My 14 year old brought home a progress report that was, shall we say, less than stellar.  Kid has been A/B honor roll entire life and brings home a D+ and a couple C grades.  I told him if he gets his grades to A/B Honor roll level again by the end of the Quarter/Year we can build his very own AR from an 80% in .22.  Surprisingly he was excited about it.  I say surprisingly because none of my kids have ever been into firearms, sad dad here with that.  Here is to hoping he gets the grades up.  Told my 12 year old if he continues with his Principals Honor Roll, all A's, I will help him build his own rifle when he finishes 8th grade next year, and he seemed excited about it too.  Dad is getting happy now.  If the oldest doesn't get the grades up then that 80% will become a 300 BO for me.

And of course I will be looking for advice on parts some time this summer.

at times some incentive does help and i'll bet you see them better grades! good luck.



Bruce  

Every situation is different and I don't know your kid, but as a college age gun enthusiast who was raised in a VERY grade focused household I have the following suggestion:

Grades dropping likely have a lot of factors, but if it's across the board, I would strongly suggest considering it as an issue with "focus" or happiness in school. They may not feel like they are really growing through school or such.

Anyway, my suggestion would be not to have it as a binary ending. I would suggest starting the build with them now, even just the planning. Not only will they have something to boost their overall happiness, they will associate the enjoyment of building the rifle with schoolwork. Maybe for every good grade they bring you, you two spend an hour milling or order a new part for the build. Plus getting parent/kid time like that is great to talk about school issues and such.

It would really suck as the kid to end up in a situation where they didn't get the award they hoped for, especially if they felt they tried their best.

Again, so many factors to consider. Your kid. But I grew to hate my Highschool academics and really only got through via getting to build robots, guns, and other cool things through extracurriculars.

Also, not super cohesive. I apologize. This is my lunch break. Have my last final in 5 hours.

Luckily the high school he starts next school year has an engineering type program that he seemed super interested in at the open house.

My son just finished his freshman year of college. It sounds like you are doing things right. My son's grades flucuated from time to time. He would bring homes As then Cs and Ds. I finally determined he knew exactly what he had to do to "get by" and would just get lazy sometimes. Finding what motivates kids is the biggest thing. Of course, keep encouraging him and teaching/showing him to always do his best, no matter what the grade shows at the end of the day.

I learned early on that my son wasn't as "into" my hobbies as I was. He would join me, occasionally, but my son was never "Can we go do this or that". All he wanted to do was stay home and play video games. Don't get me wrong, he has grown into a mature young man that I am proud of, but he enjoys playing games in his spare time and I enjoy being outside... Believe me when I say I used the video games as motivation for the grades. We came up with a sliding scale, Ds got him no playing time, straight As got him almost as much time as he wanted. With all that said, my son and wife are coming with me to a four day rifle class next week!

God luck, just keep pouring into him, showing interest in both his grades and hobbies, and always encourage/respect him. (Respecting is a whole other topic, but can make all the difference in the world.)

+1



 

+1  My 15 year old daughter always has a hard time staying focused
on school for the 3rd semester. I always try to motivate her with fun activities
that usually involve firearms. It definitely works.

Nice !!  I got my 15 yo daughter interested in robotics and Mechanical Engineering
at an early age. She actually signed up for an engineering and robotics club in HS.

double tap.

When we went to the open house the table with the engineering program had some student made digital clocks and other robotics type stuff.  They had upperclassmen there to give the students an idea of the programs from a students prospective and help keep the families from standing there waiting to see what was going on forever.  She told us that one of the final projects they do is basically a birthday countdown clock starting from a bare board and building into a digital countdown.

So true. My oldest has always had high grades, but struggled this year, even with Math which has always been his favorite and strongest subject. The main difference has been a younger, less experienced teacher, and it showed. The teacher has been learning how to better engage her students as the year progressed and the last report card was back straight A's again.


Getting back from the realm of GD, and back to guns, though: As for the kids being excited about the guns - it is a double edged sword. Don't say I didn't warn you when your ammo budget suddenly increases, stockpile decreases, and "my" toys suddenly become "our" toys. I gave mine a Weatherby Vanguard in .243Win, but he'd still rather shoot my 700 in .308 - damn kids.