I want to nomonate my own family for the "Hall of Fame."
We were in the car on the way home today, and DS was venting about one of his teachers and noting that 'other kids are starting to notice even.' When I reminded DS it's normal to get one or two teachers each year who are less than what one might want,and that DS is still responsible to learn and to act in such a way that will get him placed into the honors class next year when he gets to High School.
DS instantly agreed, and asked me to send an email around to that teacher and ask if he is 'on track' to be nominated. Then he thought better of it and asked me to check with all the teachers. DS12's grades are online, so he knows that he is doing 'A' work, but he also realizes that there are 'attitude' components to school.
That's when I got the little chill feeling that led me to dig up this old thread and put him here. I am so proud that my own child:
A)Is putting in effort to 'ace the tests.' Some review is involved.
B) Is handing in his homework
C) Has a method to keep track of what the homework is, and uses the method independently.
D) Is monitoring his grades
E) Realizes that his classroom behavoir also matters
F) Is using me as a resource to help monitor how others are percieving his classroom behavior.
The best part of all is that I'm sitting here thinking:
"Well, Maybe he's just growing up."
Then I remind myself of the efforts and interventions we've been making ever since 4th grade, for the last 3.5 years, to put him in situations where he would have a chance to learn, to learn how to learn, and to learn the need to comply. DH and I made huge investments, more than we would have thought that we possibly could in terms of time and money and determination to disipline. We took terrible risks with the parts of his world that on the surface seemed to be going well - his social life, and tonight, listening to my kid talk, I thought - we did it!
Our goal was to put him in an environment where he had an even chance to develop and reverse his underachievment. From this moment's vantage point, I feel like this is accomplished! Go DS12! Go Grinity and Grin's DH! Yippee!
