Today is report card day. Sunny boy comes in and just throws it into my lap as his dad and I engage in conversation. He says: "here's my report card mom, look at it". I told him that I would get to it. He kept insisting and when I didn't respond like he wanted me too, he just stormed off.
Eventually, I did look at the report card and I found out that it was good but not great. But, it was a lot better then I expected. His grade went down 8 points in Spanish and up 10 points in English. The other major courses he went down one point in four subjects. In Religion he went down 5 points. His overall average was up 1.5 points. He made the merit roll. But I think he should have been on the honor roll. I know that he could do better. Perhaps I should invest in the, Tiger Mom's, book.
Speaking of Tiger mom, I noticed, from reading the responses on The Wall Street Journal's site, that she has taken a lot of flack. Now I can't say that I agree with the majority of her actions that I read about on the site. But I do admire the dedication she has for her children. I admire that she not only instructed her children on what to do, but she was right there in the trenches with them each step of the way. When her daughter was up playing the piano for over 12 hours, she was right there with her. It made me realize that I have to do more then instruct my son on getting his homework done.
Normally during homework time, I set up an area for him to get busy and I leave him to work. I treat this as me time. If he needs me then I am there to help. I do go over his work and we normally make the corrections together. I make sure that he understands exactly how the lesson comes together. But I wasn't preparing him ahead of time and I wasn't making him work with lessons that he didn't have homework on.
After reading about the Tiger mom I decided to step it up some. I came to the realization that I didn't want to, or really didn't feel like tackling homework on a daily basis. And I definitely didn't want to give up my me time for reading school books. Inside I felt like, Sonny boy is in school all day and he should have absorbed enough of the lesson to do his homework without my hovering over him. I just wanted to be the backup mom, who checked everything when it was done. But now I realize that I have to be more hands on if I really want to see him excel.
I have to get into the habit of sitting with him reading over lessons and preparing him for lessons before the teacher even addresses a subject. This is in addition to homework. I think by doing that I can open his mind to recalling facts that we have discussed and hopefully create more interest during class. I can't look at this as hovering over my son, but as helping him to understand and encourage him to do his best. I believe that this will help him come to the realization that school is serious and that if his parents are willing to get into the trenches, then he also has to do the work. Hopefully he will get to see the rewards of hard work.
I on the other hand will learn that in order for my son to be successful, I have to put in actual time. This will be time I have to dedicate to school work. I will have to turn off that tv, get off that phone, and stop whatever I was doing and discipline myself to be there working along side of him. It won't be easy for either of us, but I bet we'll both notice a difference on the next report card. Just as he will be learning to focus more on his work and how to get it done, I will be focusing on how he is doing it and the end result.
Gotta go. It's time to turn off the television and get busy.
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