Projects of 20 pages length? Is this the norm? FFS my essays at uni were shorter than that!

[emkana]

A friend was telling me about her dd's school project today. This child is 9 FFS!!! She's written 20 pages on various aspects of Victorian life and it's taken her weeks. I DON'T WANT ALL THIS TO COME!

Actually, a 20 page project for a 9yr old seems reasonable to me.

BUT, unlike an essay, it wont be 20 pages of text. At that age they are given guidance as to what to include; contents list, text, diagrams, annotated drawings, comparison tables (in the case of Victorians this could be differences between rich and poor such as housing, education etc)

A topic project for this age usually takes place over an entire term and is designed to consolidate the work studied in class.

IME, they love it.

But when is there the time to just chill out, what with school and after school clubs and and and...

I'm sure that not all the children in the class did 20 page projects - I suspect you only heard about it because your friend's DD did so much.

My dd's project on the Tudors was about this long but as is was done over a whole term it didn't stress her out at all. One of the pages was a picture and one an index, she quite enjoyed it, plus she didn't have to have all a4 sides filled with writting, she did lots of little diagrams and pics.

DS1(9) had to do a project on rivers earlier this term. They were given a month to do it and weren't given any other literacy homework in that time (though they still got spellings and maths). They were allowed to choose any river and as a guide were told to write a minimum of 10 and maximum of 20 pages.

DS1 did a front cover (drawing), contents, and then 5 or 6 sub-sections dotted with his own illustrations and pictures that he'd printed out from the computer. Fortunately he has large untidy writing so 10 pages were easily filled up like that! I pity the children with small, neat writing.

Ds (8)had to put together a fact file on Italy a few weeks ago. He only had 1 weekend to do it, so it was quite a shock when he got his homework out on Sunday morning

He did a A5 (half of A4?) booklet consisting of 10 pages. Drawing on front cover, index page, and then numbered pages of facts, we started a new fact on each page.
It was a mammoth task, and yes he did earn 8 housepoints for it, but it took an entire Sunday and that was with dh and I helping him.

I personally thought it was a bit much for a weekend.

just bumping this because I'm interested in more experiences

At our school they do a project on some aspect of 20th Century life in year 6. They have a term to do it and there is no specified legnth. They then have to present it to the class. Most of them really enjoyed it - and the TAs and class room volunteers helped the ones who were struggling a bit. One of the most useful things they did in year 6 in my opinion.

Doesn't sound too out of line.

I'm assuming that the 20 pages was the child's choice rather than something she had to do, and that it has taken her weeks because she was given weeks in which to do it.

Oh joy, DS2 and DS3 are just finishing off their projects on Victorian life.

They've had to do some at home, and some in school. DS2 (11) has really struggled and needed a lot of encouragement(from DH thankfully). DS3 (9) has done his pretty much by himself.

One girl seems to have done way more than the rest of the class, but this particular child (who is lovely) does far more than anybody else on almost everything.