So here we go again....faced with the decision to let my kid do their own work, or do it for them.
First of all, I thought most parents let their kids do their own assignments. So when Taylor was in kindergarten, they sent home the cut-out of a turkey, and their instructions were to "disguise" the turkey. Taylor slapped some feathers and such on hers, it clearly looked like kindergarten work, but it was her own creativity.
So later I was up at the school, and I saw all of the other kids' turkeys. These turkeys were CLEARLY not done by kindergartners! This was elaborate and detailed work that not even Doogie Howser could not have done as a kindergartner.
Taylor's little turkey stood out like a sore thumb. And so began the battle of letting my kid be herself and do her own work...and certainly be encouraged to do the best that she can do! But in that, possibly not having the snazziest turkey (or pumpkins, or snowmen, whatever the theme is) in the class.
And so this afternoon, now with Annika as the kindergartner, we stared at Mr. Turkey again. We gathered ideas and supplies....and she went to work. And she'll carry her turkey in tomorrow and hang it on the wall in between Tom the Creative Memories turkey, and Sam of Stampin' Up Turkeys Are Us. And I just pray that she'll have pride in her work, because she did it all by herself, and she did her best.
And I hope all of the other turkeys get eaten up for Thanksgiving dinner.
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2 comments:
I hear ya! Jonah made his like a Frankenstein :) He did it though. My neighbor showed me the one that her 2nd grader did in Kinder and it was GREAT! and of course mom did it. Oh well... I did my work, now it is time for Jonah to do his :) Of course I did struggle on how to do the Frankenstein but once we had the stuff he did it.
Post a pic of Annika's :)
You go girl.....don't fall for the "i don't want my kid to feel 'less than' just because all the other kid's mom's do their homework for them" syndrome. Grayson had a set of twins in his 5th grade class and they openly bragged about their dad doing all their projects for them. Grayson was irritated and knew it wasn't "fair" but, in the end, he knew that he had to feel better about himself than those boys did (on a side note, they're total losers in high school now). You have a great opportunity to teach them about honesty, integrity, independence and what it feels like to accomplish something all by yourself, with NO HELP from Mom!! That's so much more empowering than doing it for them (which teaches them that they aren't capable of doing it without you). Those other kids won't know how to do anything on their own as they get older!!!
Anyway, I know I'm preachin' to the choir. You're a great Mom!! Hopefully, the teacher is recognizing what's going on too and grading accordingly :-)
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