What does school mean to your children? I have always been very fortunate in the fact that my children have always loved going to school. I have never had to worry about them faking an illness to be able to stay home because they have always really liked going to school. I will never forget each of their first days of kindergarten. It was always such a momentous occasion and luckily, something they all looked forward to with great anticipation.
That being said, I am now faced with a child that is soon going to be beginning her high school career and we are trying to impress upon her the significance of that step in her life. She is a social butterfly and while those skills and qualities are (I feel) very important in life, the academics in high school play a huge part in what you will be able to accomplish in the future. Decisions you make in high school can follow you forever! Your grades and achievements in high school will help to determine what university you will be able to attend as well as the amounts of scholarships that are available to you.
As parents, I think it is difficult to compete with the social aspect of school and effectively communicate the importance of the focus being on academics. Thankfully we have another year of middle school to continue to have conversations about expectations and the importance of the next phase of her young life. I have hope that all of our children are hearing what we are saying. How many of us have thought, “If only we knew then what we know now”? We will continue to try to impart our wisdom on our children and hope that they take at least some of it to heart!
