Our son has had a pretty rough year of schooling this year. Not only did he go into 6th grade from 5th, he did so with all strings cut. Most of the time he has had no help from Dad and Mom. He was put into a special class so that he could pass state testing. All classes except for Reading, Math, Science, and Technology were cut from his curriculum.
We were informed that as soon as he passed state testing these classes (his favorite) would be added back. There are several testing windows starting in October. We signed up for the 1st testing window and got prepared. After a couple hours he passed with flying colors. We waited and waited for his classes to change. They finally changed in January, nearly 3 months after he passed the testing. So there he was with half a year gone and half of his classes added on, suddenly more than doubling his work load.
He quickly finished up 2 of the added classes and technology. He is in the last stretch of the school year with 4 of his 7 subjects left to go. 3 of which are currently showing on his scheduler as finishing a week or more after school is over.
Looking back over the school year he has accomplished an amazing amount of work amazingly well. With a little bit of help, and a little more hard work he will finish the school year without having to cut any of his assignments. He will probably barely pass because of his grades, some of which he really did not apply himself to. But he will pass, and have done it all.
Now the big question. Should he do 6th grade again? How much harder will 7th grade be? Will it be any harder than trying to get half of your subjects done in half the time? With more teachers will he get more support and help?
Some of his growing and changing and conflicting this year has been part of growing up. We can see a growing up, maturing, taking on of responsibility in him. He is becoming more respectful and thoughtful of others. Over all this year, looking at the whole picture, we are in awe of this son of ours.
We feel that he needs the most help in his writing. He hates writing. If any of you have an idea on how to encourage writing and strengthen it over the summer any advice would be much appreciated.
4 comments:
Does he like stories? What if you had him write a story book each week, or every other week, and let him draw picture to go with his story. Then when he is finished your family can gather together for him to read his story to you all. That way he could work on his writing and have fun doing it. I don't know if that would be fun for him though. Wish i had more advice =(. I'm sure some of our experienced blogger moms will have so good ideas for you.
Make it a family project. All of you sit down and write about an activity you may have done that day. Then compare to see how everyone is the same or even different. Write about things that you enjoy: such as fishing, camping, bike riding, playing games or a favorite movie. You might even take turns writing sentences to complete a story. Mom, you write the "main idea" sentence then have the others add sentences to complete the paragraph. The story may be crazy but it sure is a lot of fun and brings a lot of laughs.
7th grade is mostly review. preparing them for the dreaded 8th grade. They really don't learn much more, they just make sure 1st through 6th is learned well. I think that 7th grade is a wonderful time for a child to cathc their breath and feel accomplished again. Good for him for finishing!
I have my children write letters. The letters get more and more in depth if they have a good friend they want to share things with.
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