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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Or put in some sort of benchmarks for second semester? Oldest child is anticipating a ~ 2.0 first semester GPA. We've never been through this.[/quote]
We will be addressing this same challenge in our household in about a week. You don't "punish" your freshman unless you don't want them to come home again. You address it the same way you've addressed parenting all along - appropriate levels of freedom for success, with appropriate levels of support aiming towards independence. If you didn't set targets before sending your child off to school, you should certainly be prepared to set some now - not just a broad GPA target, but a class-by-class grade target (some classes are easier for some kids than others), and other behaviors that will move your DC towards success.

My DC had a bad case of senioritis last spring, so we went into the fall semester with reasonable goals and the expectation that DC could be independent, but with periodic monitoring as to how things were going. I think DC is disappointed with the semester and ready to have some conversation about what went wrong. Part of the problem I believe has been a disconnect in perceived performance versus actual performance (How was the test? I think I did pretty good! Then later - what was your grade? Oh, really bad, I did worse than I thought...) I'm sure part of the problem has been lack of time management and study strategies. No, you can't cram three weeks the night before a quiz. There has definitely been too much friend distraction - visiting other high school friends in-state on the weekends and generally acting like it's an open ended vacation hangout time. DC will be part of deciding what next semester's goals will look like, but I also have a very specific set of behavior targets, that if they are not met, the opportunity to be on campus next fall will not be an option.

Good luck and I hope you have a reflective but happy break with your DC.[/quote]

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