School-Aged Children

How much do you help with "projects"

My DD is 5 and has homework every night.  Much of it is interactive and I help her with that.  My question is more about projects, like posters.  Looking at the posters DD's class mates made for an "all about me" project, some of them look like grad school power point presentations.  DD's looks like she did it herself, which she did.  I sat with her and read the instructions, but she drew the pictures and wrote some of the words (I helped her with some of the words, since she is just starting to write). 

It seemed like it was a learning experience for her.  She drew pictures and cut out things.  I feel like if I typed it all up the computer, it would be just her pasting my work onto a poster, even if she picked out the pictures and told me what to say.

If you have more experience with school, how do you handle this?

Re: How much do you help with "projects"

  • I let the kids do it themselves.  Gracie isn't writing much yet so for longer writing assignments I will write her answers for her but I use her exact words. 

    But I always have to make sure we have extra supplies in case they want to start over.  And I encourage them to make a rough draft on a smaller paper before they start on the poster board. 

    .
  • I let my kids do the projects themselves with as little help from me as possible.  Its THEIR work and I want THEM to enjoy doing it and be proud of it.....not be proud that it looks the best, but proud that they DID their best.

     

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  • He does the work himself but we are with him nearly every step of the way.  Otherwise, he would do the absolute minimum he had to do. 
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  • imageDandRAgain:

    I let my kids do the projects themselves with as little help from me as possible.  Its THEIR work and I want THEM to enjoy doing it and be proud of it.....not be proud that it looks the best, but proud that they DID their best.

     

    This.

  • I let DS do whatever is age appropriate and appropriate according to his abilities.  Last year he had a project where I did let him type it out on the computer, cut out the words from the print out and glue to the pages b/c his fine motor skills/writing weren't that great.  It was an accomplishment for him to type out his thoughts on the computer.  I definitely don't get so caught up in anything looking perfect, though. 
    DS1 age 7, DD age 5 and DS2 born 4/3/12
  • DS is in 4th grade this year so we have had our share of projects.  Last year they had to do a model solar system and DS did everything: typing the facts, painting the planets, placing the planets on the cardboard, etc.  His project looked great...for a 3rd grader...lol...there were quite a few projects that looked like mom/dad did it and the teachers can tell.  Our teacher sent home a note and said she has spent 6 months with the kids and knew what their work looked like and if a project didnt look like their work that she would take that into consideration when grading.

    I am a firm believer in letting kids do it themselves..that is how learning happens.

    I work at a university and my students that I teach....I think many of them had mom or dad do their work or tell them how to do their work for years because these 18 year olds lack the ability to think critically.  Parents do a disservice to their kids if they micromanage their learning process IMO

  • I let both kids do stuff by themselves as much as possible.  I, too, have had the experience of seeing my kid's homemade poster on display with some posters that were CLEARLY done by the adult more than by the kid!  The worst is science fair projects!!  

    Teachers get what's going on, though!  

    I will help my kids in the following types of situations, if they ask for it:

    --help with how to spell words when they're writing.  DD was totally fine with spelling phonetically; DS likes to know how it's actually spelled.

    --help in understanding what to do and how to get started

    --help with math concepts or individual problems

     

    High School English teacher and mom of 2 kids:

    DD, born 9/06/00 -- 12th grade
    DS, born 8/25/04 -- 7th grade
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