No, I don't really do my kiddo's experiments for them. But I do have a hard time letting them put their own boards together. For some reason, I feel like their board is a direct reflection on me; it has to be neat and clean and creative. It starts with typing up their information. I'm getting a little better now that the youngest kiddos can type somewhat efficiently, but even at that I have trouble when they say "no" to my suggestions for their word choice. It's the same when it comes to the style of their documents. Thankfully my older children help with the graphs. This year all I did was re-size the graphs so they were nice and big - that's not too controlling. Is it?
This year they also wanted to paint their boards - aaahh! They painted about a forth of the board before the time crunch kicked in. I wasn't trying to be controlling - it just needed to be done to get turned in on time. The layout went pretty good. We laid everything out, adjusted it, and agreed on the plan. But when the child started gluing, the plan apparently flew out the window - twice. "I thought you were going to put those things closer together so you'd have room for the crumpled up papers below." (Don't you like my patient Mom voice? Just ignore it was said through gritted teeth.) One minute later - "I thought you were going to put those things closer together so you'd have room for the crumpled up papers below, just like on the other side!" I think it was at this point I pushed the child aside and took over.
Don't even get me started on when the other child wrote on my beautiful board with a sharpie pen! Unfortunately I didn't notice until the deed was already started. There was no turning back - I just had to let go.
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