Onyx I feel for you.

This used to be my pet peev. Parents making projects instead of the kids doing it themselves and then passing it off as "their" work. It was just so obvious which ones were made by the kids and the ones made by the adults.

DS1 would spend hours upon hours building a project - being the budding little engineer he was at aged 8 he would draw a picture of what he wanted to make, then write a list of what he required and then build it.

I remember this one time in particular. He was in year 2 and they were doing a term on space so they had a competition to build a spaceship. The kid was quite ingenous actually and his spaceship, up until quite recently, was hanging from the ceiling in my parent's study! It's amazing how an empty toilet roll can become and escape hatch for a spaceship. I certainly wouldn't have thought of it! He spent hours on that darn project only to be laughed at BY A PARENT when he brought it into the classroom. He and I were both gobsmacked. There were these amazing creations that I couldn't quite grasp how a 7-8 year old could have made on their own. He was devastated and wanted to go home. I felt like the worst mum in the world and (rather childishly) wanted to break all the other "projects". There were a few that were clearly made by kids but, on the whole, it appeared that the majority had adult intervention.

I spoke with the principal about it as DS1s teacher was a ditz who assumed that only the kids had made them and were really talented! The principal assured me that the awards would be going to those spaceships that had been built by children. One smug mumma was completely de-smugged when her little precious boy's "work" didn't win. The principal looked her in the eye and explained that all spaceships were judged on merit and the amount of work that a child had put in.

I will help my kids with their homework/projects but on the whole it's up to them and should be their work. I don't mind being a sounding board or providing input but when they get graded they know it's their work. I must add though, that DS2 this year (he's in the final few days of year 12) started emailing me his assignments for a proofread etc., which I don't consider as being an unfair advantage. As I told him, in the real world everyone get's their submissions,letters, reports etc., proofread before submitting the final copy.

Oh and a platypus enclosure is an awesome idea!