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?
