Teens and Education

Here we are, almost at the close of her first year in high school. I have told her to make the best of these last four years because high school really seems to go fast. She has done really good in most of her classes but have had a few struggles in Spanish. Yes, it's an elective but it's really important for her to learn because where we live, jobs pay much better if you are bilingual. She is also gearing up to study becoming an equine vet. I am told that this is really tough, so she needs to keep her grades up. What can you do if your teen isn't doing so well in a class or two? For one, it's crucial to keep up with their grades and secondly, keep a good repoire with the teacher of that class. Many teachers offer free tutoring, depending on the days and times of course, but most offer them right before class or right after. My daughter is famous for not remembering to turn in a particular paper in order to get a grade, so we have to keep up on that. If your school has a program where you can check their grades online like ours does, it's a great program. You can even see daily grades. Education is so important right now, but of course, most teens are thinking about socializing.

A Not-So-Good Report Card

What do you do about a "not-so-good" report card? Sometimes we as parents want our children to make better grades than we made ourselves when we went to school, however, today's times are so much different. I have discovered that some of the things they are being taught, I never had a clue about. School is so much more tougher these days. Granted, it's great that they are learning more and more and I am so glad that they are gearing high school towards a college outlook, but what can you do if they don't bring home the grades that you expect of them? First you must find out what the problem is for the grade they were given. Did your teen turn in all of their work? Maybe some of the grade falls on that. Perhaps it's also something a little more difficult than the last semester's learning. In our school, they offer free tutoring for those kinds of things. This kind of tutoring not only helps them to "understand" something that they are having trouble with, but also allows them to make up or turn in some of those old projects that maybe didn't get turned in to help and bring that grade up. Talk with your teen and see why the grades weren't what you expected and try to come up with a remedy for helping them bring it up. Most cases, tutoring has been what's helped us.

Report Cards

I have been keeping a close eye out for the report card that was coming out. We are very fortunate in our school district that we have an online way of checking out our children's grades at any time. I must say, I like it so much because there have been times when I found a zero or two on one of her classes and I was able to point it out to her so that she could go to tutoring and make up what she needed to so that she could keep her grades passing. I was very pleased when she brought home (3) A's, (3) B's and (2) C's, but those C's were not far from being B's. Whoppieeeeeee!!! Being in band has really made her more aware of making better grades. Band has done so many good things for her and I am so proud. Right now, I can honestly say that things are going great. So, if I could only get my teenaged son (19) and his girlfriend from arguing so much, things would really be hunky-dorey....

Doing your best

I know that although you might try really hard in school, there are going to be subjects out there that are really challenging. In my day, I was really good in history and math. But today's math is just totally out there, and alot more challenging. I am not good enough to help so I think that we have found a solution. They offer free tutoring at school. Before class or after. This works wonderfully. Several mornings you go for a short while, before class and you are able to work on things that are harder for you in a class much smaller and with more one on one help--- thus, helping you to possibly understand it better. Try it out if you are needing help... sure is great if you cannot or do not want to try that paid tutoring.