Fed up with "project" homeworks...

[Canadawet]

...because at then end of the day I am the one having to do them. If I don't my daughter ends up with the lowest mark in the class because the other kids had tons of help from their mum and now she is traumatized by the whole idea. The latest one is a PE project. They have to produce a booklet with the sports clubs available locally during the summer. Our council has a nice PDF ready, I feel like printing it and handing it...

Yes that sounds a wonderful utopia IF your child is co-operative and wants to do the project. Mine screams, shouts, delays, sulks, does the very bare minimum every bloody time. And what do I get in return - parental guilt that I am somehow a lesser parent because I my child doesn't produce half termly works of art or a lengthy thesis on the local wildlife.
Of course I support my child's learning and the school but we're all exhausted by half term and all of us want a break and these projects add nothing but stress. One term it was 2 days late and I had a phonecall from the school asking why we hadn't done it - well because we were away all over the week long holiday - DD was 7 and I was not going to make her work on our holiday.

You can complain about the phone call, that is truly awful, but that's not about the homework, that's the school being stupid about 7year old homework.

No need to feel guilt if you don't do it, just like there's no reason to feel virtuous if your kid loves doing worksheets.

I love the projects but I do have to hold myself back from getting too overly involved in them though as i want my dd to do the majority of the work. I think a termly project is enough for children though. And there needs to be a decent amount of time to complete it. A weeks notice just isn't long enough.

This is cheering me up, I am clearly not the only one feeling this way .

Or secondary school has shared learning for year 7's. That's 8 projects during the year which are marked. The parent has to participate as it may be something like. Read each others favourite book and write a book report (so the parent and kid do seperate reports) I can only assume it's too find out which parents take an interest in schooling and which pupils are going to need help.

We had once on the last day of term with no prior notice 'keep a diary over half term of how much your bean grows along with a flower pot which they had planted with a seedling. I handed that straight back because we had the car all packed and ready to go straight away camping stopping in a different place each night.

So there was no room for the flower pot? My children would have wanted to do that. It is hardly onerous and is interesting for a child who might love Biology later in life, or indeed most children. We even did things like that whenI was at school. I think that was totally down to the child to do and I would never have stopped my child doing that. It really is a shame not to facilitate learning when you did not really have to do anything!

It's a question of "mental load."

As a parent, you have listen to them read, do shoe-lace-tying practice, fit in the bloody swimming lesson, remember to find the times-tables DVD and put it one once a day, get your kid doing chores, find bottle tops for the school fundraising, remember to constantly ask "What time is it?" so that they can practice telling the time, and no matter how much you do, there is always something f*cking else that you should somehow be finding time for.

Another "could you just...." involving a f*cking flower pot would be enough to tip me over the edge when I had been up all night packing a van for a camping trip and getting everyone dressed and toiletted and fed and ready and out of the door.

I love them - a great way to learn together. And I am a full time worker. They don't have to be fancy. It is just about sparking interest and learning to research stuff.

I think if you are freaked out by a flower pot, you have a problem. Lots of parents are busy and pack cars for holidays. It’s hardly a unique experience. If you don’t want to be involved with your children’s education, and find it a never ending chore, then that’s your problem. It certainly shouldn’t affect other children watching a seed grow. Do you not remember growing cress? We all did it. It’s just not a big deal. Parents have always listened to reading, done tables, helped with the PTA, taken bits and bobs into school and many more things. May I recommend boarding schools for your tribe? You could then relax and let others take over and your children wouldn’t have to do chores either! Bliss all round!

Oh don't get me wrong, we do grow things but no absolutely no room for a plant pot. Presumably you haven't been wild camping with a plant pot. Neither of course have I and I didn't plan on hiking up a mountain with three primary school children, food, clothes, camping gear and a plant pot. I am not talking about driving half an hour down the road and putting up a tent for a week, we are talking hundreds of miles and a new location each night. She did do a diary of her trip. Obviously though we would have been better to have sat at home all week measuring bean seedlings! Got to love MN sometimes .

I like the ones where they say that they need to be done by the child - but that if the parent also wants to have a go, they can also enter one bring one in

Seems to stop most of the pushy parents in their tracks from doing it for their dc as it becomes the parent's one and the dc is left with nothing to hand in...