I love teacher conferences. It helps me and my child's teacher communicate what we need to teach my child. Well, funny thing happened my last conference.
I have a child that is a loving and creative soul, but she is not organized!! Which of course drives her mom (me) crazy. When she was in 3rd grade I told her teacher she needed to figure out how to be organized. We provided to tools and guidance but I knew she'd need to experience some natural consequences to actually learn the lesson. Fortunately, yes fortunately, she had late papers, lost papers, etc and had to work this out with her teacher. Then she made it to 4th grade (I'll just say good thing she's smart to make up for her lack of organization). I then told my child's 4th grade teacher "It is going to be a bad year". We agreed to let her figure it out and continue with the natural consequences which were a bit more painful than they were in 3rd grade. As the year went on she started to get it. I recently met with my daughter's 5th grade teacher for conferences and this actually came out of her teachers mouth "Your daughter is very organized".
I call that success!! While my daughter was struggling to learn how to be organized and take care of herself, I had to keep telling myself "It is only 3rd grade", "It is only 4th grade". I knew that the natural consequences of being unorganized in grade school are pretty minor compared to high school, college and life.
Keep this in mind if your kids are struggling to be organized. If you are currently the one that is keeping your child organized then I recommend you let them know that you are taking a vacation and it is now their responsibility. Make sure they know what needs to be done and follow through with not intervening. Here is the hard part... no reminders from you. There are consequences set up at school that are there to teach...let you're child experience them if needed. It is lesson that will serve them well as they grow.
