My sons have always gotten straight As. One is now in college. Other just finished junior year of HS. We did nice dinner- my mom sends card with $10-20 ….but since it became a thing - we (parents) stopped doing anything other than a “great job, proud of you and your hard work” response. At first- I thought it was grade inflation in public k-8–but we put them in private HS and they still managed to accomplish it.

They both always just did it. My kid got his first B at an Ivy this year.

Anonymous wrote:I got $5 an A and a $10 bonus for all A's. It's how I bought music and cosmetics.

I give $40 per academic A and $20 special A.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. With grade inflation, straight As are expected. Anything less is a cause for concern.

Really? An A- would concern you in an honors or AP class?

Yes. I took APs myself. I know if I earned an A-. I didn’t do all the work necessary to get an A.

Anonymous wrote:We let them pick a restaurant for a celebratory dinner. (They usually pick something obnoxiously expensive.) We're still doing that for summer after each college year, too!

We do the same. My kid is highly self motivated and gets all As. But even if he didn’t we’d celebrate the end of the semester (especially because I’m an elementary teacher and need the encouragement myself!)

Anonymous wrote:No. With grade inflation, straight As are expected. Anything less is a cause for concern.

Speak for your own school. Not every school gives everyone As whether they do the work or not.

Anonymous wrote:No. With grade inflation, straight As are expected. Anything less is a cause for concern.

Really? An A- would concern you in an honors or AP class?

Anonymous wrote:No. With grade inflation, straight As are expected. Anything less is a cause for concern.

No. With grade inflation, straight As are expected. Anything less is a cause for concern.

We pay for grades. A = $100, B = $50, C = $20 and nothing for anything lower.

We pay because we tell them that school is their job and should be their main focus. We adults get paid for our work, so why shouldn't our kids? That's our philosophy.

We always took our kids out for dinner to celebrate straight As.

DS (rising senior) was talking about tickets for a concert a few days after school was out. We told him to purchase tickets/good seats (within reason) and invite a friend. They had a great time and we thought it was well-deserved after a tough academic year and all As.

Much better to reward effort rather than achievement. Money should not be used as a reward.

I say "Great job!".

If it's not straight As I also say "Great job!" though.

I cant bring myself to care that much about a B vs an A.

I let my DD go out to brunch with her friends for straight As

No, we have never done this. We reward for an unusual amount of effort instead of for grades.

At my daughter's previous school, a huge number of kids got straight A's and she and all of her friends always received straight A's. The threshold for getting an A was just being responsible, turning in your work, putting in a minimum amount of effort etc. which we were proud of her for doing, but this is sort of an expectation in our family and not something out of the ordinary. She never really had to work really hard or overcome any challenges.

She moved to a different school that is much more challenging in general, and how difficult a class is can vary from teacher to teacher. Few students get straight A's. Some teachers are really expecting difficult and college level work, including sophisticated writing, while other teachers are more relaxed. Instead of rewarding for grades, we reward and praise her for the effort she puts in instead of for the grades themselves. Like if she had an especially difficult project that she struggled through, or an especially hard exam, we might take her out to celebrate and to say we are proud of her for the hard work. We would do this both for semesters when she gets straight A's and semesters when she does not.