Parenting advice!! little brother getting bad grades.. I need advice!! please help?

Question

I am in my 20s, have a younger brother who is 10. my parents arent very concerned with his grades, as much as his baseball and other activities.. infact he got 2 Ds and an F on his final report card for 5th grade! and they werent concerned!

I know that jr. high is appraching and want to inspire him to do well.

how do i address the fact that he had poor grades, without putting him down?? should i sit him down and have a talk with him? or create some kind of insentive for him to do better? what would be the best approach, without damaging his self esteme..? any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

insentive for him to do better might work.

Tell him if he gets 3 B's or better when his next report card come he will get $7 from you.

This worked when i was in school and my parents wanted me to do better.

Answer 2

Maybe take him out to lunch somewhere and casually talk to him about stuff- then slip in school stuff.  Maybe let him know about a few hard times you had at school.  Ask him if he wants to get better grades and let him know you can try to help him with that if he wants.  But really ultimately, this is your parents job.  I can appreciate the fact you want to help him- because you are right- it will only get harder.  I would maybe try to talk to your parents (away from him) and see what they are thinking.  You could be more direct w/ them.  Think about it beforehand so it doesn't sound like you're ranting, but really concerned & determined to help him.

Answer 3

A M , if he is getting bad grades, more than likely he doesn't know the material. Either that or he does not study for the test. GRADES DO COUNT. If he gets all bad failing grades at the end of the school year, then he will be held back. But to answer the question approach your parents and tell them that you are concerned with your little brothers grades, and you don't want to see him fail and do good in life. Talk to your brother and see if he needs help studying for tests. See if the school has an afterschool program that tutors kids for free. My kids school did.

Answer 4

Has he said what he wants to do for a living after school?  You could get him to look at it from an educational perspective.  An education helps everyone in almost any field you can think of.  Even a bus driver would do a better job having a degree behind them because of the need to make good judgements when dealing with passengers, emergencies, etc.,  Whatever he has an interest in, show him how having more education would be beneficial to him.

He's not doing well in school because he's not motivated to do well.  His parents haven't made it a priority, so any kid, especially boys will take the easy way out.  I don't know how badly he's taking his bad marks.  Maybe if he's not showing it, he is still feeling the shame of it.

Promise to spend Sunday afternoons with him (or some mutually agreeable time), and go over homework with him.  I think he needs someone to take an interest and to give him the time to explain his school work in a way that obviously the teachers aren't able to do.

In the end though, if he has a real aptitude for whatever his current activities are, then that's pretty important too and could be all he needs to take him through life.

Answer 5

Grades aren't what counts, it's what you know.  Some people are not test takers but know the material.  Tests are really not very conducive to a well educated person.  These children have to memorize stuff and take a test only to have to memorize something else the next week.  Some people can do memorization, some can't.  The most important thing is that he is learning.  This is the problem with the education today.  Give him an incentive and when he can't test take and fails, there goes his self-esteem.  You are better off to just help him learn it and feel better knowing that he knows the material and forget the final letter on the report card.

Answer 6

Grades are important (not just what you know).  In order for him to participate in school sports in middle school, his grades will have to come up or he will be ineligible.  If your parents don't care, it's going to be hard to make him understand/care.  You could try some sort of incentive and hopefully it'll work.  Don't make it about his current grades as much as "if you get this, I'll do/give you that".  Honestly though, it is your parent's job.  Hopefully they wake up and start pushing him to do better.