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We do a LOT of crafts/projects. That is how I teach. I send something home every day. Sometimes something as little as a white piece of paper that we drew shapes on and traced our hands. Sometimes a craft project. But something every day. Yesterday, a dcb handed his project to his mom, and she exhaled and said, "Another one?" She then turned to me and said, "Do you mind slowing down on the stuff sent home? It is kind of overwhelming." DCB was kind of crushed, and I just felt hurt as well. I put so much time and thought into what we do. And to find out it isn't being appreciated is very disheartening. My other parents GUSH about the projects and papers. SOOO many times I see that they have posted pics on their facebook pages the kids holding their days project. So I know that for the most part they are very well received. And the kids LOVE doing them. So do I! And they are all learning so much! Most of my 2 year olds know all the basic shapes and colors! They are recognizing some letters too. So I know I am doing a good job. So what do you do with this one parent? Not send their stuff home? That doesn't seem fair to dcb. I thought about asking dcb if I can hang his stuff up here. Not sure what else to do. What would you do?
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I would just hang it up at your house. I used to do that with papers. We would put them up around the daycare room.
I can understand where the mom is coming from a little bit. I always feel like the clutter is going to suffocate me.
You don't have to send everything home. Kids bring things home from so many places that it can be overwhelming.
KHomeschooling Mama to:
lovethis
dd12
ds 10
dd 8 -
I hang a lot of the art up here at the house for the kids to see, so that they can see their accomplishments.
I take their paperwork, like tracings, drawings and etc and I put them into a folder. Each child has a folder and I have dividers in them by month. I keep all of them from when they start, this way we can see their progress over time. I don't let the parents take them home, but will share them with the parents when the child does something really cool.
When they graduate out of my program, I will give them the book. I love it, the parents love it and it seems like the kids do too.
They are very proud of their folders....Comment
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How rude and ungrateful! If she doesn't want to keep them all then she can select her favourites and trash the rest when DCB is asleep. You would think she would love that her son is being creative.
You could:
1. Ignore her. If she brings it up again tell her you are not going to curtail his learning and creativity and that it is up to her how she stores his treasures.
2. Keep his work for x amount of time then get DCB to choose x favourites to take home
3. keep his work til the end of the month/year then place it all together and send it all home at once
If you chose 2 or 3 DCB's feelings might be hurt but some kids wouldn't care about the stuff going home til later. It would depend on the child.
You are doing a wonderful job by the sounds of things!Comment
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OMGosh! I LOVE that! I am going to do this! This time of year, however, we do a LOT of projects. Today we made plastic cup turkeys. We talked about the colors we used to make the feathers, how many eyes they have, what sound the turkey makes. What shapes they can spy that we used to make the turkey. Lots of stuff. I guess I always love to see my kids stuff, and I keep what I want and might hang a coloring sheet for a week or so, and then I throw it away. So I assumed the parents would want the work their kids did on a daily basis. So I will just start keeping their daily sheets here and just send the projects home after displaying them here for a bit. I hope that is toning it down a bit for this mom.Comment
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I would make even more and send more home. I think that was the most rudest comment ever. My children (and mine are older) always make things for me, i put it on the fridge and then after a week I throw them out. My children love to display their stuff and it shows pride and ownership when they see their art work. What a ungrateful mother---and considering she doens't have to buy the art supplies or sit with her kid to do it is really pathetic.
signed another art lover!Comment
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some parents just dont feel the same way about this stuff as we do. ONe of my favorite dcf was like this, and I just had to come to terms with it and not fault them for feeling the same way about it that I did.
Of course they were never rude about it, they just said if you could send them home weekly or bi-weekly, that would be great.
I was also told about some APP for smart phone that lets you take a picture of each art project and then at any point you can order a book of all of the pictures of their art work. Sounds cute, but it sounded like a lot of work to me, so I declined the offer....Comment
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I send them home weekly. It is hard for ME when my kids come home everyday with lots of things, and so I got each of my daycare kids a folder and it goes home Friday and comes back Monday. If it is a bigger project, it gets displayed here and then goes home monthly when I change out the theme.
Very, very rude dcp.Comment
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What nerve of that parent! I would post it up and not give her any of it, make a point to show it to her daily and maybe she will come to realize how special that kind of stuff is! Or keep it and at the end of the month put all of the artwork/projects it in a bag and send it home. That way she can decide what to do with it and the child hopefully won't hear or see her say anything about it. Here's a story for you: I once gave a parent a bag of artwork (I placed it in the child's cubby) and the next day I found the whole bag in the garbage! I hope the child didn't see her throw it away! I don't understand how parents can do that! Maybe I'm a little obsessive, but I have a whole tote of my child's art work and projects, I could not bare to throw them away, especially if she was excited about them!Comment
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Overwhelming? Seriously???
Whatever - some parents are just never happy with anything. I would continue sending home the projects/crafts. I don't keep any artwork here unless a child gives it to me, because they all want to show mommy/daddy and bring it home. I don't care what happens to it after that...
I know some parents keep every little scrap. Some pick and choose and keep the very special things. Some don't keep any of it and throw it all in the trash. Some take photos of each project and keep the photo instead of the actual project.
And that's what I would tell this mom - "We do projects each day, and we sned them home each day - what you choose to do with them after that is up to you, but they do get sent home as the child is proud of their work and want to show you."Comment
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I sort of get where she's coming from because my son is a "keeper" of everything. If he so much as drew a dot on it, it MUST be saved
At school he brings home a project once a week or so. He's 8, in the 3rd grade, and I already have several totes of his art filled. There were many so I moved several of them out into the garage. I was hoping he'd forget they were there so I could start weeding through them and throwing out much of the regular school paperwork stuff but no go. While my husband is out working in the shed he'll help him until he gets bored and then go through his bins reminiscing with glee.
He can easily let go of old toys, out grown clothes, and he keeps his room immaculate but his artwork....it just means so much to him, so I don't push it. I told him when he moves out though he's bringing 99% of it with him so he'd better have a cash stash to rent a moving truck just for them.
That said, if he were bringing home a project every single day? We'd reach hoarder status in record time no doubt.
I'm not saying you should change anything you're doing, or that her comments were right or wrong (if she were having an issue with the amount being sent home she certainly could have spoken to you privately).....just trying to open minds to the idea that she her intentions aren't necessarily malicious or ungrateful.....she could just be overwhelmed with what to do with it all and that's ok.Comment
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I understand the feeling. My ds makes crafts here and at preschool and it quickly gets to be alot.
My suggestions:
Send some home in the am at drop off. Mom can take them to work and hang them there, or toss them and dcb will probably forget about them. My son sends pictures to dads work all the time
Have her bring you a manilla envelope with grandma's address on it. Let dcb put projects in the envelope occassionally. Give it to mom to mail these special things to gma.
Have kids save 2 projects a week to give to the nearest nursing home. Maybe someone therewill enjoy it.Comment
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I just feel bad for dcb. They are all so excited to show mom and dad, and most of the parents are so excited to see what they have done. This little guys face just dropped when she reacted that way. Oh well, I will be excited for him and ask him if I can display them on the bulletin board by the entryway for ALL the parents to see!Comment
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this is just plain rude. she could have asked for a compromise in a different way, you know? I would have a little box for his things and let him pick just one or two to take home on Fridays instead of sending home things every day. The other providers had some good suggestions as well. either way, this mom made a big mistake in belittling your work and her sons work....I can just see his disappointed face
I know my 4 year old comes home with a butt-load of stuff from kinder and even though sometimes I feel that I dont have the time to look at every scrap, I have to remember that its not about me, its about her. To her, one scribble is very exciting and she loves to go thru her papers and tell me about what she learned. its important to HER that I take the time to listen. This mom was being rude and selfish.
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