Parents! How much of your childs special projects from school do you do?

Question

My husband & I are helping our child a lot! From what I`ve seen, it looks like the other parents do to.Our daughter has advanced classes,which, it takes all of us to fiqure out.Anyone else have this problem?

Answer 1

I do not do my daughter's projects because they are assigned to her, not me.  Besides, you can tell the projects that the child does by their self compared to their parents.

Answer 2

These schools know these projects are 95% parents work and they know theres no way around it. It makes me so mad when mine comes home with a new project.

Answer 3

I'm a very involved parent, but when it comes to projects, I take a different role.  She tells me what the project is and I talk to her about it, and I will go and buy the supplies needed to make it happen - but she ultimately plans and puts it together.  If it's overly complicated we will work on it together but mostly I encourage her to find a solution she can do by herself.  So far this is working out pretty well (she's in 2nd grade).  We definitely see kids with projects that were made by parents, but we also see kids who don't ever seem to do them because I guess they don't get any parental support at home.

I think that's worse by far than a parent who does the project!

Answer 4

i only give help if my kids are truly stuck, and then just enough help to get them over the hump.  but then again, my kids' projects always end up looking kind of pathetic compared to their friends' (i think they do great for their age, but apparently most of their peers have more adult help).  i think it's too bad that teachers don't send home clear expectations about how much adult involvement is appropriate.  presumably all of us could ace first or second grade, but that's also presumably not really the point of the project.

my husband, however, adores working on projects with the kids and i spend a fair amount of effort giving reminders to him about whose project it is.  :-) his position is that the kids are learning and having a good bonding experience with him if they work on a project together.  my position is that's true and great, but they should do a project that's separate from the school homework....

Answer 5

I dont have kids

but when i was a child my mom helped me with every single one of my projects.

I started doing them on my own when i was about 14.

I am now in college and sometimes wish i had her!!

Answer 6

when i was a child my mom helped me alot with my projects. and my reading and homework. she made everything fun. and used games when she did it. but when i got to middle school i started doing them myself. i graduated highschool with straight a's and had a scholar ship. beacuse every assignment i had. i remembered the 'games' my mom used and it made it funner and easier to pass the time. =]]

Answer 7

My daughter is unschooled. She teaches herself about whatever she wants to learn about. I simply facilitate (i.e., provide the resources and opportunities to learn). She is very advanced for 8., can engage in mature conversations on nearly any topic, and we don't have to worry about school being too advanced (or vice-versa) 'cause she learns at exactly the level thats right for her. Unlike her public school friends, she is not bored of school from being forced to complete hours of pointless busywork. Kids naturally LOVE to learn and if you let them pursue their own interests they will amaze you and never fall out of love with the pursuit of knowledge.

Answer 8

Probably a lot more than I should.  I make sure the kids come up with the design themselves and plan everything out, they have to figure out all the supplies that they need etc but as soon as it comes time to start putting it together it becomes more of a family project.  We tried to make the oldest do her own one year and she came home in tears because her was the worst one and that was when we realized all the parents do it and if you dont then your child is the odd one out.

Answer 9

Isn't that one of the perks of having kids?  I love to do my daughter's projects!!  LOL

Answer 10

It's the kids' project, not mine. I might help them out and make sure there are no mistakes, but I'm not about to do my kids' work for them. How does that help them learn? That's why the project should be tailored to the child's age, so that THEY can do it and learn from it. I would say it should be 20% parent involvement and 80% child's effort.

Answer 11

I probably help out with way more than I should.

My daughter came home recently with a project on structures. She had to pick one structure, do some research on the where, how's and such and then take the materials to school to build it there. Probably didnt want them building it at home & bringing it in because they knew the parents would do it.

I helped her research her info on the net, wrote down in point form the info and then left it to her to write her essay on it. Then we took the materials to build it, built it, wrote down exactly how we did it so she could do it at school.

I think every parent helps to a degree my daughter is only 8, by helping her I'm showing her how to do it so that in future projects she'll be able to do more on her own.