Grades

Yesterday Y received her progress report. Which means she has about 6 weeks to bring up any bad grades. Oh yeah she has a bad grade. D in Social Studies, with a big black box checked "failing" Last night was not a good night in our house. F was very upset. Granted so was I, it's hard because all of her other grades were A's and B's. We kept telling her earlier that this year was going to be very tough, she needed to put extra effort into her homework, and class work. I think it finally registered we were serious. She was upset about the D, but was so fast to make excuses. I don't like how she doesn't first take responsibility. That is something we need to work on with her.
Our rule in the house has always been if the grades are not up, then extra activities are cut off. She started dance lessons again this year, and is excelling in them. F and I don't see eye to eye on this matter. I do agree grades are important and she doesn't have any other responsibilities but to bring home good grades, however I don't feel taking all her extra activities away is the right decision. She needs a outlet for her frustrations. I hope after our talk with Y last night she will come to us for more help when she needs it, and she will put extra effort into her studies. She knows what is expected from her, now is when she will need to prove herself. It also is a wake up call for me to make sure extra attention is spent on her studies, asking questions, following up on things with her.
The punishment for the D was we took away her Nintendo DS game, she will get it back when we see the report card. If the report card is bad, then she will lose dance lessons as well. I trust she now sees where she is struggling and is going to make the necessary changes.