ARRRGGGG!

Interim reports came home yesterday. You know, those midway through the grading period reports that let you know how your child is doing so far.

Can someone please explain to me how a 12 year old, who cannot spell at all yet reads at a 12th grade level, is managing an A in spelling and a D in reading?!!!! I'm scratching my head. Son #1 generally tries very hard. He'll get a lot of excellent grades peppered with the occasional not-so-great grade, but it usually balances out beautifully. This D, however, stems from one low test score and two missed assignments (which is out of character for him).

On his last report card, he had 5 As and 2 Bs. On this interim, he has 6 As and 1 D (which he'd better pull up or he'll be having a very Blue Christmas!). It's hard to rejoice over a half-dozen As when there's that lone D staring me in the face. But should it be hard? Six As are pretty impressive. And, as it stands now, if he ended up with these grade on this report card, he'd still end up with a 3.57 average and therefore make honor roll. With a D. Mind boggling.

Needless to say, there's a conference in our future. I called today to request an appointment, but I also want the resource teacher who's responsible for my son's IEP (individualized education plan) to attend in case we need to make modifications.

Not be outdone by his big brother, Son #2 also brings home a disappointing interim. One A, 4 Bs and 1 C. This is down from his last report card grades of 4 As and 2 Bs. Sigh.... While he didn't get the lowest grade in our family, he dropped in every class but one. That's perhaps more distressing that Son #1 who went up in one class and way down in another.

Son #2 is a trickier nut to crack. He's very smart, and in general, things come very easily for him - although that appears to be ending. He just likes to rush through his work, not read the directions completely. He has a completely different work ethic. Take his weekly geography assignment, for example. The teacher hands it out on Wednesday and the kids have a week to do the worksheet, using their text books. An easy A, right? Practically a gift from the teacher. How do you mess that up? By getting Bs and Cs on the worksheet? Why, I asked? Because he couldn't find all the answers. They're not all in the book, he says - but I'm skeptical.

Let's say he's right, though. He has an entire week to find the answers. And we now have highspeed internet. Heck, a week is enough time to go to the local library and check out a couple of books. But no. He finds the answers he can, guesses at the rest and turns it in the day after receiving the assignment (basically he turns it in 6 days early). I'm putting an end to that now.

If it were an issue of his not being organized, we can take steps to improve that. If he was struggling with the content, we could work on that. But how do you "fix" someone's work ethic? (Really, I'm open to suggestions.)

And for the record, I'm not completely opposed to Cs or even Ds. I'm just opposed to them for these kids. It's one thing if a child is struggling with a subject. Heck, I was that kid (math). Sometimes Cs and even Ds are reason to celebrate (or at least breathe a sigh of relief). But neither of my sons are struggling to grasp the material being taught.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* UPDATE ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As I sat looking at the dates of Son #1's missed assignments, it occurred to me that they may have been handed out on an afternoon when Son #1 wasn't feeling well and spent 20 minutes in the nurse's office before returning to class. The teacher believes that was indeed the day, so she will allow Son #1 to make up both missed assignments and deduct 10 points, which I thought was generous. He should have been more proactive in asking, "what'd I miss?" She didn't sent the assignments home though on Friday so he'll get to work on them after the Thanksgiving break.