Report Cards: More Bad News

Hi A.,
Your daughter might just be going through a phase and has not adjusted to going to school yet. My daughter had similar behavior and now she is a senior in college and has never made less than a 3.00. I can feel your concern and hurt right now. Have you thought of getting her into an extracurricular activity such as dance to help her with all that energy? Also, go over all her schoolwork when she gets home. It might be a fight but maybe you could reward her for working hard while you go over the homework with her. I am a teacher and have learned that every child is unique and with the loving guidance from a concerned parent like you they usually are ok. Hang in there!

My 5 year old is in Kindergarten and we had this problem in pre-k. I have read though the Love and Logic books which are great but one of my clients recommended to me this book called Magic 123. My client is a speech pathologist for young children and I'm pretty sure she used that book with her students.That book has helped tremendously with her behavior. Its not very thick book at all compared to Love and Logic. But I found Love and Logic would be more reasonable to use on older kids. In Magic 123 you are able to use the steps right away, and its all about consistency. I hope this was helpful.

The wandering off from class would concern me, is it possible there is something going on medically causing her to not pay attention? I'm sure the school will make recommendations if they think that.

My son did ok on his grades in 1st but his teacher told me that he didn't grasp concepts as quickly as she liked. She ended up teaching him the lesson the day before the rest of the class because during regular class teaching he would just fiddle. One on one he was great which is why we didn't see a issue at home. We also had issues w/ behavior, I even offered to pay him $3 if he would come home w/o a bad behavior mark for the week...I think he only did that once! He made A's and B's but based on the teacher and counselor recommendations (due to behavior and lack of grasping concepts) we held him back a year. Last year he repeated 1st grade and got straight A's and had very few behavior problems. It could be that she just needs another year of growing up. It was a very hard decision to hold him back since grades weren't a factor, however it was the right decision. I have also wondered if we had changed teachers would it have been different. Now is the time to nip it in the bud so call a meeting with the teacher and counselor to see what they think. They see her in settings that you will not and they know a different side of her. Hang in there, parenting is not easy but the end goal is worth gold!