Dos and don'ts on the day of the certificate presentation
The days on which children receive report cards are important for families - and often difficult and conflict-ridden. So here are a few tips on how the day can go well.
No punishments and no absurd rewards. You should realise that a grade does not necessarily say anything about how hard a child has tried or whether they have shown a willingness to perform - but much more about how well they have coped with a given task. Someone who finds maths easy doesn't have to work hard to get a 2, others try like crazy and still "only" get a 4.
No comparisons between siblings. It's not good for the family climate and it doesn't help the child's development to hear phrases like "why don't you take an example from your sister" or "your brother tried harder." In the end, it's just embarrassing for the child.
Use report card day to look back on the past year together with the children, completely independently of school. Questions can be: Where in your life did you have great experiences, where did you make progress, did you perhaps become a little braver, did you expand your circle of friends, did you find a new hobby? So simply look at where positive development has taken place in the child's life.
Be authentic. We parents should take our child's feelings about the report seriously and support them. It's okay for a child to be sad about a report card for a day or two. It doesn't help if you say things like "it's no big deal" or "don't be such a pain". It's great if you can simply provide emotional support for such sadness or disgruntlement. And, for example, if the child shows motivation to want to do things differently or better, you can then talk together about how you can organise things differently in the new school year.
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