My 15 year old son is a good kid. He is very very smart, but he is lazy. He is mostly a C student. How can...

Question

I get him to improve his grades?

Answer 1

motivate him. he's 15, that's old enough to talk to him about colleges and how his grades now will affect which college he gets into, and which college he gets into will ultimately affect his life as a whole. use someone he knows as an example (for instance, my mother never finished college and she ended up working a nine to five job that she didn't "love" while i was growing up - the things she said were along the lines of "you don't want to end up in that situation."). eventually he will understand, though it may take a while.

Answer 2

15 years old - probably in 9th grade = high school? Big transition from middle school to high school - having a C average really isn't as bad as it seems.

I have a son who also is a C student - the main problem I encounter - he lies about doing his homework ["I did it at school", "I don't have any" - during parent/teacher conference - the teachers ask him where his homework is].

What has worked for me and suggested by other parents who noticed their child's grades suddenly dropped as soon as they hit high school:

- Ask him how his day at school was. Don't as for a specific list of what he did - just "Hey - how was your day? Did you learn anything cool today?" - compare it to when you were in school...
- Ask him to show you his daily journal. Most schools now require kids to keep a daily journal of their homework, tests, etc.
- Email the teacher[s] every now and then and ask how he's doing in class.
- Parent/teacher conferences are a HUGE eye opener - the teachers won't be as nice as they were in elementary & middle school as they understand that his grades are very important now.
- Help him with his homework no matter how easy you think it might be.
- Help him study for his tests if he wants help.
- Most importantly - Reward him if he gets good grades. As others have suggested - make it a monetary reward. Go as far as to setup a chart - the higher the grade, the more money he'll receive [same philosphy as a real job - the better job you do, the more money [bonus / raise] you should receive].

Answer 3

Might be partly a product of boredom. If your school will let you (they might not, because of his bad grades) and if they have these, see if you can enroll him in an educational elective, such as psychology or computer science, that you think might interest him. Since he's in high school, there is now some choice in the classes he takes, so make sure to involve him in choosing them for next year; you might find out more about what he thinks of school and whether he has any problems beside just not wanting to do the work. Finally, if he's doing badly because he doesn't study, make sure that you get him to open the book and sit down with it, and them sit down near him so that you can see him. Even if he's not actually paying much attention, if you can embarrass him into turning the pages and looking at them it may help some.

Answer 4

Reward him. Give him some realistic goal in terms of grades and give him CASH. I know this sounds wrong in ways, but I had a PHD professor say himself that the best incentive for children is to give them cash and this modivates them better than anything else.

The only downside to this is that it eats away at their autruism, where they simply do not get to decide for themselves to get the grades or not. Once they are earning good grades and find something they like doing, they may hopefully get out of that rut and do it for themselves more than for the money.

The trick is to just simply not spoil the child with everything they want so that when they finally do earn a little cash, they feel empowered to buy something they have allways wanted. As a child it is such a strong emotional feeling, with good impacts. It helps teach them the values of working hard for your money before they ever have a job.

I hope this helps.

Note:
It is never okay to beat your children... There's allways a better psychological perspective unstead to deal with them that causes less mental damage over the long run. Beating is just the easy way out for people not willing to do the reasearch to be responcible parents.

As punishment if he fails to respond is to simply make life more uncomfortable little by little. Make him do more chores, take away privilages, monitor him more often; after a while he will give up and do the right thing if he is a good kid. When someone does the right thing as their own decision, instead of to avoid immediate physical pain is when they learn more ethical guidelines on how to live and respect others.

You can allways do something extream like getting a sitter for him when your not around again and simply tell him that he's not responcible enough to be left on his own. :D

Answer 5

Don't be too hard on him. BUT make him work nontheless! It is known that kids with better grades are the ones that have parents who make them study hard. And it IS normal. It is very difficult to make yourself do something whe no one is pushing you. At 15 they don't always understand that they need to study, but later they'll either thank you for pushing them a little or if you don't they'll regret that they were so lazy. But you're lucky he's 15, everything can still be fixed, it's the final 2 years of high school that are important in terms of grades, but you need to start now or it'll be difficult to start working hard all of a sudden.

Answer 6

I don't think beating him is the answer. Take away all privledges. No phone, no television, no going out with friends, etc. Make him earn privledges by making the grades he should make. You can also add extra chores for making undesireable grades. Consistancy is the key, don't just give in, stick to it. My step-daughter makes terrible grades. I've told her mother that I wouldn't buy her expensive clothing for school, to purchase the clothes at Wal-Mart or even Goodwill unless she makes the grades that she's capable of making. If she's going to cheat herself out of a future and an education, I wouldn't indulge her in finer clothing until she brings home finer grades. I just feel strongly about education and I wouldn't give into my daughter unless she brought home the best grades possible. I didn't worry too much about how clean she kept her room or other nonsense like that. I'm glad I did because my daughter graduated at the top of her class & was in honor classes. Now she's on the Dean's List in college and she works very hard. She worked full time in high school, which I allowed because her grades were good. Now my step-daughter is living with me & I've told her & her parents, that I'm very strict on school work. I'm sorry, but it's a tough world and we're not wealthy so I expect them to work really hard in school so they won't have to work like dogs when they're adults. Good luck. 2D

Answer 7

Bribery... I know it sounds really bad and the parenting books would probably have trouble with it but it work for me and my brother! My parents did the whole money thing... that stopped working so they promised to let us borrow the car...or have friends over for the weekend... my brother got banned from the computer or the playstation whenever he got bad grades.
C's are fine but in a competitive college it won't quite cut it. I didn't do my homework because I though it was boring and pointless. Then my mom got me in an accelerated program an with it being more interesting I did the work. College came around and I'm glad that I had the dicipline to get good grades because many college professors really don't care if you flunk out. The college got your money sooooo..... some care but they won't babysit you and make sure things get turned in.

Good Luck!

Answer 8

Take away the xBox and PS3. Only let him play after he's improved his grades. Get him involved in sports or an activity which will teach him self discipline.

Talk to him to see if he has problems in school. He could be lazy because he needs additional help.

Answer 9

Make him do chores galore and tell him you will pay him at the end of the week.Make sure it is all things he hates and detests.Then get the prices of cars he likes, a nice apartment, car insurance utilities clothes food etc for one person.Make this list from the news paper ads and such.At the end of the week give him 5 dollars.Tell him this is what he has to look forward to.Then take all the bills you have made for him and add them up, then figure out how he can pay them off 7 dollars an hr. once taxes and ssi ,health insurance are taken out.Tell him he will need a college degree to make a decent living, you will not support him once he is an adult, you will send him to a homeless shelter.This will make him think SERIOUSLY.

Answer 10

If he is 15 that means he gets a license soon, so make that a reward. If you want your license, you need to improve your grades and prove to us that you are responsible for this. If you see a vast improvement on his side, but not hte grades, use your judgement, as long as he is putting in the efforts you need to recognize that... if finances are ok, tell him as long as he keeps up the grades once he has them there, he can have/use a car once he gets his license... in the real world we all have things we get in return for our good work, like with our jobs and bonuses. So show him what the real world is really like... good luck!