Ds8 recently completed a nice project to read a book near his reading level, do a rough draft description of 4 events, and illustrations to match, and then do a final draft of same. 3 weeks were given before it was due.
This seemed like a great project, but when I found out the book ds had picked, which was large for him to try, I was a little worried. I decided this project was partially about time management and would not go well if he waited until the last minute. We worked out a plan to read x chapters a night, when to start in on the rough draft and final draft.
He was a little under the weather about 1 week in and fell a bit behind in reading - I think he was also intimidated by the size of the book.
The one or two days he ended up spending a lot of time reading and writing to catch up were uncomfortable for him (and me). We discussed trying to stick to the plan better next time.
In the end he did a really nice job and completed it in time (but not what I would call 'ahead of time' which is what I have grown to prefer).
I hope he learned a bit about why sticking to a plan matters, but I am not sure this won't be repeated many times between now and age 20 something. (He does tend to do ok in a rush, but I don't want him to rely on that.)
What are ways you have used to try to instill a sense of planning and sticking to plan, for larger projects?
(I would also add that the difference between his rough draft and final draft were pretty dramatic - even he could not dispute that it was worthy rewriting and redrawing. So, good project, good lessons!)
