Your Child’s Report Card

I was so happy this year to see that my daughter did well on just about everything on her report card. However, I do know that as intelligent as she is, that may not always be the case. She started kindergarten as the oldest child in her class, and that went a long way towards her being ahead of the curve. She already knew a lot of the things that she needed to learn. That may change in first grade, because she will be starting in the same place as most of her classmates. The card is not the final say, but all parents should keep an eye on everything they see contained within.

Most of the marks you see on a report card for younger children do not go by the standard A, B, C, D, and F grading system. When I was in first grade, we got S+, S, S- and I for our grades. The S stood for ‘satisfactory’ and the I was for ‘Incomplete’. The I was an F in older grading terms. For my daughter, her report card went by Good, Very Good, Excellent, and Poor. My daughter got Excellent in almost everything, but I do know that could change next year. That is why each subsequent report card is more important than the last.

What I noticed about my daughter’s report card was that grades for reading, math, and other academic skills were not the only things listed. There were many sections regarding how they related, how responsible they were, and about overall behavior. Since she is in a different district than the one that I went to, I don’t know if this will carry on through the entire time she is in school. I was grateful to see these things, because I do think they say a lot about how she is doing overall and those tell me if there are things I can work with her on at home that have nothing to do with her learning.

You can use your child’s report card, no matter how old they are, to give them something to work for. There are very few children that have perfect grades, so that means they can improve. You do not want to set unrealistic expectations for your child, but you can always encourage them to do better. Come up with a good reward system that shows them that doing better and striving to learn more will be rewarded. That is a good lesson for them, as that is how the real world works. Think of the report card as a way to show them what good work and dedication can get them.