This month, my son faced his first two school projects – one in English and one in Science. The Science project involved researching and presenting a model of a nitrogen atom, while the English project required reading a biography, writing a paper, and creating a presentation with a poster. They were both complicated and required multiple steps over several weeks.

At first I was excited – my son’s first school project!  But then when I realized that they were both due around the same time, I started getting stressed. We knew we needed a plan. We handled it by applying professional project management principles and our parenting know-how.

1. Divide Up Project Manager Roles Based on Capacity and Skillset

Recognizing that both projects had similar deadlines, we knew it would be a substantial workload for one parent to handle both. So, we decided to allocate project manager roles based on our individual strengths. Given my husband's expertise in science, he took charge of the nitrogen atom model. Because I have a penchant for creativity, I opted for the English project involving the poster. We agreed that each parent would help from start to finish with their project. This division of responsibilities reduced overlap and provided our son with clear direction.

It was also helpful for my spouse and me to align on our oversight approach, and we had to have several conversations about how much involvement we were going to have in these projects. We agreed that we would help to facilitate the timing and when the work would be done, and our son would do the actual work. Our role was to guide and help in identifying what needed to be done and when – essentially playing the role of a project manager.

2. Involve Your Kids in Determining the Project Plan

One major goal of parenting is to create independent adults, and school projects are a great place to start. By involving our kids in the process of identifying and breaking down the work into manageable pieces, we’re teaching them life skills that can be applied in school and in the workforce. 

With these multi-step projects, we had to thoroughly read the instructions so we fully understood what was required. Then we discussed what was listed, asked questions of the teacher as needed, and talked through when things were due. Initially we didn’t realize that a presentation was also required for the science project, but we added it to the list of tasks. This approach helped ensure that we fully understood the project to make sure we were working towards the correct goal.

3. Break Tasks into Kid-Friendly Amounts, with Their Input

Now that we understood what needed to be done, we could break down the tasks into distinct building blocks. I often forget that my son needs tasks broken down into very small and manageable sizes. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” The same applies to projects; break the work down into small-enough steps that your child understands them and can get each task done one at a time.

Telling my son that we were going to create a poster was too large a task. So we broke it down into multiple smaller tasks that we completed on separate days. We talked about what the poster would look like, went shopping for supplies, drafted a design, spray painted the poster, printed out text and images, and decorated it.  This step-by-step process made it easier for my son to understand what needed to be done and not be overwhelmed by taking on too much at once.

4. Centralize Project Organization and Tasks

We had worked hard discussing and figuring out our plan to tackle these projects, and it would have been a waste of time to not capture what we had determined. We also needed to stay aware of the upcoming deadlines so we could meet them.  The dining room is our homework area, so we posted the project instructions on the wall along with milestones. I printed monthly calendars and wrote down the different deadlines and tasks on specific dates.  We also added days that school was closed and when we would be out of town.  We agreed that we wanted to get the poster done before vacation, so we set  our poster deadline for the Friday before vacation and wrote it on the calendar.  By having the project organized in a central location, we could quickly see the status of the work and what needed to be done next. We could also mark each milestone as complete when it was finished. 

5. Encourage and Foster Independence in Your Kids' Work

We know as parents that our kids are supposed to own their school projects, but it can be challenging to not fall into the comparison and perfectionism trap and want to take over.  My son is much faster at getting things done than me, but less focused on neatness.  I’m a recovering perfectionist, so it was challenging for me not to intervene.  I probably stepped in too much to help with the poster spray-painting and struggled with how to provide constructive feedback on the neatness of the design.

Fortunately, my husband reminded me that our son needed to own the project and accept the resulting grade. We reviewed the grading criteria with our son, and he opted to leave the poster as is. In the end, he received a satisfactory grade and acknowledged areas for improvement – a valuable learning experience for all of us.

We all felt a great sense of accomplishment and pride when the projects were completed. We had worked together over several weeks to agree on goals, develop a manageable plan, and get the work done while building life skills. There’s something about coming together as a family to accomplish a project that strengthens bonds and builds a positive feedback loop for future projects. We can embrace these moments as opportunities to connect and grow together as a family. Happy school project planning!

Hilary Kinney is the author of Project Management for Parents, a timeless book that provides resources for busy parents to streamline life at home. She is a proud parent, and certified Professional Project Manager with 18 years of experience at a Fortune 500 company.