E Is for Egypt--and One of My Biggest Pet Peeves

I love our local elementary school. Great test scores, teachers who care about my kids. It's a fantastic place to raise kids.

Every November, the sixth grade puts together an Egyptian festival, with costumes, masks, and . . . homemade pyramids. When Lily came home from school with the instructions for the assignment, she had grandiose ideas of what her pyramid would look like, and like any good mother, I brought her back down to earth.  We opted for foam core, spray stone texture, a kit of Egyptian artifacts from Michal's, and a sheet of glittery paper.  It took hours.  I had to help cut the foam core and plot the logistics of getting it to actually stick together. (Fortunately, she's my fourth child, and it's not my first time at this pyramid design stuff.)

The morning of the festival was crazy for me, and I don't even remember why.  But I ran in, snapped a few pictures, looked at a few of the projects, then ran out.  I didn't get a single decent picture. 

Lucky for me, she has the greatest teacher.  A few days after the festival, Lily received this postcard in the mail:

There are few teachers left like Mrs. Ferguson.  I'm so glad Lily is spending time with her this year.

This brings me to one of my biggest pet peeves in the world:  Parents who do their child's school projects.  Seriously?  Didn't you graduate from sixth grade thirty years ago?  I know I did.  I can appreciate the teacher's thinking on big projects:  It helps parents get involved with their kids' education.  It helps cement facts and information in the kids' minds.  I'm willing to assist.  I'm not willing to design, paint, letter, write, or complete the project.

Here's the kicker, parents:  Teachers can tell when the parents do the project.  Are you shocked?  Teachers know what your child's daily work looks like, and if their project comes in not looking like that daily work, they've been around the block enough to know who earned the grade.

Lily's pyramid looked like a sixth grade project.  She glued flowers on it and misspelled a few words with my label maker, things that I wouldn't have done.  And guess what?  She got an A.  Mrs. Ferguson knew by looking at it that it was LILY'S project.  Not mine.

So, to all you parents out there who do your kids' projects so they can earn A's--stop.

Thank you.  Now I will retreat from my soap box.

And thank you, Lily, for completing your Egypt project just in time for me to link up to E at Jenny Matlock's this week.