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I've heard of this happening in middle school and high school, particularly with big projects, but apparently it happens in kindergarten too . Last week, my daughter received an assignment that required her to draw pictures under different categories. The directions said "draw it yourself and do your best work." I read the categories and discussed them with her, but she chose what to draw and did it all herself (I actually made an effort to not influence her answers and it was hard to not chime in). This week her friend in another class received the same assignment and the parents posted a pic if it to Facebook and it looked like a scrapbbook project with things cut out perfectly and glued on to create dimension and other elaborate nonsense. I really do not see the point of parents doing this. It is very obvious the kid did not come up with or execute it by himself (if at all). It seems like such a disservice to the kid to be so overly involved in their assignments. Why would it be so important that your 5 year old's simple assignment look a piece of artwork?
Because the parents are worried about how they look, not about how the child is doing. Their child's "work" makes them look good/bad. Not only does it not help the child (it holds them back), its narcissism run amok.
I might be the worst parent EVER but I do not help my kids with their homework/projects. Mind you, they need me to explain something, they need me to clarify some information and/or provide materials? SURE! Aside from that, nop. Do your own stuff, my kids have turned in some HORRIBLE looking projects but they made them themselves and they are very proud to show their (horrible) work.
like the poster above said, most parent do it because they are worried how they look in front of the teachers/parents. I do not. I want my child to learn, for that they need trial and error.
Internet assignments were the worst! Nothing like setting a young student loose with Google. I ended up spending quite a bit of time with my children teaching them how to use our county library's website to find age-appropriate resources.
It would be nice if elementary school teachers would refrain from assigning projects that no young child could possibly do on his own. So we complained, and then we got a song and dance about strengthening the home-school connection by creating projects that involved parents but should be driven by the kids. Huh? Let me say on no uncertain terms that I am very glad those years are behind us. The third grade famous person project nearly killed me.
That brought back some awful memories! It's been 15+ years, and I can still remember trying to assemble the required costume.
That brought back some awful memories! It's been 15+ years, and I can still remember trying to assemble the required costume.
My youngest decided to do Neil Armstrong! How exactly does an eight-year-old put together an astronaut costume by himself? On the bright side, after a $70 trip to the home improvement store and a profanity-filled (under my breath, of course) night of assembling it, he had an absolutely awesome Halloween costume.
My youngest decided to do Neil Armstrong! How exactly does an eight-year-old put together an astronaut costume by himself? On the bright side, after a $70 trip to the home improvement store and a profanity-filled (under my breath, of course) night of assembling it, he had an absolutely awesome Halloween costume.
Oh I feel for you. My middle son did Albert Einstein, so we decided on the wig, glasses and a lab coat. I had to drive all over the place to find the stupid lab coat. Now I'm trying to remember who youngest chose, since whoever it was didn't bring any flashbacks forward.
My youngest decided to do Neil Armstrong! How exactly does an eight-year-old put together an astronaut costume by himself? On the bright side, after a $70 trip to the home improvement store and a profanity-filled (under my breath, of course) night of assembling it, he had an absolutely awesome Halloween costume.
Use a box and paint it with silver paint - cut to fit torso, cut holes for his arms (you might have to help, but..) For the helmet use an old halloween plastic pumpkin and cut out the hole for the face - again paint it silver or white (spray paint works). Use black duct tape around the edges so they won't be sharp. For boots get black and yellow rainboots. Use a stencil and stencil NASA in appropriate places using blue and red. Get a cheap flag (4th of july) and paste it in an appropriate place for that. Depending on your child's age, you would have to do the spray paint for him, but he could help with the cutting certainly.
That is why I don't use project assignments as grades. It's part of the learning about the content, and sharing in class...but I don't use it as a grade because I can't give a higher grade to a child when it's apparent that the parent did it, and a lower grade to a child who had no assistance at all.
As for the parent doing the homework- I make sure I mention the difference between success with the homework versus class assignments and tests. For example, if the math homework is coming in polished- without one mistake and sometimes not even in the child's handwriting...yet they're struggling in math and failing tests...I sit with the parents and have them compare the tests/classwork with the homework and "try" to figure out the difference. The only one who gets hurt is the student. There's a difference between assisting, and doing.
The funny thing is I never heard of this when my kids were in middle school or high school. Grade school--yep.
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. Last week, my daughter received an assignment that required her to draw pictures under different categories. The directions said "draw it yourself and do your best work." I read the categories and discussed them with her, but she chose what to draw and did it all herself (I actually made an effort to not influence her answers and it was hard to not chime in). This week her friend in another class received the same assignment and the parents posted a pic if it to Facebook and it looked like a scrapbbook project with things cut out perfectly and glued on to create dimension and other elaborate nonsense. I really do not see the point of parents doing this. It is very obvious the kid did not come up with or execute it by himself (if at all). It seems like such a disservice to the kid to be so overly involved in their assignments. Why would it be so important that your 5 year old's simple assignment look a piece of artwork?
I ended up spending quite a bit of time with my children teaching them how to use our county library's website to find age-appropriate resources.
