why the f do they set "make a model" homework when they know it's the parents that end up having to do it!? grrrrr!!!

[RedOnHerHedd]

Just that really!!!
Make a model of a

Why????
Just why???

They know the kids version will be a pile of crap, and they know that that one kids parent spends a grand on hobbycraft items and makes a scale version of the Taj Mahal.

And your kid's attempt is 2 yogurt pots and a butter carton glued to a box of coco pops.

Why don't they just tell your kids "ok, so your parents homework this weekend is to make a working model of the international space station, complete with the ability to self orbit around the globe".

Guess what I'll be doing tonight!?
Making a fucking model.
Yet again.

[NeuNewNouveau]

I sympathise, but we have had two free weeks now since the last model that had to be 'historically accurate'. I hate kids homework, I never do it for them but the amount of support some of it takes is ridiculous.

[TheSpottedZebra]

Why not not make it? And leave it to dc? The teachers aren't fools - they'll know who made what.

[SaucyJack]

Erm, get your kid to do their own homework then. Simples.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

[WorraLiberty]

Your kid's attempt shoud be 2 yogurt pots and a butter carton glued to a box of coco pops though.

Until parents stop this nonsense, nothing will ever change. You can't blame the school.

Most kids from the age of about 5 should be able to stick a couple of bits together and chuck some paint at it.

But if the parents won't let them, because someone else is building the Taj Mahal for theirs, they only have themselves to blame really.

[CrownofStars]

I particularly hated this when it was set as a competition and there was some kind of award or prize for the best.

Then the mega-competitive parents spent hours making the most amazing things and won and the kids who worked at it themselves got nothing.

What a shitty life lesson.

[Oysterbabe]

My parents never did my homework and I won't do DD's when the time comes.

[ChoudeBruxelles]

We have one particularly competitive parent in ds's year who last year made a to scale Empire State Building. Ds made one himself out of two cardboard boxes which he then painted. Guess which one was proudly displayed by the teacher?

[RosaliesGinBottle]

My child is far better at models than I am. I supply her with the yoghurt cartons, glue, paint and occasional advice; also nudges to make sure something is done on time. Not a chance am I doing her homework! I didn't even do my own!

[peckforton]

I once got an A* on my sons project I was well chuffed :) I have also had my poem on the classroom wall and read out in assembly. :)

[boredofusername]

I'm with you OP. I'm totally uncreative so if ds had relied on me it really would have been egg-boxes glued together. But I have a creative dh who has "helped" ds with the various model homeworks over the years.

Sadly it doesn't stop at secondary school.

[thecatfromjapan]

My all time favourite was when yr 4 were set homework of making a model hydro-electric power station.

I used to take it upon myself to ensure we, as a family, lowered the bar. Someone had to do it, so my dc nobly took it upon themselves and handed in stunningly crap models they'd made all on their own.

I think there should have been a special prize for such public-spirited actions.

[nocakes]

I am a teacher. Unless my child was actually willing and able to get on and do this themselves, I would not entertain this sort of homework. I would breezily and politely state that I don't have time to make models! End of.

[thecatfromjapan]

Lol @ peckerton.

[FranHastings]

It is always the parent made ones that get rewarded.

Walk round our estate the weekend before deadline and you'll see (mainly) Dads sawing away in their garages.

[goodnightdarthvader1]

So what if it's a crap model? Do you rip up all your kid's drawings from nursery and redo them "better" because kids make crap stuff? It's their homework, make THEM do it. Stop hovering.

[RedOnHerHedd]

I don't do it for them, I support but it takes hours of helping and trying to get things to stick against gravity.

DS has to make a model of something from WWII, so I'm going to suggest an air raid shelter (thinking toilet roll and Earth/moss etc.

[thecatfromjapan]

To be fair, arty families LOVE doing this sort of thing and bond together over it. It's good for building home-school links.

Sadly, we were a family bonded by being quite klutzy, so used to come together in a communal moaning about the horror of such things.

[Callmegeoff]

My Dh is one of those parents!

Over half term Dd12 has had to design and make a pier. Dh was soo excited until she told him to back off!

[TwistyBraStrap]

I just let the kids do it themselves (and encourage them along the way). Less effort on my part

[nancy75]

The first prize for a make something out of junk comp at dds scool one year was given to a full size working bike made mainly out of empty water bottles. Apparently the child that mAde it was in reception. They obviously have a bright future ahead!

[RatOnnaStick]

Ours has been presented as 'Family Challenge' to make a bottle rocket to be set off sometime this week at school. DS doesn't have enough skill or ability for that; he's five, he can't read the instructions yet. So DH did it all and DS put some stickers on at the end.

I am quite sure that approximately half the class don't have an adult with enough wherewithal to make the bloody thing.

[howabout]

YANBU but YABU to help.

A lot of Dads do the morning drop off for our school. They get very crestfallen when their DC trip up and drop said model on the journey to school.

I think model homework may also cause more car drop off congestion.

I also object to model making at school if I am then expected to nurture it home and give it house room.

[Narnia72]

Feel your pain. We've had to design (draw a diagram) of a form of transport and then make it. Year 1.

We talked about it, I explained what a diagram was, as opposed to a picture, and she cut everything out. But normal glue wasn't holding it together, so I had to get the hot glue gun out. I also needed to make the holes in the bottle (googled the design off the internet) so a fair amount of parent intervention. The week before half term we had to make a mountain (Y3). You could see the parents' models a mile off in the playground.

[thecatfromjapan]

Darthvader - I didn't do the models for them - I taught my dc that it was OK to hand in stuff that was a long way short of perfect and to disperse the feeling of 'coming last' with a dose of humour.

You can't be good at everything. You just have to have a go.

That's what I meant by 'taking it upon myself' - I supplied the ideology.

More seriously, primary school projects don't matter. Where it gets annoying is with GCSE coursework. I've sat next to parents gloating about their children carrying essays in (you used to be able to carry 'notes' in, that tutors had written.

Now THAT was annoying.

[thecatfromjapan]

I'm loving these models.

I think the bike is winning.