How should I handle my sons art poster project?

[jess_g]

My 9 year old son has poor handwriting. He has struggled with this for years so its a known and obbious fact and something he works on every day. My concern is that he has a art poster project due soon and I am wondering how to handle the writing part of the poster. Each poster needs a few sentences describing what it is about. If my son writes this on the poster it will look very messy, but it is his project and I want him to do the work. I am wondering if I should write it for him (the handwriting part that is) or have him write it himself. Either wat he will come up with the sentences and the ideas himself. I am leaning towards doing a practice poster and then having him do the writing himself on the big poster that the school sent home. I would ask the teacher but I realy don't want her to think I am doing the work for him. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. I also thought about trying to make the sentences short but I don't want to limit what he comes up with.

Thanks,

Jessica.

[o_mom]

Is he allowed to type it? Could you have him write out the sentences and then either type them for him or let him type them. He could cut them out and paste them on then. Or, have him write them out on paper, then you can write his words in pencil on the poster and have him trace them with marker or pen.

[elizabethkott]

Does the "written" part have to be "written" as in hand written? Or could you have him type out the description on the computer and have him cut it out and paste it onto the poster? Or what about those traceable letters? It would be time-consuming, but it would be *him* doing the writing so it might be okay.

[egoldber]

My first suggestion would be to have him write it on something else and then cut and glue the paper to the poster. I see this a lot.

He could also type it, but many times I know that is not allowed.

[ellies mom]

:yeahthat:

And I'd suggest spreading out the writing bit. Let him write one sentence. Wait awhile have him write the second. And so on. That way he can focus on good penmanship for just a few words at a time which is a lot easier than trying to write all pretty for the whole thing.

[ha98ed14]

Why can't you write it in pencil and have him trace over it in a thin back sharpie marker? It may not be perfect, but it will be better than if he did it freehand and then he will still be doing it by himself. Let him dictate the sentences and you write them in pencil.

[mytwosons]

I think you should ask the teacher. She knows this is something your son is working on, and I'm sure she wants him to be proud of his poster. If you are upfront with her about your concerns, she'll know you aren't trying to do the work for him.

[Piglet]

What Beth said! DS1 had his first poster project last year and it was an interesting week in our house, for sure. He was nto at all familir with the idea of writing something on a poster board so he wrote his usual small writing. He could have re-written War and Peace on that board if he continued wiritng that small! I finally explained to him that he might be better off writing on a paper and then gluing it to the board. That helped because it took a lot of pressure off him - he could write, erase, start over, etc. I helped him cut the paper out and he glued it to construction paper and then glued that to the poster. It looked great! As an aside, there weer obvious levels of parent involvement on these posters (and I mean obvious), from the parents that had no part in it (tiny crooked writing on the poster board) to some involvement (DS1's) to total involvement (scrapbooking cut outs, fancy pictures, sparkles, 3-D). I think some involvement is expected, but not too much.

[happymom]

If she's not OK with typing, I would definitely have him write it on a separate piece of paper and then glue it onto the poster. If you back it with a piece of construction paper that sort of frames the paper, it will look even nicer.

[egoldber]

As an aside, there weer obvious levels of parent involvement on these posters (and I mean obvious), from the parents that had no part in it (tiny crooked writing on the poster board) to some involvement (DS1's) to total involvement (scrapbooking cut outs, fancy pictures, sparkles, 3-D). I think some involvement is expected, but not too much.

LOL! Yes, this is pretty much what I have seen as well.

[jess_g]

Thanks everyone! I love the idea of having him write it on paper and then cutting it out and glueing it on the poster board. This way we can use lined paper and he will not have to worry about how big to write as he will just write normally. Plus if he makes a mistake he can just write the line out again before we glue it on. I just bought a bunch of colored paper and popcicle sticks. This is going to be a fun weekend.

Jessica.

[MamaKath]

If she's not OK with typing, I would definitely have him write it on a separate piece of paper and then glue it onto the poster. If you back it with a piece of construction paper that sort of frames the paper, it will look even nicer.
This way you can choose the size of the lines accordingly also for him to handwrite. I have always asked if dc can types something first. Then they still have to write it out so they know what to type. I make dc type it himself (I will often call out what letter comes next as I want to limit it to an hour, not 10) and I help him fix things up with formatting/spellchecking.

[almostamom]

As an aside, there weer obvious levels of parent involvement on these posters (and I mean obvious), from the parents that had no part in it (tiny crooked writing on the poster board) to some involvement (DS1's) to total involvement (scrapbooking cut outs, fancy pictures, sparkles, 3-D). I think some involvement is expected, but not too much.


The first graders at our school often had their projects on display in the media center. As one of the teachers was fond of saying, "Don't we have talented parents this year?" ;)

[MamaKath]

As one of the teachers was fond of saying, "Don't we have talented parents this year?" ;)
This is an issue at every school. I know last year many of the kids were upset that the art teacher would only compliment the one kid's project whose mother took full credit and the kid bragged about it outside of art. Grrrr, how to discourage the other kids!!! My class is doing a project in school next week where they will do the research at home, but assembly as part of school to avoid this. I am hoping they will learn how to do it themselves instead of how to have mom and dad do it.