Parents doing their kids' schoolwork. - Page 2

[Flor]

Originally Posted by aniT

Yea.. we got lazy with DD1. We found one at a craft store that she could put together on her own.

My mom owned a craft store when my brother was in fourth so his was one of those perfect architectural models you were talking about.

Dss's teacher said "no kits." It is so funny that there are companies whose entire job seems to be making supplies for the 4th grade mission project. There is 1/2 an aisle in Michael's dedicated to it. Some of the missions in dss's class had working lights and tiled roofs! Dss made his out of sugar cubes. It did take parent help but he felt like he was doing most of the work.

[SiValleySteph]

I have mixed feelings about this. My sister did a science fair project in 5th grade about the cephalic index of vairious people and my mom made her do everything, including all the math.

My sister was disqualified or marked down (can't remember exactly) at the district science fair because it was said that it couldn't have been done without a parents help.

So you never know ...

[Four&Me]

Originally Posted by aniT View Post "Although I do remember my mom spending HOURS AND HOURS on my brother's mission when he was in the fourth grade. My brother did help...but it wasn't something he could make on his own."

Ha, ha. The famous fourth grade mission project. When dss was in 4th I specifically asked his teacher how much help she expected parents to give because I knew that some of those missions were going to come back looking like perfect architectual models.

eek!! what is a 4th grade mission project??

[Four&Me]

Originally Posted by aniT

What I dislike is when they send projects home that the kids obviously cannot complete. It's like the teacher is giving ME homework. I have four kids.. I don't have time to make meaningless posters because the teacher couldn't assign something more age appropriate.

yes its annoying! i also worry for when they get older and the homework i am supposed to help them with is to complicated for me to do. which at this rate should be about 5th grade..

[aniT]

Originally Posted by Four&Me

eek!! what is a 4th grade mission project??

4th graders in California are assigned one of the state numerous missions. They must do a report on their mission and build a model of it. DD's mission ended up being in SF, an hour away, so we visited it and she got to add pictures of it to her report.

[JustKiya]

And it continues much farther on when it's started so young.... I have a coworker, who did her SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL's homework (I'm talking reading books for book reports, researching stuff online, etc, etc) - and then WONDERED why he did so badly on the ACT's.... :

[imahappymama]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

I'm constantly telling my kids that I'm not going to double check their homework and if they get something wrong it really is OK.

I agree with you. I tell my son the same thing. My 5th grade DS did a poster on his own, to his level. The next day, his teacher called us in and had him do it all over. I helped him with it by doing the lettering and some of the finer detailed work to see if that was what she was looking for. Sure enough, pleased as heck with it...it looks just like the rest of the posters hung up...that were clearly done by parents. It is disheartening to him and very iriitating to me. I have already been to school. I want him to learn, now!

[kmeyrick]

I am now a first grade teacher, but I recently taught library. So many kids are so used to having project done for them that when I was making paper flowers for pete's sake at least ten approached me to make the petals for them.

[Zadee]

My aunt, who was just visiting my mom, actually did her daughter's science project while visiting. No, the daughter was not there. My aunt mailed herself her daughter's science books and did all the research and wrote the report while visiting. I looked at my one-year-olds and said (not within earshot of the aunt, I'm not that snarky) "I hope you two don't expect me to do your 8th grade science project. I did one 8th grade science project and that was enough for one life."

I had a parent yell at me because she had spent two hours researching her daughter's English paper and the topic was too hard. I was thinking, "Your daughter is in AP English. This is supposed to be a college level course. She picked the topic from a list. Yes, it's hard. And why were you doing it for her?"

[Malva]

When my dd was in 2nd grade, her teacher didn’t assign any homework. She was of the opinion that she didn’t have time to waste “grading the parents”. How I miss her!

[meowee]

I am sending my kids to school so that they can make friends and maybe learn a few things, but I'm not going to get in a tizzy about academics. I think homework is, well, a stupid invention. They've got 6+ hours in school, minus about 40 minutes for lunch. My kids' school has no real behavior problems (the main reason I chose it) and strict behavior guidelines, so there isn't a lot of "wasted" time on discipline. So why they heck do they need to send home homework?

So I'm not going to even blink if someone does their child's homework... it's all unnecessary anyway. I would love to banish homework, at least from elementary school!