Awe, her first research paper

Summer turned in her first research paper today. Yeah, she's seven. Its on the Ocean, which as you know, is a pretty broad subject.

Now, I realize the 2nd grade was long (long) ago for me. As I recall, the hardest thing we did were those dreaded timed math test. everything else was basically projects that included the entire class. Nothing requiring my parents to help me find materials suitable for a seven year old's theories on the ocean as an ecosystem. (OK, so the teacher's blog did give suggestions on where to find info, but still...)

Also, before writing papers, didn't we all learn the process? Like creating an outline so you kind of keep your thoughts organized? I believe my 1st paper came in about 5th grade. I imagine it should have been in 4th grade, but those of you in the same class I was in (Mrs. J) know we did not learn a thing that year. What a dear sweet woman, but she really put me behind.

OH and she had to type it.Which means after an HOUR at the computer, Jason swooped in and finished typing from her rough draft. She's 7. Her typing skill have not fully developed. Apparently she needs more time on webkinz. Or her own facebook page. But it was a good experience for her to get familiar with Word and spell check and all that good stuff.

Here is a sample from her 2 page paper. This is one of my favorite paragraphs:


"We need the oceans. If we didn't have the oceans, we would all die. We would not be the only things to die, animals would not be able to survive. It does so many things for us. It gives us many things such as food, oil and natural gas. Many people like to eat fish from the ocean. Sushi is raw fish. My favorite foods from the ocean are shrimp and fish sticks. That is why we need the ocean. "

Originally, she wrote the word "die" 3 times here. I convinced her to change it to "could not survive". It was sounding a bit morbid.

Friday, she has a visual aid due. Its my job to get that rolling. Hopefully I can just get her started and then keep my hands out of it. Conferences are next week, so I guess we will see what her teacher thinks then:)

I just want to know what we are going to do when we have 3 kids in school and they are ALL assigned challenging projects. I may have to hire someone.