What Can I Do if My Child Gets Bad Grades in the First Trimester?
What can I do if my child gets bad grades in the first trimester of school? Parents ask themselves this question when their children have learning problems. Consequences of poor academic performance can be noticed after seeing the grades of the trimester. It’s important to explain to children that they need to work hard at school, after summer or vacation.
It’s normal for parents to be unhappy when their children have a poor school performance, and this can be a problem if you don’t do something about it. Getting bad grades in the first trimester can be due to lack of attention or motivation, or having a relaxed daily routine.
If your children got bad grades in the first trimester and you don’t know what to do, don’t worry, here you’re going to find some very useful recommendations.
What can I do if my child gets bad grades in the first trimester?
Parents get concerned when their children get bad grades, which can cause a family conflict. Dealing with these bad results isn’t easy. They can feel disappointed and frustrated without knowing what to do and how to help their children.
For this reason, communication with teachers is very important when it comes to finding solutions and assistance to help your children.
In this case, the parent’s job is to teach their children in the best way they can, helping them to study, despite their bad grades. Parents need to keep calm and face the situation with a proactive attitude to find solutions, without blaming or grounding them.
Keep in mind that your children might get bad grades because they don’t have good study habits or aren’t motivated with what they’re learning at school. It’s essential to know the causes to solve this problem and find learning contexts that arouse children’s interest and motivation.
Recommendations to face bad grades in the first trimester
1. Keep calm
The first and most important recommendation is to keep calm. Don’t scream or scold them. Physical punishment and violence are never a good solution. This doesn’t mean you can’t show your discontent.
2. Sit down and talk
The second recommendation is choosing communication. You need to sit down with your children and analyze the situation in a relaxed space, using a calm tone of voice all the time. You have to ask them what happened and listen to them to know if they have a problem or not.
3. Take action
Once you heard everything your child had to say, you can decide what to do. Based on the causes of getting bad grades, you can choose the following solutions:
- If your children have learning problems or a personal situation is affecting them, you need to find help from an expert.
- If they’re withdrawn in their relationship with their classmates, or don’t feel good in the classroom, you have to talk to your children and their teacher to solve the problem.
- Finally, if the problem is related to an act of rebellion, laziness, or lack of interest, you need to be firm about it. You have to ground them, set stricter rules when studying or don’t allow them to hang out with their friends. If it’s necessary, make them take additional classes.
4. Seek help from the school
Regardless of the causes of getting bad grades, it’s very important to ask for help from the school and talk to their teacher. This will be useful to share perceptions, discover certain aspects you didn’t know about your child’s behavior or attitude, and also, determine the steps to follow to help them improve their grades.
5. Work together as a family
If you want your children to improve their academic results, the best way is working together as a family. Both parents must tell them that they’re willing to help them, and that you’re going to remain strict about the steps to follow, especially if the children’s parents are separated or divorced.
More tips
The above recommendations are the most important when dealing with bad grades in the first trimester. But it’s also important to motivate your children, reinforce them in a positive way, help them organize a daily routine, and use study techniques.
It’s essential to spend some time with your children and help them with their homework, either resolving their questions or giving them some advice, but without doing their work for them.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- OCDE. (2012) Estudiantes de bajo rendimiento: Por qué se quedan atrás y cómo ayudarles a tener éxito; 52 págs http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/PISA-2012-Estudiantes-de-bajo-rendimiento.pdf
- Departamento de Educación de los Estados Unidos. (1992) Cómo ayudar a su hijo a tener éxito en la escuela; Washington, D.C.; 61 págs https://www2.ed.gov/espanol/parents/academic/escuela/escuela.pdf
