Old Heads on Young Shoulders

"You can't put old heads on young shoulders" is something I have heard time and time again. My mom has said it often. And so did her mom, and her mom's mom.  And now, I'm trying to keep that in the forefront of my brain when I'm at my wits end with my kids.

Today, I see that my #1 son neglected to decorate his writing notebook. So his grade went from 100% to a B-...solely b/c the notebook wasn't decorated.  And we around and around about it.  Ugh.  (B/c that also turned his 100% over all grade into an A-.)

Then, I emailed the teacher to see if the grade would be reevaluated b/c he was still required to decorate the notebook. Nope..that was the grade...but he could turn in an "oops coupon" and get one point back. 

I talked to him about that option and asked why he hadn't turned it in a week ago.  Well, he still has young shoulders. And yes, he's super bright. And he is still learning that the grade is more important that "a prize if you still have all 7 oops coupons at the end of the year." 

This reminds me of last year's "pay check debacle."  How I struggled to get him to understand that the fake money and  fake fines for a late work (done over for a better grade) didn't matter. But doing well and your best DID matter. 

So...now, we are sitting here at our art table. Which is really more of a work room where we spend so much time...playing, working on school stuff, working on crafty stuff, signing papers, etc, etc.  And he is double checking his work.  Mind you, this 5th grader has been told for years to "slow down, double check your work."  Most of his mistakes are b/c he rushed or didn't check his work.  (He just had a test last week. Missed one.  That one was a problem left undone! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)  The ranting and raving is over, we both had a break and were away from the house...it's time to double check his math home work.  I'm just sitting here, checking emails and such, when #1 exclaims:

Wow!  I just found another silly mistake!  I can't believe this. From now on, I'm going to double check my work.

I just busted out laughing.  "I've been tell you that for YEARS!!"  LOL.


Hey...

I do have one kid who is more "proactive."  This weekend, #2 studied the spelling list that we saved from #1's class last year...and got 100% on the pretest.  Which means, she doesn't have to take the post-test on Friday.  She's like me...a terrible speller.  And I'm so pleased that she has figured out how to get ahead by working with what you've got!