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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that this is an unsuitable school project?

108 replies

loadofoldcobblers · 21/10/2013 12:28

I've NC for this because of the identifiable details.

DS usually gets a craft project every half term, to be done at home. The usual approach is that they do some drawings in class at the start of the half term, and then are asked to make it at home.

This time, they've been asked to make a shoe.

Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with this. I'm not currently undergoing shoe aversion therapy, and I didn't have a traumatic childhood experience involving a moccasin.

But... DS is only 5 years old (Y1)!

I could understand if he was in a high school design & technology class, where as part of a term project he was asked to make one. But in primary school?

It's not like they gave out pre-drawn templates for the children to colour in & cut out / stick. The parents are just left to work out how to make a shoe.

I we made one yesterday and I'm he's quite pleased with it, but it was such an involved process, and he was so bored by the end. I can't see that I could have made it much easier or quicker, unless he'd done a flip flop like the genius who got in first with that idea

It's parents evening today, so WIBU to mention to the teacher about the suitability of the project for the age group?

OP posts:
ebwy · 21/10/2013 14:14

my nursery age child has been told to make a scarecrow...

which means I made a scare crow, with him "helping" and photos being taken of the "help" in progress, since they want photos AND for us to write about how we did it.

what if we didn't have a printer?

3bunnies · 21/10/2013 14:16

Our 6yr old had to make a medieval village!

ebwy · 21/10/2013 14:17

I'd have given him some funfoam stuff, drawn around his foot, let him cut the bits, attempt to glue them, then got the glue gun out and glued where he told me to until a flipflop was made

NoComet · 21/10/2013 15:02

This is a fine example of blank piece of paper syndrome crossed with parents aren't primary teachers disease.

Unless things like this have been brainstormed in class and the DCs shown some of last years, they are flummoxed.

And as an adult who does have piles of craft stuff, two sewing machines and a lathe, I am tempted not to design things with in the mind set of a 5y old.

DD2 had a similar Y7 weather station one.

Had it been Y5 half term HW, card, straws and coke bottles would have seemed adequate, but for a whole Y7 terms HW?

Nothing she could do in aided looked anything like sufficient.

Yes, my very practical Y11 might go in the shed and make a weather vane, but she is not her over think, what will the others have done, sister.

In the end it became HW for DH (who was ridiculously busy) and me.

NoComet · 21/10/2013 15:04

Fortunately the shoe lunacy they did in class.

HeShouldKnowBetter · 21/10/2013 15:07

dd had to weigh the family for homework a week a two ago. we may have "accidently" misunderstood and submitted the answer in N.

Justforlaughs · 21/10/2013 15:15

Oh dear, I had forgotten these awful craft projects! With 4 children in comp. I thought those days were behind me, but DD2 has just started reception Sad. Ah, well, maybe DD1 will oblige me - she's creative! Grin

Total waste of time tbh. I remember having to make greek temples, roman artifacts, guillotines, siege towers and tribuchets (!!), a room of a 1940s house complete with furniture (all in a shoe box) - that one got taken into school on the wrong day and broken, was asked to redo it Angry, a planet, I'm sure there were others but I'm going to have nightmares tonight!

NoComet · 21/10/2013 15:20

N being newtons I presume. That's the sort of mischief DH tries to get away with and which causes DD2 to detonate!

thebody · 21/10/2013 15:28

what's wrong with sitting around and watching the xfactor. the larger swilling is wrong as we like wine.

these holiday homework tasks are a pita. kids need a break. parents need a break from homework too.
if homework is being set for a child that is clearly beyond their capability then there's no bloody point to doing it.

I would say we are in holiday and so won't have time.

GoEasyPudding · 21/10/2013 16:15

I recall being around 8 years old and the weekend craft project was set to make a Christmas decoration for the local old peoples home.

I did my best with what we had in the house, empty loo rolls, and Xmas wrap, making a set of Christmas candles. There were no craft things in our house! I had no help at all from my parents.

On Monday I remember not understanding how my pals had made such amazing decorations, of course those things had been made by their parents and given a creative boost by craft supplies and or actual shop bought decoration pieces.

The horrible thing was I was told off by the teacher up in front of the class for making such a poor effort. I was actually quite devastated.

My Mum took me to Woolworths, bought a few things, left them in the Woollies bag and gave them to the teacher.

I do hope that shamed that horrible teacher adequately.

AbiRoad · 21/10/2013 17:06

My DTDs' old school had this habit. My approach would be to help them "brainstorm" ideas at the start (eg in the case of your project that would involve running through different types of shoes, materials etc), get together materials and then leave them to it (with maybe a little help with cutting things etc). So somewhere in the middle. One time the teacher remarked that their work was too similar. I was a bit miffed by that - it is not like I am going to separate them to do it, so of course some of the ideas they like are the same. Made worse by the fact that at least 2 girls in the class just brought in something their elder sibling had done a couple of years before (or close copy) and not a word was said about that! And the fact that they would often bring craft projects home from school which bore a striking similarilty (so fine to produce similar stuff on teacher's watch but not mine!)

WetGrass · 21/10/2013 17:12

Ha - that reminds me of the 'cake decorating' competition at DS school!

We brought in cupcakes with wobbly icing, weird marzipan monsters etc.

Some of the others used ready-made cupcake toppers (the really expensive ones you generally have to mailorder - a perfect rose, a red racing car etc made out of sugar).

DS was Confused - "how did they make that "????

VikingLady · 21/10/2013 17:51

See, I'd not do it and send in a note saying I'd been too busy watching Jeremy Kyle. But I'm quite unhappy about homework anyway!

Justforlaughs · 21/10/2013 17:53

Jeremy Kyle?? Come on viking at least be honest and say that you were too busy on mumsnet! Grin

Alexandrite · 21/10/2013 18:53

One of my old school friends wrote on Facebook that she was recycling an older sibling's school project from a couple of years earlier. She is actually a teacher herself! I thought it was actually quite a good idea!

Alexandrite · 21/10/2013 18:57

When I say recycling i mean that she was reusing it for a younger sibling

Mollydoggerson · 21/10/2013 19:00

Hmm I would like a shoe cake or to make loads of buns and line them up in the shape of the shoe, accompanied by loads of photos of us eating the shoe! helpful? (probably not - hey ho, off I go).

TheDoctrineOfSpike · 21/10/2013 19:03

I don't have a glue gun, or fun foam.

Trigglesx · 21/10/2013 19:21

Sandal. Cardboard sole and string. Grin

Either that or tell them that you left the materials out overnight, but that the elves are apparently on strike right now. Hmm

VikingLady · 21/10/2013 19:22

Justforlaughs That would be true, but for full judginess from the teacher, Jezza wins, I reckon.

Or I'd send him in with an old shoe.

Alexandrite · 21/10/2013 20:33

How about "Ds was unable to do his project as he was too busy playing Grand Theft Auto"

Original poster
loadofoldcobblers · 21/10/2013 21:04

molly we could have made some choux buns, and claimed to have misheard.... Grin

OP posts:
nancy75 · 21/10/2013 21:10

by the end of infants i dd had made a town house from london in the 1600's (2 in fact, because 1 was set alight in order to recreate the great fire of london), a 3d fishtank, an island and a light house that had to actually light up! if the teachers believe she made any of it they are dafter than they look!

NoComet · 22/10/2013 01:05

DD1's teacher showed my V2 rocket to the the other two history teachers because they normally get V1s.

This is very annoying as DD2 probably can't re use it.

SoupDragon · 22/10/2013 07:54

if the teachers believe she made any of it they are dafter than they look!

Oh, they don't. They can tell when a parent has done their child's homework for them and probably laugh about the worst examples in the staff room.