Posted by Julie on November 03 2009 at 13:57:42:
In Reply to: maybe I want advice, maybe I just want you to say posted by Elodie on November 03 2009 at 10:34:52:
I had a similar issue with oldest daughter (now 15) at about the same age. She was completely unattentive and was always dragging her feet on work. In some subjects, she kept it up until about last year (Spanish, which we have since dumped for French and Arabic). After a great deal of restriction, some yelling, and just maturation, she´s doing much better.
Now oldest son (11) is going through it. He doesn´t use his wasted time wisely, either. This is our second year with him doing it, but I let it slide last year because their father was deployed to Afghanistan, and with four kids, one special needs, it was nuts here. It was our "lost year".
If he´s bucking discipline- still not working though he suffers for it- that´s tough. Ours would get on the straight and narrow for a while, then drift back into bad habits. I think what sobered up the oldest was that she realized school would count as she got closer to high school. It´s a maturation issue more than anything, I think.
Don´t stress about the testing. I know it´s easy to say and hard to hear, because people told me the same thing about our son and I didn´t listen either. But then I had a lot of stress worrying will he test well, is he on par with the kids in school, will he ever be able to hold a job with these horrible work habits and inattentativeness... So I know your feelings, I think. A lot of what you wrote could be something I say to my husband.
No advice really, just hope you can weather the storm. I was very worried about the weak portfolio we turned in to the district (Philly) last year and was set with a whole big long story about dad being away at war, and little brother´s medical problems, but they didn´t say a word. Maybe that will ease some of your tension- knowing my kid´s reviewers didn´t even notice he had a horrible year in my opinion.