I decided to check First Born's grades the other day. It had been a whole week and from previous experience I knew his grades could slip a little in a small amount of time. I wasn't quite prepared for the slippage that had happened in four short days! He was down to an F and D- in two of his classes!
I ranted! I raved! I hollered I was sick of talking about the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over. . . you get the idea. It's been the theme of school with him for the past two years and now I guess it will be for the third year running.
This year we actually have leverage. Before we only had grounding. Never really worked. He had so many activities that we wouldn't let him miss that he still got to play a lot. It's unlawful to withhold food and drink, so that was out of the picture. Gone are the days when I can send him out to pick his own switch, so beating is also out. But this time I had him immediately, do not Pass Go, do not Collect $200, hand me your PHONE!
By the end of the day he had talked to all his teachers, turned in all his missing homework, and gotten all his grades back to the acceptable range, A's and B's! Last year it would have taken a month for him to get his act together! He'd blow us off for two weeks. Then as he finally got serious about getting one of his grades back up, another one would fall and he'd have to work on getting that one up when he decided to put forth the effort. This year he doesn't dare miss a single text, call, or picture message from his friends!
3 comments:
Yeah! Looks like the phone is the key, at least for this year!!! Let's hope it works all year!
Too bad Joshua doesn't have a phone - I'd like to bribe him to sleep!
hmmm...maybe i need to get my boys cell phones (though i think they're still too young) so then i can take them away if i need to. :)
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