Partnering To Build Character

Dear Parents,

Yes, this week is the end of the first quarter of our school year! That means your child is one-fourth of the way through his/her grade level. Are you and he pleased with the progress he is making? Are you seeing her maturing—not only mentally, but also spiritually? Are you seeing him develop into a stronger R²G² (respect, responsibility, gratitude, genuineness) child? Is she taking ownership of her responsibilities for school projects, homework, chores at home or is she giving you excuses? Is he stretching for excellence or just doing the minimal? I suggest you use these very questions with your child (son or daughter) to help them do a self-evaluation. Being able to self-evaluate and then setting goals where needed is a great life skill to pass on to your children. With our busy lives, we sometimes need a reminder to take that time to mentor our children. If you use the school report card time, you will have four opportunities to help your child look back over recent accomplishments/struggles, but also to plan ahead. The fourth self-evaluation that you would do at the end of the school year also gives you encouragement to plan what you and your child would like to occur over those summer months.

Working Hard To Finish Strong

As we go into the final quarter of the school year it is very important that your child finish well. There can be many disruptions to his academic progress throughout the school year. However each subject and each grade level build on the previous ones. The elementary years are really a practice field where your child needs to learn organizational skills, perseverance when the task is difficult, and how to learn from his mistakes, not just from his successes. Academic grades are used to help your child (and you) evaluate how he is doing with these things. Please allow your child to take ownership of his grades so they really can be used to motivate him to new levels. If you take responsibility for them, he will not become the independent learner he needs to be.

Here are just some suggestions that I would encourage you to consider at this time of year: