The oldest kid is working on her first 'research' paper. I've helped a bit with this project, but only when asked. The teacher has done a fine job of keeping the kids on a schedule by using their rough drafts as quiz grades. The finished product is due on Thursday and now the kid is looking to dear old mom to help polish the paper.
I've restrained my tweaking to this point and have verbally issued warnings to check the punctuation, the tense, the spelling etc. She has caught a few things, but others slid past her radar. The teacher didn't do a hard edit on the rough drafts and instead wrote general comments similar to what I verbally issued.
Do I get out the red pen at this point or do I let her attempt this on her own? I'm not sure if I'm taking this problem more seriously than some because of my background. My daughter has told me stories of how much other parents are helping on this project....basically it sounds like some are doing all the writing or they are doing some major editing.
And I thought the science fair was bad.
4 comments:
My philosophy is to give the kids a couple of pointers, then get out of the way. If I'm not careful, my eldest will sweet-talk me into doing the whole paper. My husband virtually wrote her report on 'Lord of the Flies,' and I don't think that is doing the kid any favors. Learning how to figure things out on your own is half of the lesson.
I liked your comment on A Paperback Writer's site about honor student bumper stickers. How anyone can bring themselves to put such things on their car I cannot understand. My children both do very well in school, but catch me ever bragging about it in such an unsubtle manner.
Mary, thanks for stopping by the blog. I ended up going through the paper with her by reading what she had written out loud. She caught several problems that way. I agree, they do need to learn how to figure things out. After all, I'm not tagging along to the university with her:)
Yes, the unsubtle bragging of bumper stickers just hits a wrong note with me. Almost feels like parents are validating themselves through their child's accomplishments.
gasp! You mean you shouldnt put that on your car?? i guess the one about being an ole miss mom is a bad idea too???
I may cave and put a college/university sticker on the car, especially as I'll be forking over the bucks to send the kid there....but don't think I could handle a 'my kid made the Dean's list' bumper sticker:)
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