First Report Cards of the School Year

Well...the first grading period has ended and report cards have officially arrived. Can I just say...that it is a very frustrating thing to have my children. Two of them especially. Specifically the male ones. Here I have two boys who are wildly bright...both of them wildly gifted (and no...NOT my interpretation...God really did make them that way),yet...SO little reflection of that in their report cards. Ben's report card came home and he practically got straight C's! He got an A in science and an A in spelling (he gets that from his mother), but pretty much everything else is a C. SO FRUSTRATING. Because he is a totally smart kid. TOTALLY. And the work is NOT hard for him. He GETS it. He just absolutely refuses to put forth one ounce of effort more than he absolutely has to in order to scrape by. He just doesn't care.

And Max...his grades were surprisingly good. Mostly A's and B's. But C's in a couple of classes that I KNOW he should have done well in. And the comments from the teachers in those two classes? "Must turn in assignments on time." That's my Max. Do all the work... correctly at that. Then leave it on his desk. Or on the kitchen counter. Or anywhere...but in the teacher's basket where it belongs! Organization is NOT his strongpoint. AT ALL! He is definitely NOT one to plan ahead. My boy just flies by the seat of his pants pretty much always. None of this living day to day stuff. He's more like minute to minute. Every minute a new surprise! He struggles with remembering to put on his deodorant each day, with combing his hair, and even with the same chores and responsibilities that he has had every single day for the past 8 years! So part of me is surprised that he has managed to do as well as he has to this point in middle school, juggling 8 classes at a time. But he gets knocked over and over for the simplest things...like organization. GRRRRRRR. And of course...no amount of instruction, begging, pleading, threatening or punishment seems to curb the chaos.

Clara...well, she is still young enough to find school to be delightful and exciting. She enjoys the challenges of each new day, not to mention the social aspects. Lots of social aspects. She brought home her first yellow smiley face this week. She has always been perfectly green. I asked her why she was yellow and she looked at me so sweetly and declared "I was talking!" I looked at her ever so sweetly back and told her to SHUT HER MOUTH! That aside, Miss Mouth is doing quite well in first grade. At least ONE of my children is applying themselves! In all of her reading areas she has already met the end of the year grade level standards,scoring 3s across the board. As far as reading grade level materials, she has significantly exceeded the end of the year grade level standards, scoring a 4. Her spelling is advanced significantly as well. And in all other areas she is making the expected progress and doing just great!

It's frustrating to know that your children are capable of so very much, yet desire to achieve so very little. To know that they have been so gifted and talented and watch them just barely do enough to scrape by. It's hard to know just how easy it is for them when others struggle so much. And then see how little they apply themselves like they just don't care. When you know it would take very little effort on their part to just soar.

Oh well. This is the struggle with the gifted child. And I don't suppose it will go away. Though I do hope that it will eventually evolve into something positive for them. My mother in law tells me all the time that Chris was just like the boys. And he turned out quite nicely. A VERY high achiever. With a lot of drive and a lot of ambition. I hope my boys find that. That they eventually learn to harness all the amazing things they have been blessed with and that they will have the drive and ambition to do great things with it. That it won't go wasted. But in the meantime. They are scraping by. And not caring too much about it at all!