My son worked hard this school year and I’m sure that your child did as well. I hope that all of their hard work resulted in positive results and good grades. My son is consistent. He has always been an honor student, but I can’t omit that his first report card for this school year was not the best.
Math use to be so easy for him and figuring it out came quite naturally. This year it was different and he had to buckle down and study much harder. I was tired of trying to teach division, arrays, and 3 digit multiplication. I wanted to just throw it all out of the window. My son was discouraged and frustrated with trying to retain so many new concepts and the “69” in math on his first report card proved that he was struggling.
Instead of putting him on punishment we encouraged him to work harder. We made him cut back on playing video games and set some goals for his future. The most important thing that we did was encourage. He pulled his grade up to an “88” and got back on the honor roll for the remainder of the school year.
Bad grades are not only hard on the student, but it’s also hard on you as the parent. You love your child and you want to see them excel in everything that they do. The difficult thing about that is that they are going to likely fail or struggle in some areas of their lives and it’s how we respond to them that will either help them to push through or push them further down into the problem. If your child struggled this year don’t give up on them and try not to blame yourself. Sometimes school is really hard.
Remind your child that school is very important and that their education is a valuable resource that can’t be taken away. However, they need to know that they are much more valuable to you than a grade. Children can become depressed and broken just like us as adults. It’s our job to speak life and build them up during rough times. If your child struggled this school year try to shift your focus and theirs towards the areas that they excelled in or improved. Celebrate their victories this Summer with wins from school, home, etc. Maybe your child didn’t make the honor roll this school year, but they read books more often. Celebrate that change. Maybe they were more organized with school papers and didn’t lose anything at school. Celebrate that win.
Use this Summer break to dig deeper into what may be going on with them personally. Research websites that offer free tutoring and have them to practice materials in the subject areas that they are having difficulty with. There are so many free resources available online to help them with educational enrichment. Set some goals, make a plan, and never give up on your child. School and good grades are a temporary necessity, but having a mentally and emotionally whole child is a necessity forever.
