shen Qingqing looked at her younger sister, thought for a moment, and said, "You and your older sister have neither!"
Shen Yangyang opened her mouth as if she wanted to make a fuss, but then she remembered that her sister had none, so she seemed to have no reason to make a fuss. She pouted sadly and reached out to grab a tangerine and peel it to eat.
After teasing her younger sister, Shen Qingqing chuckled a few times.
Then he got down to business: "Mom and Dad, there's something else I need to tell you."
"This time I went to participate in the competition, and because my grades were relatively good, the principal and the second-grade teacher suggested that I try to skip a grade, that is, after finishing the first grade, I can skip to the third grade."
“I didn’t agree right away. I said I’d go home and ask you.”
After listening, Shen Rongzhou and Li Xunli exchanged a glance, both seeing confusion and surprise in each other's eyes.
They had been students themselves and understood what skipping grades meant; in their minds, it was something only geniuses could do. But they never imagined that their own daughter would be advised to skip a grade.
The couple didn't know much about studying, but since the teacher had given such advice, there must be a reason. Li Xunli thought for a moment and asked, "Qingqing, what are your own thoughts?"
Shen Qingqing certainly wanted to skip a grade, and she didn't just want to skip to the third grade; she wanted to skip directly to the fourth grade.
In the second semester of first grade, she would "study" English on her own to show to her teachers. After the first grade ended, she would go directly to the fourth grade.
However, Shen Qingqing didn't need to tell her parents about these details; she honestly expressed her thoughts.
"If you want to skip a grade, and the teachers and principal also suggest you skip a grade, then go ahead and skip it. You're only seven years old anyway. If you can't keep up with the curriculum after skipping a grade, we can go back to second grade."
Li Xunli patiently explained to Shen Qingqing.
"Yes, you're still young. This is just an attempt. Even if you skip a grade and don't learn as fast or as well as the other students, don't be discouraged. You're only seven years old. The other students are several years older than you, and their learning ability and comprehension will definitely be better than yours."
Shen Rongzhou followed suit and added.
As Shen Qingqing listened, she nodded and said "Mmm, mmm," feeling a warm glow in her heart.
The decision to skip a grade has been made.
The competition delayed her for two days, and Shen Qingqing fell behind on her homework. Over the weekend, she took her schoolbag and went to Chen Man's house to help her with her homework.
On Monday, during the long break between classes, Shen Qingqing went to the teacher's office to tell her about her decision to skip a grade.
The second-grade Chinese teacher happened to be there. After hearing Shen Qingqing's purpose, he called Chen Zesong, the third-grade teacher, and the dean of students to go to the principal's office next door to discuss the matter.
Second-grade Chinese teacher: "Mr. Zesong, there's one more thing. Qingqing might be busy with the provincial competition for the next month, so I discussed it with the principal and asked if you could work with us to prepare a separate final exam for Qingqing. We'll use her score on this exam as a backup in case she doesn't have time to take the final exam."
"Then we should get it done for her as quickly as possible so she can finish it, so that it doesn't take too long and she has to go to the competition, and we can't keep up with the schedule."
Chen Zesong nodded to indicate that he understood, "Okay, no problem."
What followed was basically the three teachers and the dean of students discussing Shen Qingqing's decision to skip a grade.
All Shen Qingqing needs to do is express her willingness to skip a grade and then listen to the final decision of the teachers.
"Then next Wednesday after school, Qingqing, come to the principal's office to take the final exam. I'll wait for you here and proctor the exam. As for skipping a grade, you still have one semester left. We'll assess you in the second semester, and if we find that you're falling behind, we'll tell you not to skip a grade for now, okay?"
The second-grade Chinese teacher summarized the final decision in a simple and easy-to-understand way and told it to Shen Qingqing.
"Okay, thank you, teachers!" Shen Qingqing nodded, having no objections.
"Also, Qingqing, you're going to take the train this Friday morning, so you don't need to attend classes all day Friday. That morning, the principal will take you to Yanqi Elementary School to meet up with the teacher in charge. If you need anything, just ask that teacher, okay?" The second-grade Chinese teacher repeated the date of the provincial preliminary competition and gave some instructions.
Shen Qingqing nodded. On weekends, besides doing her schoolwork at Chen Man's house, she spent the rest of her time studying the past exam papers she brought back from Yanqi Elementary School.
She started by looking at the past three years' exam papers. The difficulty of the preliminary exam papers in the past three years was about the same, but there were some changes in the question types. There would be an introductory paragraph, and then you would be asked to associate and synthesize the content of famous works to make an analysis and selection.
However, the semi-finals and finals are quite challenging and require considerable effort.
Even Shen Qingqing herself almost couldn't finish the questions within two hours.
Because Shen Qingqing not only wanted to finish it, but also wanted to do it right.
This makes it easier to control the score.
She was aiming for the second prize, not the first prize. Although Ye Ziqi said that the provincial competition prize money depends on how generous the sponsors are each year, everyone wants to get as much prize money as possible. Who would complain about having too much money?
After Shen Qingqing finished completing three sets of past exam papers, it was Friday.
On Thursday night, Shen Qingqing specifically told Li Xunli to set an earlier alarm to wake her up, because she needed to go to school earlier to catch the train.
Principal Mo dropped Shen Qingqing off at the entrance of Yanqi Elementary School. As soon as Shen Qingqing got out of the car, she heard a voice that was both familiar and unfamiliar calling out to her: "Qingqing, little sister!"
Shen Qingqing, carrying a large backpack, subconsciously looked up and saw Ye Ziqi standing next to the teacher in charge, waving excitedly at her.
Shen Qingqing walked over quickly, "Good morning, Sister Ziqi!"
"Good morning, good morning! Do you want some xiaolongbao? I brought some from home." Ye Ziqi happily held up a bag of xiaolongbao in her hand.
Shen Qingqing shook her head: "I ate breakfast this morning. We can save it and eat it when we get hungry on the way."
In 2007, there was no high-speed rail in Chaocheng; people had to take a train to the provincial capital.
The train journey will be relatively long. Even though they left so early, it will still take at least an hour to get from Yanqi Elementary School to the train station, and then they will have to take the train to get there. No matter how you look at it, it will be past lunchtime.
Ye Ziqi was initially disappointed when Shen Qingqing refused, but she immediately cheered when she heard that Shen Qingqing was willing to eat in the car.
Friendships between children often begin with children being willing to share food with each other.
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