Do you discuss your children’s report cards with them (the child) when they get sent home or just discuss it with your partner? The good parts and the not so good parts?
Do you discuss your children’s report cards with them (the child) when they get sent home or just discuss it with your partner? The good parts and the not so good parts?
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9 Replies
Depends on there age.
In the early years, I would just adjust my parenting.
It’s got to be age appropriate. Telling a year one child they need to work harder is a bit of a waste of time.
As my child aged then I definitely told him what was good and discussed with them things that could be improved and how that could happen.
By year 5 he was reading his report cards himself. Lots of kids read them
No. My son is 8 soon and while he does have ASD showing him his report card or making him feel bad wouldn't help. Infact I don't have a diagnosis myself but getting bad report cards and reading them never made me feel good nor did it encourage me to do better or teach me how to do better. In fact it made me so upset I would hide them from my mother and never got the help I needed. If your child gets negative issues in their report you should talk to their teacher privately and then figure out ways on how to help your child do better without making them feel bad. Many children have learning difficulties it's not their fault.
I have always allowed my son to read his report card and I have always taken him to parent teacher interviews.
I read it in front of the kids and read out loud the good bits but they are allowed to read it themselves. If it was really bad and I thought it would knock their confidence I probably wouldn't let them read it or tell them anything bad if I didn't think it was something they can possibly improve.
We have always let ours read them. We have always focussed on what their effort level says. If it’s below very good, we discuss with them how it could be improved. We also read out the summary comment from the teacher, discuss what the teacher says they’ve been doing well as well as what needs to be improved. The teachers “negative” comment we make a goal to improve for the next term. We discuss what they can do to reach that goal.
We have one overachiever, and one average student (who has the smarts to achieve greatness but is lazy and likes to do what they need to to pass and nothing more)
Yes, in an absolutely no stress way. Which subjects do you enjoy? Yeah you got a high / very high on that. You don't like science? Well you got a high so you're good at it! And most of all, the effort part. If they've tried hard consistently, we reward that.
Absolutely! More so as they get older and have a better understanding of what is expected of them, education wise. Discussing their reports with them will help you understand where they might need a bit of assistance aswell as subjects they are excelling at. It opens the door for them to let you know they might find something hard, or they absolutely love a certain subject.
Personally I don't know why parents wouldn't discuss education with their children. Only discussing it between the parents is not going to help a child if they are struggling. How many children will honestly put their hand up and say ' teacher, I don't understand' when to them, it looks like everyone else knows what they are doing.
13 years of schooling is going to shape who they are in the outside world!
When they were little I didn't let them read it or really even discuss it with them (kinder through grade 1 roughly) mainly because they had no interest in it.
Now they're getting older they want to read them, they enjoy reading the positive things and they're learning to take on board constructive criticism in regards to areas they need to work on - which I think is an important life skill, particularly once one enters the workforce!
I don't think there's really a one size fits all answer here though, it depends on the child and their specific situation.
After having a chat with a couple of friends who are school teachers (along with my own experience) it kind of seems pointless to have a report card that you don't discuss with your child in an age appropriate way. If things need to change to help them improve, some degree of reasoning and explanation I feel is necessary.