katie allison granju

How about a project relating to Food Science? Have something mold in a controlled environment? Or bake break and let them experiment with different levening techniques, carbon dioxide, air etc. They can eat the results, or pass out samples as part of their display.

Dear Nobody,
I can tell from your reply that you do not have school age kids.

Naturally children are “supposed” to do projects on their own. However that is not the reality.

I also agree with “nobody.” Our boys just finished their project (which they did together). They got no help from me at all. Now, I hate homework as much as Katie does, and I particularly loathe the science fair. And it’s perfectly true that a lot of parents do the projects for the kids. But inasmuch as their IS homework, it’s not my job to do it and I certainly have plenty of other things to do. Just because some parents do it is no reason for the rest of us to.

FYI as a teacher, I knew how much parents “helped,” as do most teachers. We truly appreciate the kids whose parents don’t do the work for them, and whose work is age-appropriate, for the kid, that is! I don’t feel guity about not doing the work or improving on my kids’ work. We talk about how some parents feel the need to do the work for their kids, as well as how that doesn’t help the kids in the end. My kids feel good about the work they do, and they know that THEY did it.

Of course I meant self-reliance in the children.

I also think it depends on the child. My son, now in the sixth grade, needed more monitoring and coaxing with his homework than some of his classmates. And, as is the trend, some of his homework cried out for adult involvement. It was simply beyond their years. But I always saw myself as the guide, and I regularly reminded him that scholars work independently.

Things really came together this year for him — including with the science project. It’s a huge relief for me!

Jenny I disagree COMPLETELY. My children have had many times they COULD NOT do their homework without help. That does not mean we did it for them; but if you don’t help them how are they going to get it completed? It is no possible to call teachers at home, most are huffy. It is also a very real possibility that a teacher does not explain the topic well and your child needs assistance. I am a teacher and I HATE homework. However it has been something we’ve had to help with along the way. There are also project that have come home that were labelled PARENT AND CHILD PROJECTS, therefore not helping would be wrong. I think it is a parent’s job to monitor that homework gets completed, help if you can, but not do it for them.

Jenny,
My son’s math curriculum, out of the University of Chicago, required family involvement. The science fair folks expect adult involvement, too, though less and less each year. Oh, and English and Social Studies teachers request that students type up their papers before they’ve mastered keyboarding.
The trick for me has been to support my son, even when I disagree with the amount of adult involvement that teachers expect with an assignment, while trying to teach him to be independent. It’s a balancing act.
I’m curious about homework in other countries. Japan is famously competitive. Maybe the school day is 10 hours long?

If Japan is so great why do so many young people commit suicide because of academic pressure and fear of failure? Second, i am with the people who don’t help their kids. Yes I have helped a first or second grader..you have to. My youngest especially gets frustrated and melts down unless you are helping him every step of the way, especially with reading related activities. (first grade)Once they are capable of it on their own though, other than shopping expeditions for supplies and practical advice (how to spray paint a volcano most effectively for example) or the occasional suggestion, I have never helped with projects. well once I did. I forget the project but I seem to remember it involved cutting a hard plastic box with an exacto knife (don’t ask) and there is NO WAY I was going to let my then fifth grader do that herself.She told me where to cut though and actually didn’t want me to because she said it would be cheating because it was supposed to be their work. I replied that i had no problem telling her teacher that I cut the plastic for her and that I was quite certain her teachers would be glad that I did not leave her alone to slice off her own fingers in the name of self sufficiency.
As for homework itself..I think it serves a purpose which is not necessarily the same as the work at school. I think homework teaches kids how to work without the teacher breathing down their neck, time management, prioritizing, responsibility (it is a lot more tempting to play than do homework than it is to not do something in class..I mean what would you do instead of the in class math worksheet…count the ceiling tiles?) What of the kid who has never had homework when they get to college alone and unsupervised and have significant out of class work to do for the first time in their lives? that said, what is a problem is EXCESS homework. my kids went to a private school until last year. That school was very respectful of not overloading kids with too much homework as they recognized that kids have a life besides school. My oldest is in a public high school now(the private school ends at eighth grade) and honestly, she has less work than she had in younger grades at the private school. There is however, a public charter school in our town which is very academically “challenging’ the homework is a killer and a lot of very bright kids revert back to the public high school because it is just too much. It is a shame they are deprived of an intellectually stimulating environment because that school confuses “advanced college prep” with trying to ensure that a kids life revolves around academics every waking moment of the day. I have heard stories of six hours a night of homework although I believe it has subsided some thanks to parental pressures. honestly that is why my very bright daughter decided against the charter school although several of her teachers thought she would be bored at the regular public high school. It was the unbelievable homework load. So now she has a couple of AP classes in the public school. Due to school safety issues I honestly wish she was at the charter school, but it was her choice and there was no way I was going to poison her against learning by insisting that she go to a school with upwards of three to four hours of homework per night. I think there is a happy medium and it would behoove schools to find that.

Let’s see … I put the due dates and the work dates we had available on my calendar; spent time talking to him about what he wanted to do and what supplies he would need; looked to see what we already had; discussed why he would want more of the same in a different color; made the list when he was 5 before he could write, but let him write it when he was 6 and up; drove him to the school supply store; went through the aisles with him when he was 5 and had never done this before, but let him go through the aisles with the cart on his own when he was 6 and up, and looked at things I wanted to look at while he shopped; went through what he had picked out and talked about whether he needed anything else; went through the checkout, paid for it all, helped him load it in the car, drove home, and helped him lug it all in; helped him clear off the dining room table or move the dining room table and clear a space on the floor, whichever he preferred; helped him find web sites and magazines when he was 5, let him do it on his own when he was 6 and up, but still answered questions; stayed in the room with him when he was 5, stayed nearby when he was 6 or 7, and did what I wanted in another part of the house when he was older; penciled labels for him to trace when he as 5 but let him write them when he was 6 and up; placed his gluey cutouts on the poster board when he was 5, but let him have the joy of doing it when he was 6 and up; helped him lug encyclopedias to flatten the gluey cutouts when he was finished or reminded him to do it; helped him lug them back and alphabetize them when we were done with them or reminded him to do it; helped him lug out the vacuum cleaner or at least reminded him to throw away trash and vacuum; stored leftover supplies where we could find them for the next project so we wouldn’t have to go out and buy more, or reminded him to do it. Yeah, I think I might have spent my few free weekday evenings or Saturdays being available for the kid projects. I was glad when he decided to transfer to a school with no homework or projects.

There may not be a hotline, but there’s help online:

http://www.scienceproject.com/

I still remember my one and only science fair project. I guess when I was growing up it was optional instead of required. I took samples of various wines and beer to see if the stated percent alcohol on the label was correct. Basically I made a still out of the lab equipment. I am sure this wouldn’t be acceptable today but I thought it was pretty funny then. My original title (vetoed by the science teacher) was “boozing it up: how much alcohol does your favorite wine and beer REALLY have????” I had to change it to something completely stupid and tame. Anyway, it was a smashing success until I tried the distilling process with the beer. I hadn’t thought about the effect of the carbonation and my little miniature still blew to smithereens. Then I had to clean up all those little itty bitty pieces of glass by hand.