My twins came home last week with their first project assignment of the year. They are in fourth grade and they have to write a 10-line poem about a topic having to do with culture in the middle ages. Parents may help, the assignment clearly states.
Have I told you yet how much I loath projects? I’m the type of person who gets a project done as soon as possible to clear it off my plate. I hate work that is looming. I’m not a procrastinator.
My kids, on the other hand, see the word “project” and think it’s not something they have to concern themselves with any time soon. It’s not due for three weeks. There is no chance I can get them to start working on it any time soon. Adam even suggested it was something we should do over the Thanksgiving holiday. That sounds good to him now because it’s weeks away. But I know what will happen. There will be kicking and screaming and gnashing of teeth when that time comes. At that point he will undoubtedly say, “Why do we need to do this now? We are on VACATION?”
So now I’m plotting out my strategy. I’m trying to figure out how I can get them to start working now. I can’t stand to have it looming. They can procrastinate all they want when they are older and those three little words (parents may help) are no longer a factor. I’m already wondering just when that might be.
This is a problem for us, too. What has worked is a) reminding them how panicked they get at the end when they have to do a project all in one night, and b) getting them to map out the project in manageable bites. If they see that if they start now, they might only have to devote 10 or 15 minutes a night to it, it won’t seem like that big a deal.
It also seems to help when I talk about having to plan projects in my work life, and how I break the big ones down into little bits. This makes them feel “grown up” doing the same.