Essential Tips For Handling a Bad Report Card
A disappointing grade report-card can become a deal-breaker for both a parent and the child. Most parents do no know how to react when their child academics are flopping. This is even tough considering that parents view their children as an investment.
However, bad report cards shouldn’t be taken as a measure of your child’s worth but a red flag for a potential problem area.
Parents need to learn how to respond in a calm and collected manner so as to help the child improve their grades. Here are ways you can use to respond to a bad report card:
Meet the teacher
The teacher to your student is likely to give you insights on what you can do to help improve your child’s grades. This may include getting an evening tutor, buying revision books and identifying teaching styles. Your child may also be having behavioral or developmental problems, the teacher will recommend counseling or medical assistance if necessary. The more you communicate with the teacher the greater the chances of your child’s success.
Avoid lectures
Do not give your child a long lecture on how his performance is dissatisfying. Or on how you used to score high grades. Instead, discuss the grade report to identify the main problems. In this discussion, your child is likely to point out their problems. Such as “I don’t have time to do my homework, the teacher talks too fast, you(parents) keep fighting all the time. Pointing out the problems help you to deal with them thus your child’s grade will improve.
Do not focus on perfection
You are not perfect and so is your child. It is therefore pointless to expect your child to be perfect in everything. Your child may be a B student but is doing well in arts, music or sports. You should thus ensure that your child gives the best in the field they are good in. However, this should not be at the expense of their studies, they should also be doing their level best in academics. This way you will instill lifelong skills in your child that goes beyond a grade report.
Praise your child
Your child may bring home a poor grade report but they may have scored high in a subject. Therefore endure that as you discuss the problems, you praise the high grades. Recognise improvement in subjects however little the marks increase is. Your child should know that low grades don’t make them the failure as long as they work on improving it. You can even come up with the kind of rewards they expect upon improvement.
