Honor rolls and kid’s rewards

I don't have kids but if I do have kids in the future, I'd like to celebrate academic achievements. Growing up, it was like that for my family. I have two older brothers and every year all three of us would get awards. We attended public school and a student had to work hard to get awards. In high school, I graduated in 6th place out of 800+ students and my brothers also graduated in the Top 15. I think that was something to celebrate. In many private schools these days, everyone gets awards! I don't like that. Even the simplest of things are rewarded. I see these days some classes are really small, say 20 students, and there's a Top 10, and the other 10 students not in the Top 10 would get awards like Most Polite, Most Neat, Most Friendly, etc. There's also this new thing I see--the Moving Up Ceremony, When I was in school, when one grade ended, you moved up to the next grade and that was that. Now I see these Moving UP Ceremonies to celebrate all the students' achievement in getting to the next grade. I'm quite conflicted on my feelings about that. I think it is good that your son is on the honor roll, and I think it would be nice if you'd show him your appreciation for his achievement.

I don't think it is wrong that you don't celebrate it and I don't think it would be wrong if you did. I know lots of parents who celebrate it and lots that don't. It is just a personal choice. I usually don't buy them rewards for it but just tell them how proud I am and how well they are doing. This time I did get them each a little toy that was about $4. My mother celebrates it more then I does she gives each of my kids $5 or $10. My daughter who is in 6th grade made highest honors. Her gpa this 3rd quart is 94.4. My son is only in 2nd so his gets graded different. Based on his grades though I'd say if they did it the same way his would average honor roll. Congrats to your son by the way!

I am not yet married nor have kids of my own. I only have a 6 year old niece and an 8 year old nephew. Awarding kids with material things once they get an award is optional. I think it is a matter of choice if you will buy them gifts or not, if you will treat them outside or not. In my own opinion, gifts or eating outside does not matter much. On the other hand, words of praise I think is a must. Once a child is always praised by his doings, I believe that it will make him study more. I say it because that is what I felt when I was a kid. The more my parents make me feel proud of me, the more I get motivated.

My parents didn't make a big deal out of our achievements. I think I learned that the ultimate reward IS the achievement itself. That being said, I always had this sad feeling that I wasn't achieving enough in my parents' eyes . . . they rarely praised me and often said negative things - which I realize now that was their way of pushing me to do more. With my kids, I guess we treat it somewhere in between. We praise them for a great achievement, but we don't have an all out celebration for it. Maybe we'll have a special treat or outing at a later date as a reward for an overall good job for the past few weeks kinda thing. The kids might try to convince us to take them to the toy or book store but they can get dad to give in more than me . Congrats to your son for making it on the honor roll!

but were you surprised he was on the honor roll?