The Trouble with Fractions

After school today Ben is starting math tutoring. He has been having some trouble with school in general lately and math in particular. Most of his troubles are organizational-- forgetting to bring home materials he needs for homework, forgetting to turn in assignments (or not being able to find them), etc. We had a big blowout over homework yesterday when he forgot AGAIN to bring home everything he needed. His video games systems have all found a new home in my closet for at least two weeks/ until a pattern of responsible behavior starts to emerge.

The math tutor is because in addition to forgetting assignments, etc, he is also not paying attention in math class and having trouble with fractions, which is pretty much the only thing he's been studying in math this entire quarter. The quarter ends Friday, and his math average is an 80 (a C). He got a 78% on a quiz on Friday and has a unit test on fractions this coming Friday. His teacher is letting everyone make corrections to Friday's quiz for half-credit, so I am hoping he can get the quiz grade up to a B and with a little extra help get a good grade on Friday's unit test and hopefully make it out of the quarter with a B (though that might be too much to hope for at this point). The math tutor is one of the other teachers at his school, she is coming over to the house every Monday at 3:30, and I am hoping that this week maybe she can find an extra hour towards the end of the week to help him study for Friday's test.

The math issues would not be so aggravating if he weren't so absent minded / disorganized. His homeroom teacher says his desk and cubby are a mess and he can never find anything. His backpack and his homework folder are a mess too, despite my daily pleading with him to clean them out / only bring home what he needs, etc. We may be meeting with his homeroom teacher this week as well to work out a plan to get Ben more organized/take care of his materials. This year his teachers have been nice about giving out extra copies / letting him turn in assignments late, but in 5th grade I understand that the teachers will not do that anymore. In which case we will have a big problem if he doesn't get his act together :(