My eldest kid recently participated in her first Science project. She didn’t win, and was rather upset about it.
I explained of course that she cannot win them all, and what she needs to do, is take a look at what others have done, compared to hers and determine what she could do better next time.
We went to a viewing to see the winners.
I wasn’t sure we were in the proper building, then I thought there was some mistake, and her project had been placed with the grade 5 projects instead of the grade 1’s.
I was SHOCKED to see the level sophistication that these grade 1 (ONE!) projects had. I started reading them and started to get suspicious right away. The language. There is no way that a grade one kid wrote over half of what I saw. I saw very well designed, very well put together presentations. Double matted pictures, colored graphs, charts and really complex questions and answers.There was even a power point presentation. Seriously. POWER FUCKING POINT.
Show me a grade one kid that could design and set up a damn power point presentation.
To say that Morgans looked juvenile sitting amongst these shining stars would be an understatement. Oh sure, there were a few other projects that looked pretty much like Morgans, none of them won either.
These events, they are NOT judged by teachers, they are people from the community, I’m guessing either they never had kids, don’t have kids yet or their kids are in university and have completely FORGOTTEN what its like to have a grade one kid.
Morgan made a volcano. Original I know, but it was all about the volcanic eruption for her. After she created her volcano, I told her that she had to also teach people something about volcanos. So, I asked her what are the most important things to know about volcanos? We came up with, “What is a Volcano?” “Where are Volcanos found?” “Why do Volcanos erupt?” “What is Lava?” and I can’t remember the last one.
We researched it, found the answers and then I asked her those questions again and wrote down her answers verbatim.
She copied it onto white paper, cut them out and taped them haphazardly to construction paper.
Surprisingly, it looked like a grade 1 kid did it.
I’m proud of her though, and told her as much. I didn’t tell her what I firmly beleive about those other projects, because there is no point. I simply told her that there were some really neat ideas, and maybe she should think about the cool question she can ask and answer next year.
Developing a strong work ethic starts early. Those parents are teaching their kids nothing by doing the work for them.
Yeah, my kid will get the last laugh when she makes it through university without mommy and daddy doing her work for her.
I had a similar thing last year – OK so it was only nursery so he was 4 but the kiddo and I spent a lovely afternoon making a haphazard Easter bonnet and when I saw the parade the others were clearly not made by the kids. The kiddo put so much effort into his, even though it was a bit messy when he’d finished, and was really quite upset that his didn’t even get a look-in.
I’m right there w/ you. Zoe had to make a bag for her valentines. I helped her pick stuff & lay it out but she had to do the work. It’s gorgeous
I was a little worried it looked too much like I’d done a lot of it then she tells me two boys in class made robots and they won the prize. Two robots? Sound like it might have been on Martha or something. I wonder how much of the work they did.
I can’t imagine science projects at this age. I can say that if I were a judge, I’d disqualify any entry that didn’t seem grade-appropriate. But I’m a hardass.
UGH. What kind of message are parents sending to their kids if they do their work for them? It seems so undermining, like “Let someone handle this for you, you’ll just mess it up.”
Jenni & Steph- Doesn’t that blow? I remember when Morgan was in preschool, there were a few other moms that would do these elaborate thank you gifts for the teachers, and when they had kids parties it was something else! Made me feel inadequate, but then I thought, who are they trying to impress?
Kelly- Exactly! What if FSM forbid, my husband and I die in an accident shortly after the last leaves home – THEN what? I want them to be independent.