Been there.
My girl went from straight A's and doing extra credit to having a bunch of missing assignments that she 'turned in' yet were not showing up in the grade book. When I found one of those 'turned in' assignments, unfinished, in her bedroom under a pile of dirty clothes, I was not happy at all. I found it AFTER the end of the school year though, when she had already received a B in the class. This was the end of 6th grade.
7th grade was worse. OMG it was awful! Seriously. I hated 7th grade! At one point I had the principal and school counselor calling me because my honors student had F's in like 4 classes. I had a long conversation with the principal, the counselor, her ELP teacher and the teachers of the classes she was behind in. I told each of them that I wasn't sure where to draw the line in how much I get involved in these things. I mean, she has to learn responsibility, right? Especially BEFORE high school... before those grades REALLY start to count. We came up with a plan that worked for her and besides one C in math, she managed to get her grades all back to A's. The C was just one of those things that, truthfully, stemmed from a crappy teacher. He is no longer with our district and I've talked to probably 20 parents who feel the same way about the experience our kids had with him last year... so...
Anyway, she is now 13 and in 8th grade. At the end of the first quarter she had 6 A's and a high B (advanced algebra for high school credit so I really want her to pull out an A by mid-term!). She has several of the same teachers this year and at conferences they all talked about how much more responsible she was being this year and how proud they are of her. I think us getting involved was the right move. I emailed some of her teachers on a daily basis. I talked to others in person a few times a week. I do have an advantage though as I work for the school district and though I'm not in the same building, I have easy access to her teachers a variety of ways. If I didn't work for the district I probably wouldn't have been so quick to jump in to the situation, but I'm glad I did.
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