If you have an elementary school child (or you can think hypothetically), do you have an opinion about the usefulness of take home projects. Think Science Fair or Hundred Day projects. Do you like them? Do you find them to be good opportunities to work with your child? Bond? Or are they a pain and you just hurry up and finish them to finish them?
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Science fair type projects would be okay. I'm really annoyed with things like 100-day projects though. It's really homework for the parents.
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I don't mind them, it's something fun to do with LO.
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I don't mind them - they are few and far between
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I don't mind them - LO has "homework" sometimes (was weekly but they are slacking on it now lol) and it only takes less than 10 minutes to do and is something fun to do together.
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I found the 100 day projects to be a waste of time. We had to do it in preschool, but our elementary school doesn't do them (yay).
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I think these are two different categories.
A science fair project can be used as project based learning with graphs and reports and presentations etc. Great for diving in deep on a single topic over time.
100 day celebration isn't homework. Yes its fun to celebrate but yes its just more work for the parent to create something to send in. To me this is no different than PJ day or silly hat day.
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I don't mind!
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I find them annoying, and my kids aren't in elementary yet! As a working mom, I'd rather do something else together than a school project. Lol. I teach middle school and have the kids do most of their project work during class otherwise mommy and daddy do it for them.
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My kid is only 22 months so I guess my perspective is from my own memory - I thought they were fun and a good opportunity to get creative and learn how to research, but there were definitely way too many. It was a huge burden to get them all done in addition to regular homework. My sister and I did them all on our own, no parental assistance ever (except purchasing materials). As a parent I do not think I would be happy about a project that required my help. I don't need homework, I finished school thanks.
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As a mom with a full time job, I am dreading projects like this. I will be totally screwed if they require me to shop for supplies and I don't have at least one weekend to make it happen. And if that weekend happens to be one that is already busy with plans, I will just fail.
Amazon Prime is my friend. And I think I will continue to have a nanny / sitter in the afternoons rather than use aftercare, even when my son is in elementary school. So, maybe that person can run some errands for me.
I am going to be pretty annoyed if things like projects and homework cut too much into our family time. I think that is just as, if not more, important than academic projects for early elementary school. Once kids are old enough to learn about time management, then I think homework has more value.
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I'm not a fan of takenhome work of any kind. I'm a WOHM with a sizable commute. I really don't want kids' projects that turn into homework for me. I've never heard of a 100 day project before but sounds like a nightmare to me. I'd honestly probably complain to the teacher and refuse to do something too time intensive.
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I like the projects. Especially when they give me time to make a plan to complete them. I think parents with multiple kids at the same school with similar project deadlines might have a hard time though. It gives parents another way to be involved and learn about their child's development and progress at varying stages and tasks.
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My son is in elementary school and we haven't had any projects yet. He has homework every day, but that's manageable. I don't know how I would feel about a longer term project (that I have to oversee).
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Maybe I'm just remembering things differently but aren't projects normally age appropriate and the student is expected to complete them on their own?
That being said as long as they're not too time intensive I wouldn't mind something my lo needs some help with, sounds like a way to be involved (which my parents weren't really with my schooling ; and I did really well so I guess they didn't need to be involved!)
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Thought I would post some examples:
-100 day of school
-All About MeIn Kindergarten they didn't have any take home projects but this was the 2 (only 2) DS had in 1st grade - he did them COMPLETELY on his own (I printed the picture but he cut it out and glued it)
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@Mamaof2: Love all of his responses!! Adorable. LO has her 100th day celebration today. She is wearing a crown sectioned into 10 different parts with 10 items in each. It was a parent/child home lesson and was to be completed together. I thought it would take days but LO was super excited and knocked it out in one afternoon. We get these projects twice a year. ( It used to be four times a year.) I think my strategy going forward is to do it as close to when the teacher first assigns it while the excitement is still high and absence of dread.
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@Mamaof2: Oh those are interesting, I don't mind those, if it's fill in the blanks.
My son is in kindergarten, and there have been two posters to complete so far. One is the standard "all about me" one and the other was a country specific one. For both, the teacher sent home a one pager on some ideas as a jumping off point. The other two take home projects have been to decorate a hidden turkey and a snowman however you want, the construction paper backgrounds were sent home for those as well.
I look at it like this, at some point, my son has to learn how to put these projects together. He doesn't know that poster board exists, so it's my responsibility to show him what is available and help guide him. As an example, when we did the culture poster, we went to the store and looked at the different sheets that were available, he picked out some stick on letters and we made a plan of what to do. How else is he supposed to learn how to put these things together? We always have enough advance notice (at least a weekend in between assignment and due date) to complete and we all kind of do it together.
In the future, my involvement will decrease, but for now, it's totally manageable.
Now, take home work from daycare, I didn't bother with that at all.
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@looch: Oh that dang hidden turkey caused a big issue at our house. She didn't really understand the assignment but already had an idea in her mind. She wouldn't listen to me at all and I finally just had to let her do her thing.
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@T.H.O.U.: Yes and I think that is bound to happen. You want the child to have ownership but when they misunderstand it is tough-sometimes only the teacher can correct them!
Here is the crown in progress I didn't take pics with it on yet and already sent it to school last week. I hope it survives the party today. I didn't know where my ruler was so I had to measure it by eye and it was a pain! Plus remember to leave a space to staple that fits LOs head size.
When I assign my projects for my upper elementary class, I give the parents a (debrief/reconciliation) reflection page. LOL. They state who helped, how it was made, what was most challenging, and how it could be improved etc. -
@T.H.O.U.: Haha! My son didn't get it either. He thought he had to cover the outline with something at first, but eventually, after I printed out a ton of practice sheets, he settled on coloring it in like SpongeBob. You gotta do what you gotta do with those things, you know?
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@808love: oh I love that!
DD did her 100 day hat during the school day -
@looch: Hahah!! That is totally relinquishing ownership! Nice! @Mamaof2: I am not so crafty myself so I am getting an education too. A second chance, if you will.
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@808love: My son came home with a 100 days book. Then he had this baggie of cereal pieces and he told me he was supposed to glue them on to a page in the book and I just tossed it in the garbage, lol.
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@looch: Agreed!! Cereal doesn't belong in books!! What are they teaching them these days? LOL! Proactive parenting at its finest!
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I don't mind if they are age appropriate and few and far between. One "project" that both LOs old daycare AND her current Pre-k program have done was totally useless. They sent home a black outline of a flag with the instructions to color the flag of their family's "background". I get that teachers are just trying to get to know students, learn about their parents so they can maybe relate to them better (I have previously worked in a school district that was super diverse and I had students from Eritrea, Cote D' ivoire, Guatemala....it can be helpful to know country of origin)...BUT my kid was 2 and 3 when she got this same assignment. What 2 or 3 year old can color a flag that will in any way resemble a real flag. Not to mention my husband and I grew up in two different countries. And my husband's home country flag is fairly complicated!
So both time, I ended up drawing the stupid thing (I am not an artist), and coloring most of it, and having LO "help" scribble in a few places. But dude, both times that took me about an hour and that's ridiculous and not age appropriate.
When I assign my projects for my upper elementary class, I give the parents a (debrief/reconciliation) reflection page. LOL. They state who helped, how it was made, what was most challenging, and how it could be improved etc. Reply
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25 comments