<p>Having been brought up in a household where grades determined the quality of your person- I chose to base our “philosophy” on the comments by the teachers. My kids didn’t even realize that they were “grades” mattered until 5th grade- and sadly it was a rude awakening for all of us. I did however, try (and in those early years it was definately a battle) to teach them that the daily homeworks, reading or whatever that was assigned were important and not optional. I do remember some bribery going on in middle school just to avoid some of those daily battles. My husband didn’t like coming home to a stressful house in the evenings so we always had the rule of homework done before dinner. Obviously by highschool they were on their own- but they rarely have stayed up till all hours doing an assignment and I feel like they learned valuable lessons about their work ethic and to this day- they like having their school work done so they can relax at least a while in the evening. We used to celebrate at the end of each grading period with an ice cream for a job well done. And though it’s kind of embarrasing to admit- I collected all the nice comments from their teachers over the years, typed them up and put them in their scrapbook so that they can be reminded of the “good” things that their teachers had to say about them. I guess in a way my philosphy was “count your pennies and your dollars will fall into place”. Pay attention, do your homework, learn good work habbits and the grades will fall into place.</p>
<p>However- for the record- I still hate grades, I still hate that the kids are judged by them and that any kid (including mine) have to focus on “the grade”.</p>