Finishing Projects

There’s a new weekly homeschool/education meme hosted by Fivejs. She wants to know how you fill up your kids’ thirst for knowledge.

In our house, we love doing hands-on projects. OK, let me rephrase that. The kids love doing hands-on projects. I am not so fond of the mess. But, I have found that nothing gets my kids more excited about what they’re learning in their studies than making something tangible.

One of the reasons that I chose Tapestry of Grace as our main curriculum is because it includes so many great ideas for hands-on projects. Some of the projects that we completed this year are:

• 10 Plagues books
• Sugar cube pyramids, salt dough maps, and cookie dough maps
• A model of the tabernacle
• Weaving

But here’s my problem. For all the great projects that we completed, we started  2 others that we didn’t finish. I don’t know how to fix this problem. Actually, I’m not even sure if it is a problem.

An unpainted salt dough map of Europe, next to a volcano that IS actually finished.On the one hand, I think that it’s very important that the children learn to finish what they start. We need to have deadlines and work to bring our projects to completion. BUT, on the other hand, sometimes a project that is started with enthusiasm, for one reason or the other isn’t as great as we thought it would be. Or maybe it would be a good project, but we’ve found other interesting things to study. How should I decide which projects to complete?

An unfinished Roman villa adding to the general clutter of the basement.
Part of the reason this bothers me so much is that I see this pattern in my own personal life, as well as in my mother’s. I have been working hard at finishing what I start, and I do think that I’ve improved over the years. Unfortunately, even though the unfinished projects are hidden away, they aren’t completely gone. They make me feel guilty whenever I stumble across them.

What’s the solution? Don’t start so many projects? Maybe. I think one thing I definitely need to do is evaluate the purpose of each project before we start.

• What is my ultimate goal in doing this project?
• Can the project be done in a simpler way so that we will be more likely to complete it?
• Do we have time to complete this project?

Hopefully, by thinking about projects beforehand, you and I won’t have to look at a basement full of unfinished projects next summer.

I’m also going to throw away unfinished projects that make me feel guilty!

By Kristen H.