Koulun todistus

[enk]

Comments graciously accepted! Penny? enk? anyone?

Don't look at me, I've got to come up with answers to the same problems
for the 7-year-old

Got "osaat erittäin hyvin" on everything but Finnish, which was
due to him not bothering to bring his schoolbook home and do
homework for the 2 weeks I was in the States with the other two.
He kept claiming he'd done it at school until the teacher sent
a note home.

Let me know if you get any good answers

-enk

[Rosamunda]

Well in Espoo and Helsinki the school report is just a list of subjects and numbers. I find it totally impossible to sit down with my kids and discuss things like attitude, organisation, attentiveness etc when all I have for ammunition (sorry!) is a number in a box. The teachers have different standards so an 8 in French may be wow! whereas an 8 in Math is only par for the course. To be quite honest we have NEVER attached a huge amount of importance to school reports, unless there were personalised comments. I wish schools made a better job of this. We do look a bit more at trends though. So if one of mine goes from a 7 to an 8 then we give lots of praise. We have also given out cash for good reports but only very recently. I'm not convinced that works for younger kids unless they have a well-developed sense of the value of stuff and a wish list. It works well now though as mine are all saving for iPods and those things cost mega-bucks.

As someone who is over-organised and rather anal about tidiness (think Monica in Friends) I have always made a conscious effort not to inflict my handicap on my kids My lads are MUCH more creative, spontaneous and dexterous than I am and I definitely do not want to stifle that. So I am fairly forgiving when it comes to some things such as care and attention. I can admit that some kids learn differently (ie they are really messy and their notebooks look like doodle pads) compared to my own very prim and proper school work yonks ago.

Also I don't have a problem with kids having "fun" in school. None of my boys has ever woken up in the morning and said "I don't want to go to school today". I do get frustrated with laziness though. If I think my kids have got a bad grade (eg in a test) just because they couldn't be bothered then I get mad (very). I tend to believe if kids mess around in the classroom it is probably because they are bored (ie the lesson is boring) so the problem is the teacher not the student. But I wouldn't say that to my kids. Of course there are exceptions like ADHD etc but that is a different subject altogether. Also, some kids just need er... more authority than others. Some teachers are maybe not firm enough.

We never did contracts with any of the boys. We just discussed lots... showed we were interested (not just in the results but also in the content of what they are doing in school) and I always ask, every day, what they have done in each lesson. It's much easier now, I think they have a better idea of what is expected of them and what they really need to do to improve a grade. With younger kids that's almost impossible.

Have also had issues with the "know it all already" attitude. eg in English and French. But I think that wears off as they get older and other kids catch up (the late-starters) and certain subjects become more challenging. I guess the teachers have strategies for dealing with that in the classroom.

The more I write the more I realise I am not answering your post at all

I'll think about it.

[Hank W.]

I redecorated schoolbooks

[enk]

One thing that I really like that the eldest's teacher does is that she
lets them keep a doodlebook in their desk, so if anyone gets done before
the last person in the class, they can sit around and doodle.

I think that my kid's rotten attitude is quite contributable to 1) his
parents, who had the same bad attitude in school (I didn't do homework
ever and my ex never cracked a single book, yet both of us got
really good grades) and 2) the fact that he's bored out of his gourd with
some subjects, especially math, at the level they're at now. But like you,
Cory, we hold him accountable for his attitude and behaviour.

Hank: I used to make mazes for people out of their names when
bored

-enk

[Rosamunda]

We went through that. I cover all the exercise books with plastic which is arduous but they seem to be more doodle resistant that way.

We also started decorating the book covers before we plastic them.... he stuck mummies and pyramids on the history book (cause he was doing Egypt at the time) and crocodiles on the biology book and a photo of Einstein on the science book. Maybe if they have a have a "cool" book they don't doodle on it so much. And he has a plain notebook in his bag in which he is supposed to write his homework deadlines but I guess he uses it to doodle too. I get annoyed when they doodle INSIDE their exercise books and sometimes check through and have a moan.

My biggest (the dyslexic one...) has always been a ferocious fiddler/doodler.... in his first week of primary school he sharpened ALL his colouring pencils down to almost zero. The teacher called me in... even then I guessed it was nervousness, we didn't know about the dyslexia. More recently he had to sand down the surface of a desk after one lesson and then re-varnish it (I was glad the teacher chose that "punishment" rather than a detention, makes more sense somehow). I remember discussing this behaviour with an educational psychologist who assessed him several years ago: she said that some kids HAVE to doodle, or fiddle, they cannot stop. It helps them to focus and it doesn't mean they are not listening. Lots of teachers can't cope with it though (it annoys me when I am helping him with homework and he is carving his eraser into a penguin ). In his bedroom he has a desk from Ikea (wooden plank on 4 legs), it is covered in graffiti and doodles and carvings. So we try to restrict that kind of thing to one place.... you doodle on here, but not anywhere else!

[Hank W.]

I redecorated schoolbooks

He does the same and that's what's got the teacher a bit annoyed!

Her likeness struck too close.

[Hank W.]

a desk from Ikea (wooden plank on 4 legs), it is covered in graffiti and doodles and carvings.

We had some ancient desks like that in high school, I wish I'd had the mindset to nick a dozen when they got new ones, some of those were real pieces of art.

Penguin erasors... I carved my pencils into totem poles (with the blade you can get off a sharpener)