How can I get my 6 year old to enjoy school.

Have you asked him specificly what he HATES about it? Is he bored? Is he not being challenged enough with his work? Does he not like his teacher? Is he being teased/bullied? Find out some things like this and get to the root of your childs problem and maybe get him into liking it a bit more. I would also go and talk to the teacher and see what she has to say about it and see if he seems to hate it so much while he is actually there. KWIM? Good luck!

Sounds like he's all boy...;)

I am a teacher and nothing is a miracle cure...but here are a few suggestions that came to mind.

Make an area to display all of his good papers...I hang as many as I can and brag on them to people who come to our house in front of my kids. I want them to know that I value their efforts and its worthy of showing off and being proud. I even encourage him to pick a few of his papers to give to his grandparents and they post them on their fridge. Kids pick up on how important school is to their family and that can go a long ways!

Also, talk to him about wants to do when he is older....talk to him about how school is important so that he can be that and how he will be able to buy a home and a car one day b/c he has a good job. My son wants to be a vet right now....so I tell him that he will have to study hard and that he CAN DO IT! And how proud I will be when he is a vet!

Cont....

I also agree with the above posts ideas too...make sure he is in a good environment.

I might also make him a brag book for school (a small picture album) ....visit school one day.....take pictures....of him at his desk...of him working....him at center times...him with his teacher and friends....let him show it off to family and friends...

Hopefully all of this will make school more important for him.

like I said no magic here...just some ideas ;)

Is he bored? Is he in the wrong academic environment for his learning style? Is he just yanking your chain?

Have a meeting with the teacher and school counselor, and figure out what the issue is...

You can't. All you can do is listen and be supportive while encouraging him to make friends and make the best of it.

I asked my son if he wanted to be in a class with all the little kindergarteners (he wasn't failing but goofing around in class) because if he didn't straighten up, all his friends were gonna go to 2nd and he would be stuck in 1st again. He has been doing better.

Talk to him about school to see if he will give you reasons why.  If not, do they allow you to observe?  Maybe you could see what's going on.

Then, rule out vision or hearing issues just to be sure.  If none of these things are the cause...talk with the teacher to see if she can provide answers and get him motivated by giving him a little extra attention (possibly being a helper). 

Read some books together about school (scared of, disliking, going to school etc. ) this will be an opportunity for him to tell you about what's going on.  http://astore.amazon.com/wwwcjkidzcom3-20?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=41  

Thank you to all of you. I haev taken many of these ideas and started to put them in play. Today we put up an area in our main hallway to show off Blade's school work. He named it his wall of power! How appropriate...with education comes strength. He is very excited and has showed to our neighbors and looks forward to putting up his next spelling test.

I also took the day off and spent the whole morning in his class observing and having interaction in his class. Things move fast and I think he has a hard time just keeping up. I don't remeber 1st grade being like that when I was a kid.

So. from here we build on reading and math and making it fun. He has been to the eye doctor and this is fine so I can check that off the list. I appreciate all you input.