My son.
My sweet, loving, 13 year old son.
He is making me want to pull out my hair ... every gray one he has caused!
School for him is always an extreme challenge. Last semester was tough! But, for quite a while this semester he had all A's and B's. That's a huge feat! He is unorganized as all get out. And he's one of those kids that even if he spends a load of time doing an assignment, he might not even turn it in.
I spend an incredible amount of time and energy on helping him stay on top of his assignments and tests.
In the past two weeks he has dropped one grade 16% by not turning in assignments and then another one 3% for the same reason. So much for all A's and B's.
He has been grounded, lost privileges, been required to go to free school tutoring two days a week (that he has "successfully" been weaseling out of the past couple of weeks .. but no more!). We go over all of his assignments every night, get in order what he needs to turn in the next day, study for tests together, do some large assignments together. I am in constant contact with teachers (who are now so frustrated they don't seem to care anymore.)
What ... do ... I ... do ... with ... him????
On the sidebar you will see a link to our future homeschooling blog. Starting next year I will be homeschooling him. It is because of the reasons above, and so many other reasons. You can click on the link to read about our journey so far.
But what do I do with him in the meantime?
When looking at his science grades, he gets mostly C's and D's, with a few sprinkled B's, on any class assignments and tests (although he is more consistent on the tests.) The day-to=day homework wipes him out, though. And it's that way in all of his classes. But, when you look at the Projects section and Labs section in science, he has straight A's ... like 100%. Obviously he does better on visual projects and hands-on lessons.
My homeschooling focus will be on visual and hands-on. But, doesn't he need to also at least attempt to do things the conventional way, at times? Isn't life mostly conventional? If he wants to go to college, he'll have to know how to do it. If he goes in the military (God help the USA), he'll definitely have to know how to do it!
Mostly I'm just venting today. But, has anybody had experience with this? And, better yet, does anybody have any helpful suggestions that might actually work?
It's a shame that teachers won't adjust their teaching style for him. As a previous college chemistry instructor, it was my goal to teach students - I wanted them to succeed. Each student learns differently and teachers should adapt their style so EVERY student understands a topic, even if it means teaching the same thing 20 different ways. I get so frustrated that teachers are on a "schedule." It should be their goal to get students to understand what they are teaching, even if that means missing a few chapters come year end. There are quite a few good tutorial websites out there that teach concepts with a "game" or some sort of visual exercise - maybe that would help, or maybe you already tried that, too. Sorry you are so frustrated.
ReplyDeleteI personally am against homework! I think they have them 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. They need lives outside of school. You mix sports, church and family into their to-do list and when are they able to just be kids??? But of course, noone asked me;)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, My brother had this same trouble in school. My mom decided she was going to school everyday with him and personally hand in his work for him! It wasn't long till he was all about it! Anything to keep her out of there. It's kinda funny now, although at the time I felt really sorry for him. Another thing that helped him was he got a smart girlfriend!! I'm totally not kidding! Good luck with whatever you decide to do!!