Ok, here's one for you. My six year old's come up with another question that's giving me a "duh" moment. I was talking with him about why it's important that he get good grades. We discussed scholarship to a good college, career to make a good living and have a happy life, yada, yada, yada. We talked about respect for the teacher, clean papers, etc. His question was: Why do I have to have good grades? I know I will get promoted to second grade. I already get the awards/rewards for good work. Once I move out of first grade, what is the difference between my getting As or Bs? Hmmm. He then asked me what I got. Of course, I told him what I got in my good subjects. We won't delve into Social Studies yet. What would you say? Keep in mind, he is an Aspergers child, so having others admire his grades is not important, necessarily. He's also six, so still in the "What's in it for me" stage.

Those are some good questions. I'd say that one of the most important things about school is pride and that you should always do your best so you can be proud of yourself and your parents can be proud too. I'd encourage that attitude because if he's got the slacker mentality in first grade, then he's got many hard years ahead of him.

I have a first grader too and it's funny to see a different perspective. She cries if she doesn't get the best grades possible, which can stump me!

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Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you. ~Oscar Wilde

I would tell him that you get to make Mommy proud! That it will make me and Dad extremely happy.

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~Happiness is a large family~

Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. James 1:19

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:24

How about approaching from the perspective that learning gets harder every year so if you learn 2 + 2 really really good in 1st/2nd grade then learning 2 x 4 is easier in 3rd grade. same with reading, writing, etc. - it all just gets harder so if you know the stuff really well (do you care about the grade or the fact that he knows the information?) then it will be easier to learn more stuff later on. HTH He sure asks mature questions for a 2nd grader!

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Better to give your kids the values you have
than the valuables you can't afford.