Hellobee Boards

@Jennibenni: oh HELL no lol! I would be so annoyed. I remember when DS was 2 and the daycare wanted an "all about me" poster. I printed out photos and also got out the stickers and let him go to town all over it. When I saw other finished products they were mostly printed photo collages done on a computer - I could have easily done that!

I would be irked, but I would've done the same as you. It's their project and I'd only help if needed.

Same as what everyone else said. I’ve only tried to do maybe 3 Pinterest-y things as a project to display at home or give as a gift and my kids HATED it. They love to get creative and do their own thing. Thus far they haven’t cared if their projects are less polished than anyone else’s, but if they said something I would explain that so and so’s parents probably helped them on it, but that the assignment was meant for the children, and I’m so proud of her for doing it on her own, and love her creativity.

This is a pet peeve of mine as an K-8 teacher. Homework is for STUDENTS, not for parents. Also, research shows that the benefits of homework (even projects) is questionable in K-2....
I even don't love the idea of "family projects" - my family already IS a project! As if I don't have enough sh!t to do as a working mom.

@Jennibenni: I might be that uppity teacher-mom who writes a nice letter along the lines of "Our family will not be doing the homework. We will instead play, laugh, talk, do chores, eat together, and go to bed at a decent hour. We will ask and answer questions, and have enriching experiences. If you have any questions about our homework philosophy, please ask."

But that's a fine line to tread when you also want to teach your kids to respect their teacher; and when you want a reservoir of goodwill with the teacher.

It depends on the project. We've only had 2-3 and they've always been what has to be a parent-involved project. So I let my kids take the lead with brainstorming options, and they get to pick what we do. Then, if they need help gathering supplies or drawing a particular thing, I help. And they do the age appropriate parts, like coloring or painting.

My 6 year old is very opinionated, so I could never fully do a project for her anyway. But she's also very creative and imaginative, which is a nice way of saying that sometimes she dreams up projects that are totally impossible or require supplies that I'm just not going to attempt to source. So we definitely collaborate.

Ex: She had to build an animal habitat last year, and she wanted to do a certain type of shark. That was fine with me. We brainstormed ideas for the environment and for the shark itself. She wanted a glass or clear box, actually filled with water, with a shark on some type of string/fishing line that could be moved back and forth in the box. I said that was a GREAT IDEA, but we needed to do something with supplies we could easily get on hand, so we instead used a shoebox that we painted greens and blues, and we used leftover birthday decorations (she'd had a mermaid party the year before, so I still had some "under the sea" stuff), and we made the shark from the cardboard of an old amazon box and painted it, etc. She did all the painting, I gathered the supplies. My husband cut out the shark (cutting cardboard is hard for a 5 year old, go figure), and DD hotglued the leftover birthday decorations with my help.

As she gets older and can handle hot glue and cutting thick cardboard by herself, then she can finish projects totally alone. But for now, we work on it together.

@Grace: I don't have that issue at all and never have. I work in a 100% free lunch school, with about 1/3 of my parents only speaking Spanish. Very, very few helicoptering parents! On the downside, some parents are impossible to get ahold of.

@DesertDreams88: yes, this!!! i am a working parent. if you are giving my child an assignment that they can't complete without help, then it is not age appropriate, and it shouldn't be assigned! we are looking at a variety of schools for next year and this is a really critical issue for me, but not sure how to raise/ask it without sounding like a whiner.

If she had to decorate a pumpkin, I might ask her if she wanted to use painter's tape to outline areas to be painted as eyes, etc. That's all.

DS is in grade 1 and hasn’t had any projects yet. But when he does he can do them. They are his homework, not mine. Of course I’ll help if needed and wanted.