New to Homeschooling! What is the importance of papers/projects?

[Super Pickle]

Hi! I have been homeschooling my 4th grader for about 6 weeks now. He's learning a lot but I have not had him do any papers, projects, presentation, or other forms of communicating what he has learned. Every day, he does a few exercises in his Singapore Math workbook, we go through some of his Language Arts curriculum, and he practices music. Sometimes he has a writing prompt, and occasionally we do a science experiment. Once that is done, he can read, cook, play with the dog, or whatever. He has a lot of down time before his brother comes home from school. He devours books.

I am wondering if he needs to be doing big projects on his own, like dioramas or posters or research papers. Last year, in third grade at his public school, he had lots of one-page papers based on his reading and one big research paper with an accompanying project. Do you assign projects and have your kids work on them independently? If so, how do you deal with resistance? For example, the other day, DS came in all excited about a book he had just read. I suggested he write a paper on it, and he suddenly broke down and wailed that he wished he had never even read it. I gave in quickly b/c I didn't want to spoil the joy that reading the book had brought him, and I didn't want him to worry about possible assignments in picking books.  

How important do you think it is for elementary school students to be able to present what they have learned in a neat format? I'd appreciate any input anyone may have.

Thanks!

(I should add that I do not plan on homeschooling him forever. This year and maybe next, but eventually he will be going back into school.)

[moominmamma]

For elementary students? Not important at all, unless they're motivated to do so. Projects are mostly about learning to provide clear and tidy proof of engagement in the subject matter and mastery of it. If you live 24/7 with the little person who is engaged and learning, you don't need a project to prove it. You see it, you hear it, you bear witness to it first-hand. 

Projects can also provide a motivation to develop research skills -- if the child is motivated to do the project. If not it can backfire. Research can come to be seen not as a curious and exciting journey into a depth of knowledge about a topic but as a hated school chore. In that case I think there are far better ways to learn good research and critical thinking skills. 

Only one of my four kids ever did project work at an elementary age. My youngest was born with a penchant for poster displays and powerpoints. The other three? Nah. My eldest who never did a project in her unschooled life is now in high school. I won't deny that there was a bit of a learning curve when she had to learn what "create a poster" meant in the context of a school science or geography course. But considering she has completed half of a year-long Canadian History course since December 29th, 2010, with an A average, comprised of 27 small projects and papers, she seems not to have been hampered by her late start with this skill.

Miranda