A new era.
Jim and I both still have nightmares about missing exams, forgetting about papers or studying for the wrong subject. I am not sure how it is possible - my last exam would have been in 2002 when I wrote my last level of my CFA.
After last night, I have moved on. I am now going to fret about my children's projects. Kate has a project due tomorrow on butterflies. She has to create a 3-D model of a butterfly and write a short piece about habitat, food, and life cycle. We started the project yesterday by creating the wings. We will buy the Plasticine and tooth picks for the body today, crossing our fingers that the wings will stay somewhat aloft. The written part is mostly done.
However, in my dream - we just didn't finish any of it today. She didn't get the four points for handing it on time (out of 35 points available). Then, I forgot to help her with her short oral presentation. In my dream, I went to school and was waiting for her turn to present, realizing that she had nothing to say, and nothing to show ... to the whole group of parents. Obviously, this isn't how it will go - but, I was crying in my dreams. I failed my child.
Projects also raise the next big question in parenting - how much should a parent do? I have let Kate do almost the entire project herself. I found the butterfly for her to trace to create the wings and showed her an approach to cutting them out, and the appropriate colours. I also googled the specific butterfly - Blue Mountain Swallowtail - and pasted various interesting facts into a word document for her to read so she could complete the written part. We are not doing it on the computer - we will get a duotang today and simple lined paper as, I believe, printing is more important than typing. However, I know 'we' could turn out a spectacular project worthy of 35 marks but it wouldn't be her project, and she wouldn't have learned as much. (I will, however, attempt to correct all spelling and grammar in the written section.) Wondering if that is the norm of parent involvement?
2 comments:
I like your background! Maybe it's been there for ages -- I guess I mostly read in google.reader.
You are/took the CFA? What's the right terminology with that? The organization that administers those exams is one of the clients I had last fall. I only had that project for a month or two because it was painfully dull -- the articles actually discussing finance were fine, but most were about administration of procedures. Even that sounds more interesting than the reality. Like press releases of rules governing rules of groups. I had a really high read rate but it made me want to tear my hair out after an hour and I got out of it.
We haven't reached the parent/child project stage yet -- sorry I can't actually be of any use.
That calibre of project would stress me out too! Not looking forward to having homework around here - it was never my strength as a student so I imagine I'll be the same way as a parent.
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