Hot answers tagged school
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The Cons
These must be considered, but please make sure to read the Pros as well. For us, they make the disadvantages well worth it.
Restraints on Parents.
Learning outside of a school environment can consume a lot of mom or dad's time. Most people probably picture that time being spent at the kitchen table with textbooks and worksheets, but from what ...
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A few years ago, a study was done on students that observed student response to how they were praised about their school work. The study found that students who were praised with phrases like, "You're so smart!" or "Look how clever you are!" were more likely to give up when confronted with a problem that they found difficult. Students who were praised ...
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Giving up is not necessarily a bad thing, providing you are giving up on a certain approach to a problem, and not the problem altogether. Knowing when to give up, and figuring out what to try next instead are important problem solving skills. In other words, if you've been sitting there staring at a math problem for 10 minutes without success, chances are ...
7
This may be a combination of enjoying being at home (which isn't a bad thing!), and not particularly enjoying something about preschool. I don't think that trying to reduce her home fun time is necessarily going to help (it could increase her overall anxiety level). Try having some conversations about what her preschool experiences are like. Does she feel ...
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I have seen a lot of other people's kids over the decades I've been a parent. At first I found it a paradox: the kids who were the best behaved in the presence of their parents were often the worst behaved when their parents weren't looking. Eventually I realized there was no paradox at all.
Extrinsic motivation works quickly and well, but only in ...
6
First off, clarify why he isn't interested in college.
Saying that there's lots of ways to get ahead in the world sounds like it is only a small part of his thought process. The existence of multiple options isn't reason to dismiss the most popular option, and it is possible that he's really using this as an excuse to cover some anxieties (such as concern ...
5
As one who did skip Kindergarten, here are the pros and cons I saw from the experience:
Pros
Graduating sooner. (Less time in school, yay!)
Grade level work potentially better matching developmental level (only for grade school, though; high school offers enough flexibility that this often becomes moot).
He can interact with students that are closer to ...
5
In my opinion, it is because your daughter already felt comfort in home. and maybe, the preschool might be too monoton or not interesting in her mind. You should take her out to visit the school before the school is starting. And if there are school activity, it could be better to let her join the activity for introductions.
For alternative, you could ...
5
A few things could work together to break through to them:
Put it to them to figure out a budget for independent living. Get them familiar with costs for home, home/rental insurance, HOA (they may need to pay one), car, car insurance, food, utility, entertainment, wedding expenses, costs of child healthcare, sports, books, at least 2 children (many do, ...
4
Wow! does that sound familiar! As a former Middle school teacher I can tell you I had a least a couple of these kids every year.
A specialist
I know you don't want to throw meds at it - so please know I'm not including this information for that purpose. ADD and ADHD shows up a little differently in girls and what you describe actually describes what I ...
4
It sounds like he is already experiencing the natural consequences of not having play time, which I think is appropriate, but I would also investigate why he's not able to finish the work in class in the first place. Is he easily distracted, overwhelmed, over-stimulated, confused, etc? Could you ask the teacher, observe him, ask him? I'm happy to provide ...
3
like it has already been stated, maybe try and get her to play with someone who is also about to start school, someone who is excited about.
My daughter is about to start in september and she was the same for a little while, and she is mad about disney princesses, so we told her that if she wants to be a princess she needs to go to school and become smart.
...
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At that age you don't necessarily need to force the idea of college - but I would heartily recommend encouraging them to do enough to keep their options open.
You could try highlighting other occasions they have changed their mind, and point out that as long as they keep their grades high in school, when it comes to a decision time about college at least ...
3
It sounds like he may need help with his math, not encouragement to try harder. Just telling him to try harder isn't going to help if he doesn't understand it, so get him some help:
Talk to his teacher. Explain how he is having trouble with the harder problems, and is getting frustrated because he really wants to solve them. A teacher's usually glad to ...
3
I had to struggle with this question for my own child quite a bit a little over a year ago now.
As a former teacher in the US, I knew the over-all consequences for skipping and didn't like them.
I spoke with the administrators about their gifted program, I learned it was not available until third and upon further research learned this was true for many ...
3
I once worked at a school where a mother constantly came to pick her middleschool son up from school wearing a tennis skirt that was so short the bottoms of her "Southern Cheeks" hung below the skirt and everyone knew she was wearing a thong under there. You can imagine how the boys lined up to get a glimpse and how the son felt about the situation. Given ...
2
How do you know that they are stuck in a boring school?
In particular I want to point out the word "stuck". Could they attend a different school?
You could help them to get extra education at home. Did you consider home schooling? You could also try putting them in front of http://www.khanacademy.org and seeing what happens
The Montessori method is ...
2
One other thing. It is possible sometimes to make a game out of certain things, like spelling tennis. Things like, can she spell a word before having to catch a ball you bounce pass to her? Sometimes this kind of activity can shake it up a little and remove some of the stress associated with homework and let her know that learning can be fun and doesn't ...
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I know this is kind of an old question that was recently edited, but I had something I thought was worth adding: My mom teaches kindergarten, which isn't first grade, but close, and they have a huge range of ability, students who don't even know their letters to ones who are fluent readers at the beginning of the year. In her classroom they handle the huge ...
2
It looks like you are considering what is now called academic "redshirting". As a former preschool teacher and Middle School teacher, I have personally seen quite a lot about Kindergarten readiness, effects of redshirting down the road and spoken about it at length with colleagues. There are a lot of reasons to delay beginning school, but as with many ...
2
It seems your desire is to save money. I don't really know in general about comparing online vs. at the store. It seems as though things like pencils would be cheaper at the store since no shipping is required, but if you are buying textbooks or other reusable items, online and used can be a great money saver.
In terms of saving money, I would also ...
2
found this site
http://mylocalschool.wales.gov.uk/
which had a lot of data and was very helpful. I am amazed that there are people that think keeping us ignorant about the performance of our schools helps education.
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Discretion is the better part of valor.
Sometimes, it actually is okay to give up on something - completely. The key is knowing what you're giving up and why, and what the consequences of giving up are.
Here's the type of questions I would ask. Let's use Mathematics as an example:
Why does he want to give up math? Is it hard? Perhaps he needs more ...
1
He may be lacking grit.
Here's a good pair of articles about it: Grit Is More Important Than Talent and The Dilemma of Coaching Yourself.
Here's a nice list of things to look out for to optimize your willpower. Unfortunately it's not straightforward. On the other hand, if it was easy it wouldn't be a problem :-)
I'm convinced that the human spirit is ...
1
THIS is a SUPER BROAD QUESTION, entire books have been written about just the choice to homeschool or not, let alone other options that are out there, so I'm mostly going to refer you to my website where you can find at least four articles on the matter.
I had to think through this choice very carefully because of some peculiars in our situation myself. ...
1
I would play with her with other kids during playdates, playgrounds etc. Relying on other people's assumptions, even teachers, about what is going on isn't always helpful. I've worked in schools and teachers can often be quick to label and categorize kids (the bad kid, the smart kid, the social butterfly, etc).
If you actually play with her you can get ...
1
I understand the concern and it is important to teach the values of inclusion and politeness. At the same time, perhaps the kids she doesn't want to play with aren't that nice or are doing something that makes her not want to play with them. As an adult, you may have to get along politely with co-workers you don't like, you may even have to work with them ...
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I would personally start by finding out why they don't like it because that will help direct you. If you child gives the typical pat answer of "its boring" then go for the it is okay not to like everything answer, but finish it off with, "is there a way it could be less boring". Kids are pretty good at knowing what they want and what would help, they're ...
1
Seriously, read the book Counseling The Culturally Diverse (it blatantly puts out there the mass racial and socio-economical discrimination that still occurs today in very subtle and slick ways).
Teachers, counselors, ect. seem to try to act like the problem is in the child, when that's not always the case, and finally, its documented! Amen!
The book is ...
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If you are in the United States, I highly suggest taking a look at Jamie Oliver's School Food Revolution and Jamie Oliver's Tray Talk. The first is pretty eye-opening about how unhealthy our school lunch programs were even as recently as just a few years ago. Whether it is because of Jamie Oliver, the first lady, both, or neither, things are getting ...
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