Effort vs Excuse

I was talking with Sam this morning on the way to the bus stop.  We have some interesting conversations in that short time frame.  My boys seem to do better with short "chats" vs long "lectures".  It's likely most kids do.

We were discussing grades.  I try not to be a helicopter parent but I also don't want to fly so high that I don't know what's going on.  It's difficult to determine the proper altitude.  I'm open to suggestions here.

Sam started out this last semester with a bang in math.  More like a dud.  He was late on his first 3 assignments.  He is extremely gifted in math but sometimes the effort isn't there.  I've discussed this previously.

Well, the good news is that he has A's or some form of an A in all of his classes except math.  At one time math was a D-.  But, it has been steadily climbing.  It is now a B- and when you look at the details as to why one thing stands out.  He got 58 out of 100 on one of his major quizzes so far this quarter.  But the good news (and I always TRY to mention the good news to him) is that he hasn't had another late assignment since the first three.

Back to our walk and my investigation as to why a kid so smart would end up with a 58/100.  I asked if he studied.  He said he didn't thing he needed to.  I asked if he thought he made the right choice.  He said he thought he knew it all and it was over easy material.  I asked if he double-checked his work and he said it was easy enough that he didn't think he needed to.  Finally, he offered that the wording on the quiz was confusing to him so that's why he didn't do well. (This was all in five blocks!)

So after a few steps of silence He came to the conclusion that perhaps he didn't have a good excuse as to why he did poorly.  I suggested he learn from this mistake and put more effort in next time and gave him a hug and sent him on his way.

See previous post about my effort theory (http://boygeniuses.blogspot.com/2012/02/ability-opportunity-effort.html).

Hopefully, there was much more learned by both of us than about math or grades.

Have a great day!