🤝 How much should a parent help?

Your jobs

Three jobs are yours at any age:

• Safety. Every step a project page marks for a grown-up is yours, such as the knife or the hot water; 20 of the 118 projects here have one. Read the safety strip at the top of the page before you start.
• The schedule. Count back from the fair date, put the days on the fridge and say each day's job out loud. Keep a project from Pick my project and add the fair date, and its countdown does the arithmetic for you.
• Questions, not answers. Ask what they changed, what they kept the same and how they know. Then wait.

Their jobs

• Choosing the question. Choosing from a short list you've already checked is fine.
• Writing the hypothesis, especially the because.
• Doing the tries and reading the numbers.
• Deciding whether the hypothesis was right.
• The words and drawings on the board.

The board should be in your child's words. The Washington County (Utah) district rules say judges favour children's own language and drawings, and it is usually easy to tell who wrote a sentence. A misspelt word in your child's hand is fine.

How much, by grade

The right amount changes as they grow. This is what the project pages assume a grown-up does:

• 1st–3rd: Reads, writes down, holds the ruler.
• 4th–6th: Checks and asks questions.
• 7th and up: Advises; the child runs it.

With a 1st grader you may write down every word they say. It's still their project, as long as the words are theirs. By 7th grade, step back to the doorway: read the plan, ask the hard questions and let them run it.

When you're tempted to take over

• The numbers come out wrong. Leave them. A wrong hypothesis with honest numbers is a good result, and the conclusion sheet has a box for it.
• The graph is wonky. Show them how on a scrap of paper, then hand the pencil back.
• It's late and the board isn't done. Hold the ruler and the glue stick, and let them place the cards.
• The question seems too simple. A simple question tested three times is better than a clever one that never gets tested.

Two guides worth reading together: when your hypothesis is wrong and what judges ask.

Questions that help

When you're not sure what to say, ask one of these and listen to the whole answer:

• What are you changing, and what are you measuring?
• What are you keeping the same, and why does that matter?
• Which number surprised you?
• How would you know if that try was a fluke?
• What would you test next?

They're close to what a judge will ask on the day. The grown-ups' page has the rest: the safety rules, what each grade expects and the fair-day timeline.