My daughter keeps coming home and telling me that her teacher does not like her.  I am sure this is not true, but how do I bring it up to the teacher during our conference without seeming accusatory?

Hearing your child complain that her teacher does not like her, or that she does not like the teacher, is something parents should expect at least once during their child's school years.  Often, the declaration follows a particular incident, such as being reprimanded for a behavior issue or earning a bad grade on an assignment.

Dear Teacher,

Please help!  Our daughter, going into fourth grade, started in the Gifted Center program last year.  We just found out that her brother, a second grader, did not get in.  Will this cause sibling rivalry?  How can we handle having one child who is gifted and one who is not?

Years ago, we used to think “giftedness” simply meant outstanding general intelligence as measured by i.q. scores.   We now know that a child may be highly gifted in one domain, while only average or even below average in other areas.  If you think of intelligence not as a single entity, but rather a combination of a few or several different abilities, it may help you to recognize each of your children’s unique gifts.   Your son may be gifted as well, but perhaps his strengths lie in different areas than your daughter’s.

I was a little disappointed by my daughter’s recent report card.  I don’t know if I should be pushing her harder to get better grades, or if she is too young for me to worry about it.  How important are these grades anyway?

As a parent, I recommend that you work to strike a balance.  You don’t want to pressure your daughter so much that she becomes obsessed with grades.  On the other hand, you want her to understand that these grades represent an evaluation of her performance on her school work.