I think what happened to me, and to him, is that we were able to fly through elementary school with decent marks, without having to try too hard. Then high school hits, the workload increases and the same minimal effort isn't going to give the same results.
This year I am happy to say his motivation has improved somewhat. Somewhat. There is a financial incentive involved, ($200 for an 80% average) but we also have continued to encourage him to bring the work home so that we can stay abreast of what he is learning.
The trouble I find is that he sometimes loses interest in class, and doesn't ask questions when he isn't understanding the material. The first is probably due to the latter. By bringing it home (and understand, that is still a struggle getting him to remember to do so all of the time) he can at least review the areas of trouble and get answers.
The internet is an amazing tool for homework questions! We have used the Khan Academy online a bit for the math, and then just googling science questions for input. I wish Sky would do this on his own, but he is still at the phase of needing a push every now and then.
Last week his science teacher emailed all the parents that only 7 out of 28 students had handed in a lab report due on the Tuesday after the long weekend. After the usual "not my fault" excuses, Sky knuckled down and actually worked on it without the usual accompaniments of TV and iPod! (And made sure I knew about it..."Hey Mom I'm working on homework now"). Gotta love 'im. The boy got it done, Mom helped type it up and we'll see what mark "we" get. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it is the typical 15 year old boy, as far as I can see.
When a Math test came back with sickly results, his comment was: "Well do you want me to get good marks, or have friends?" Ummm, really no choice there pal, sorry.
Obviously a little more work to do in the motivation department.
No comments:
Post a Comment