Group Work and Project Management
If you have a kid in middle school like I do, chances are your child will be having some group work assignments already. Gone are the days when he or she would have to do everything on his or her own. I suppose the schools would like to teach our kids how it is to work in a team (which he or she will be doing anyway, for the rest of their lives so they better get it right) and aside from that, our children learn about cooperation, work scheduling and a whole lot more.
During my kid’s last group work assignment, my husband thought it was the perfect opportunity to teach our son project management. No, there were no GANTT charts or use of PERT-CPM. All my son needed were a piece of paper, his pen, and his brain.
He was asked to fill out a table in 4 columns, with the columns having the following headings: Activities, Start, End, and Responsibility. He was asked to think of what the group wanted to accomplish and to work back by listing down what he and his groupmates had to do to get to the desired end result.
Here are the activities that were listed for a 3D project:
Plan
Buy Materials
Bring Materials
Assemble
Check
Submit
Simple, right? But in that short time, you have started the thinking process in your son’s head and he can take this approach for anything and everything that he may need to accomplish in school, at work, or in life in the future. Of course, not all activities and involvements can be analyzed or planned this neatly.
Aside from teaching your child project management, this brief exercise will also help him practice his handwriting and his timing skills. We want to teach our children not to procrastinate or not to leave things for the last minute. Seeing the multiple activities that need to be done can make the kids realize that timing is of the essence.
Why don’t you try this out with your child, if you haven’t yet? The nice thing about group work is that as a parent, you can’t get involved anymore — except perhaps in helping your kid buy the needed materials assigned to him. You have no choice but to give your child space and let him work independently with his teammates. So, if this activity teaches your kid independence, it also teaches the parent restraint so you do not get to stress out your heart when you see that things are not moving as fast as you wish.
You can only do so much for your kids. There comes a time when you just need to step back, watch, and hope that you have taught them well.