Is this common now? Preschooler projects done by the parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love all the people chiming in with their stories of upper elementary kids and middle schoolers.

We’re discussing preschool projects. And yes, I did need to assist my 3-year-old in ordering photo prints from Walgreens for his family tree project. Quelle horreur.

Same. We always had an "all about me" poster due in preschool which of course required parental help. It was billed as a "family project". My only gripe is when the poster board came home on a Friday and was due Monday. I wanted a little more heads up to be able to order the prints in time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love all the people chiming in with their stories of upper elementary kids and middle schoolers.

We’re discussing preschool projects. And yes, I did need to assist my 3-year-old in ordering photo prints from Walgreens for his family tree project. Quelle horreur.

Did the project specify photos or were you helicopter parenting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love all the people chiming in with their stories of upper elementary kids and middle schoolers.

We’re discussing preschool projects. And yes, I did need to assist my 3-year-old in ordering photo prints from Walgreens for his family tree project. Quelle horreur.

Did the project specify photos or were you helicopter parenting?

Lol. Because the preschool family tree project was supposed to be independently hand-written by all the 3 year olds?

Yes, genius, the project specified photos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love all the people chiming in with their stories of upper elementary kids and middle schoolers.

We’re discussing preschool projects. And yes, I did need to assist my 3-year-old in ordering photo prints from Walgreens for his family tree project. Quelle horreur.

Did the project specify photos or were you helicopter parenting?

NP here, our preschool had a family tree project that specified photos. I was pissed. Preschool is childcare for me (yes this was full day) and I do not need another project in our limited time at home, nor do I keep physical photos around. DD also had to do a shoebox diorama if a room in the house, etc. It's a real balance between getting DD involved, and just doing it so it's done and DD isn't the only kid with nothing to turn in. So glad we left that program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love all the people chiming in with their stories of upper elementary kids and middle schoolers.

We’re discussing preschool projects. And yes, I did need to assist my 3-year-old in ordering photo prints from Walgreens for his family tree project. Quelle horreur.

Did the project specify photos or were you helicopter parenting?

Lol. Because the preschool family tree project was supposed to be independently hand-written by all the 3 year olds?

Yes, genius, the project specified photos.

Kid can draw pictures. Writing doesn't take much time. I would bet a million dollars it said "pictures" and not "printed photographs". But you do you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love all the people chiming in with their stories of upper elementary kids and middle schoolers.

We’re discussing preschool projects. And yes, I did need to assist my 3-year-old in ordering photo prints from Walgreens for his family tree project. Quelle horreur.

Did the project specify photos or were you helicopter parenting?

NP here, our preschool had a family tree project that specified photos. I was pissed. Preschool is childcare for me (yes this was full day) and I do not need another project in our limited time at home, nor do I keep physical photos around. DD also had to do a shoebox diorama if a room in the house, etc. It's a real balance between getting DD involved, and just doing it so it's done and DD isn't the only kid with nothing to turn in. So glad we left that program.

I'm surprised they would do family trees at all nowadays with so many fatherless families and other points of awkwardness. I wonder if these are clueless boomer teachers.

[Anonymous]

Does it even matter? It's not like PK grades matter (or exist? my preschooler doesn't get a grade) so it's not like a parent who does a project like this for their kid is helping them in any way.

This is very much an example of something it's not worth worrying about because as long as your kid is learning and having fun, you win. I guess some parents care about bragging rights at this age but it's pointless if they aren't even doing the work themselves, right? Like go ahead and brag about your kids amazing diorama that you did yourself, it's actually really sad because it's amazing for a 4 year old and pretty mediocre for a 37 year old. So.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love all the people chiming in with their stories of upper elementary kids and middle schoolers.

We’re discussing preschool projects. And yes, I did need to assist my 3-year-old in ordering photo prints from Walgreens for his family tree project. Quelle horreur.

Did the project specify photos or were you helicopter parenting?

NP here, our preschool had a family tree project that specified photos. I was pissed. Preschool is childcare for me (yes this was full day) and I do not need another project in our limited time at home, nor do I keep physical photos around. DD also had to do a shoebox diorama if a room in the house, etc. It's a real balance between getting DD involved, and just doing it so it's done and DD isn't the only kid with nothing to turn in. So glad we left that program.

I'm surprised they would do family trees at all nowadays with so many fatherless families and other points of awkwardness. I wonder if these are clueless boomer teachers.

We have an open adoption. We put our family and the birth family as we are all very close and the teacher in elementary got annoyed as the kids had to present it and she said it would be too confusing to other kids. Not my problem.

[Anonymous]

You bet I did them for my four year old with fine motor coordination issues who couldn’t really hold a pencil or scissors at that point, and never liked to draw or paint. I never did them perfectly, and let him do what he could, but I didn’t send my kid to preschool for homework, which isn’t developmentally appropriate in the first place. If they really wanted something done only by the kid, they should have done it at school in the first place. One of ours was a “science fair” project. I turned it into a magic trick where I sent in a bottle of blue water, a bottle of yellow water (food dye) and some empty bottles. Wrote the instructions on posterboard. It truly was the bare minimum.

But for parents, just buy a carton of posterboard, and always have glue, markers, and construction paper at home. You WILL get the near overnight projects coming home through at least middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love all the people chiming in with their stories of upper elementary kids and middle schoolers.

We’re discussing preschool projects. And yes, I did need to assist my 3-year-old in ordering photo prints from Walgreens for his family tree project. Quelle horreur.

Did the project specify photos or were you helicopter parenting?

Lol. Because the preschool family tree project was supposed to be independently hand-written by all the 3 year olds?

Yes, genius, the project specified photos.

Kid can draw pictures. Writing doesn't take much time. I would bet a million dollars it said "pictures" and not "printed photographs". But you do you.

You really can’t handle being wrong, can you? Sorry you’re so incredibly invested in my kid’s preschool project, but yeah, it said “family photos”.

[Anonymous]

Man, I wish my kid would have let me help with his 8th grade science project. That thing sucked.

OP, unless specifically stated by the teacher, I would think most "projects" in preschool will have some level of help from parents. Some parents are just very focused on making sure their child gets it "right" and don't understand that the learning is in the process. Teachers know this and are usually pretty good about giving explicit instructions.

It's fine to encourage your child to do it by herself. Just find a nice way to give her a head's up that some kids are doing it with their parents, and some kids are doing it alone. In 2nd grade both my kids went through this with a musical instrument project. Both times my kids essential showed up with dried beans in a can, while some other kids had handcrafted wooden string instruments, lol. Apparently on presentation day the first question any kid asked was "Did you do it by yourself?", to the point that kids just started incorporating that info in the beginning of their presentation. Everyone was proud, everyone got good scores. It was fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does it even matter? It's not like PK grades matter (or exist? my preschooler doesn't get a grade) so it's not like a parent who does a project like this for their kid is helping them in any way.

This is very much an example of something it's not worth worrying about because as long as your kid is learning and having fun, you win. I guess some parents care about bragging rights at this age but it's pointless if they aren't even doing the work themselves, right? Like go ahead and brag about your kids amazing diorama that you did yourself, it's actually really sad because it's amazing for a 4 year old and pretty mediocre for a 37 year old. So.

Like…do you have brain damage? If you read PP’s comment, she was irritated about the diorama, not even remotely bragging.

[Anonymous]

yeah this is also a thing I hate in nowadays schools. I mean why? isn't it supposed to be her task