What was I thinking?

Let me start by apologizing. Apologizing for things that I did 6-10 years ago. Apologizing to people in my past who will probably never read this and therefore, won't know how sorry I am. Apologizing for my "creativeness", my "fun stuff", and for my "cooperative learning" techniques. This apology is for my former students, but especially to the mothers and fathers of those students.
You see, as a new high school social studies teacher 9 years ago I was eager to prove that I knew what I was doing and that I could do it better and make it more fun than other teachers because I was fresh out of college. For me, this meant a bit of traditional learning (lecturing, note taking, etc.) mixed in with some "hands-on" activities. In hindsight, I can see that "hands-on" took the form of "projects" - LOTS of them. Now, don't get me wrong, a lot of them were good - really good - and a lot of fun. I'm not apologizing for what they consisted of or what they taught my students, but for what it required of the parent, especially the moms.

Let me explain...
Last week, Alex came home from school with her first "social studies project". An assignment on "culture". She was asked to "create a representation of her own culture by including information about her family's celebrations, beliefs, food, holidays, religion, clothing, etc." It could take the form of a poster, booklet, photo album, or whatever else we could come up with. Since I'm a bit OCD I decided on a booklet - that way it could be easily transported and more importantly, easily stored - no huge poster boards for me, please. So I bought a binder, sheet protectors, and some cardstock. We sat down together and discussed what types of pictures she wanted to include, what types of things she could say to describe the pictures, and how she could let others in her class know what her family was like based on her "booklet". We broke the project into manageable chunks - a page or topic per night. We talked about time management and not procrastinating and putting it off until the end. She drew some pictures and I printed some for her to use. She wrote the captions and then we talked about what she would say during her presentation. We spent a lot of time on this (and we still aren't done - she has until Friday). We actually had a really good time working on it and reliving some of the memories. I was lucky because she enjoyed it and wanted to work on it - she was excited about it - I know that won't last forever. Here she is busy at work.


Again, my issue is not with projects themselves, but more so the TIME it takes to get them done. But, here's the real issue. She is my oldest child. She is in first grade. This is her first project. I'm wondering how much of my life will be spent helping my children complete their homework. This is the first time that I am on the other side of the homework issue. As a teacher, I found it valuable to enhance their learning - within reason. As a parent, I still find it valuable, but I'm honestly dreading the next 20 some years of my life repeating homework assignments. I realize that as they get older they will become more independent and not need my help as much. However, here is where I'm going to struggle. I tend to error on the side of perfection - I like things done my way (just ask my husband). I have high expectations for my children (don't worry, I know enough about myself to never let that get in the way of my loving them for who they are). I have a bit of a control issue - a lot of times it would just be so much easier if I did it myself, yet I know the value in her knowing she can do it herself. I realize that these tendencies are something that I will constantly have to keep in check as I never want them transferred to my children or have them feel "judged" by my issues. I know I have a long way to go...

How about you? How do you deal with the homework issue? How do you keep your expectations in check? Any current or former teachers out there that can relate?