School Projects -- Venting

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-19-2003
School Projects -- Venting
3
Sat, 11-19-2005 - 4:44pm

My daughter has major school projects for her arts area courses that count for 15-20% of their final grade. She's working on one now for English Lit that requires her to read a novel and do comprehensive analysis, creative thinking, visual aids etc etc. The project is a mind-stretcher for sure and has taken hours of effort.

But the reason I'm venting is that oh my gosh it sure requires alot of whip-cracking on my part to keep her focused and on task and give her ideas and inspiration to deal with the components of the project. She's a really great student and her mid term grades were amazing but that's dealing with short essays and nightly homework and tests. When it gets to these large scale projects I have to really push to get her to focus and start and organize herself and most importantly NOT PROCRASTINATE!

Sure I could always just let her struggle through on her own but in the shift from grade school to high school no one ever shows these kids HOW to approach these types of projects. They don't demonstrate how to organize things, how to pace themselves and even how to do what I would describe as basic "project management". So unfortunately that lot falls upon us parents and hopefully once I model this type of approach and behaviour a couple of times she won't need me to do so ongoing.

But boy oh boy does it take alot of effort and I feel for those kids whose parents don't have these skills and can't help their kids learn them!

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-18-2005
Sat, 11-19-2005 - 6:46pm

My DD went through this last year and the year before because she's in a 7-12 school - so they hit those big projects a little earlier. DH and I definitely felt bad for kids whose parents wouldn't know how to help them structure their time to do it 'right'. Some long term projects have intermediate goals and dates, which definitely helps the kids plan. It's still hard for her, but gradually she's gaining the planning skills she needs.

Sue

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-21-2005
Sun, 11-20-2005 - 7:27am
I feel your pain. My dd also needs help to guide her through her projects. She does all the work herself, but I find she needs quite a bit of support. Personally, I think they're giving way too many projects this year. I see the value in doing a few, but sheesh!
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-22-2003
Sun, 11-20-2005 - 3:54pm

You have my sympathy. Seems like my kids have gotten huge 'do at home' projects since grade school that, imo, have taught them little than the fact that mom (or dad) is a nag. We've built missions, made life sized paper mache' models of endangered animals, created 'chocolate factories', etc., etc., Projects that consume weekends, require trips to craft stores for supplies and materials and that use up every last bit of patience on the adult end and result in tears, angry outbursts on the student end, and which ultimately end up in the recycle bin.

DD's HS projects do not seem to be so involved ... yet. However, her homework load seems to be enormous and while she is getting it all done and is getting very good grades, her lack of focus while working and her tendency to get distracted during the process makes me crazy.

I make a concerted effort to get the majority of housework, laundry, shopping and errands done during the week when everyone else is at school/work so that we can have weekends free to play. At least one entire weekend day is taken up by her homework and I'm pretty confident it could be done in about half the time it actually takes her -- in between checking e-mail, seeing who's on im, taking breaks for ???, plucking eyebrows, etc.

I've come to saying something like 'I'd like to see a movie this afternoon. Please have your homework done by XX o'clock so we can all go. I'd hate to leave you behind doing homework.' So far, she's managed to beat the clock when told, but I find that if I don't put a deadline on it for her, she'll take an entire day to accomplish something that could be done in much less time.

I keep thinking that she will eventually get tired of her weekends being consumed with homework, will keep her nose to the grindstone, so to speak, and get whatever it is done as quickly as possible. Hasn't happened yet. But I'm hopeful.

Best of luck to you!