Monday, December 8, 2008

Finally - Progress!


Remember how I told you about the Homework Hell I've been living in? I think we may have finally made some progress - both with Little Man and The Girl. We had parent teacher conferences this week and we were pleasantly surprised.

Ok, I'm not gonna lie, the truth is we were downright shocked, shocked, to see The Girl's report card and hear what her teacher had to say. Not one bad mark. Not.A.Single.One.

Now, I know this might be kind of hard for some of you to understand but..this is an amazing accomplishment - both on our part and on hers. I haven't had a clean report card from her since KINDERGARTEN. Yes, really. Even then there was always something, like, "Needs to focus more" or "Needs to talk less" or something.

The Girl is a brilliant child. I'm not just saying that because she's mine, either. She really is brilliant. She has always exceeded every standard put before her. But she's also lazy. So while she can do it, she chooses not to most of the time. To get a report card like that....well, I cried. I think her teacher thought I was insane. Not only for crying, but for suggesting she's anything but the perfect student. I tried to explain, but she just looked at me like I was crazy.

Little Man also struggled at the beginning of the year. He's always been my golden child when it comes to school (and only at school!), but this year he took a turn for the worse and started screwing around in class and not turning assignments in. The thing about LM is this: He hates being isolated from the family. The worst punishment in the world for him is to be grounded to his room. When The Girl doesn't do her homework, her punishment is being grounded to her room. So naturally we had to do teh same for LM. I think being stuck in his room, with nothing to do but read, for an entire week cured him of whatever ailed him. Just after I talked to his teacher the last time, he pulled it together and hasn't had a bad mark since.

We weren't pleased with what his report card and school work showed prior to that point, but we agreed to wipe the slate clean and start over in the new trimester. I still have no idea why he decided to stop doing his work and acting out, but I can only hope it was a stage he's now grown out of.

The one bright spot with him? His math teacher. When we went to talk to her and I asked if he was missing any assignments or if she'd had any behavioral problems with him, I got that, "OMG, you're crazy" look from her (never thought I'd say it, but I kind of like getting that look in situations like that...). She said he's never missed an assignment and basically that he's a joy to have in class and she wishes all her students were like him. Just to drive the point home, that's what all his teachers have said since he started school. No joke. So it was refreshing to know he was doing well in at least one subject.

P/T conferences were Tuesday. On Friday we had award ceremonies and both kids got awards.

Little Man got a Reading Award, which is really surprising because the child hates to read. I figured he'd get a math award, but nope.

The Girl? The Girl swept the awards ceremony and brought home three: Reading (which isn't surprising, she's an avid reader...just like me), Math (which is very surprising..she's always hated math) and Spelling. Three awards, people.

I don't think the war has been won yet, but we took this battle.

Score one for the parent team.

9 comments:

Rowena said...

I think that's such great news for both TG and LM, good on them and they are SO their mother's children with the whole reading award stuff! =)

I love great news like this...!

Holly said...

Especially for my bratty kids, huh Ween? LOL

That reminds me...how's Brenna doing w/ her homework and stuff? Better? Or are you still fighting with her?

Anonymous said...

Oh congratulations Mom!!!! :)

I had a gate student brilliant daughter and it was a struggle all through school to make her do homework. She finally got all A's and B's her senior year of high school and that was only because she wanted to show me that she always could do it, she just didn't choose to! LOL Oh well...

She's in college now and paying for it herself. I'm amazed at how homework and projects happen now. It seems that since she's paying for the grade she wants it to be good...

Kids!

Anyway, congratulations!!! :) You have every right to be very proud!

nath said...

Congrats to The Girl and Little Man!! That's great news for you and you must so happy :D

Sometimes, teachers are so oblivious to what really happens... My sister's teachers always said my sister was sweet and very quiet... making me wonder if my sis really went to school or if they had her confused with someone else, LOL :)

Lori said...

Yay! What a great accomplishment for them both. And for you! Maybe it just needs a little more maturity? Guessing, since I have no clue. We are finally getting over the hurdle with Steve, too, I think.

And Nath, laughing, cause I sent a request to Jeff's English teacher for a progress report and got back, "He's a joy to have in class", along with the grades and I was thinking... "who?" LOL!

Tracy said...

That is sooo wonderful!

While my oldest had both "woohoo" and "oh shit" moments with her grades her citizenship is in the can. Maybe you can come over and work on her for me! lol

Rowena said...

Brenna's doing so much better. She took a reading comprehension class before school and she totally breezed right through it so she doesn't need any more classes. Her last report card showed her getting good grades in every subject and she got 100% in her homework, she hasn't missed one homework assignment so she really does deserve the bike I'm gonna get her.

CindyS said...

Yay!! Congrats to the parent team. Finding the 'thing' that the child finds the most dear can be extremely useful in these cases.

We're also shocked when we hear good things about Godkid #2 attitide at school. When he's mad at home the yelling and screaming is unreal (but then I do blame his mom for not stopping it pronto) meanwhile, you ask the teacher about his anger and she thinks you are nuts.

Go figure.

CindyS

Kat said...

Hm, what about parent awards? *g* Pats on the back for everyone!

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