Although your punishment was not too hard on her at all, did you get to the root of the cheating? I remember cheating in 1st grade for a math test and it was all because I was tired of getting the answers wrong and having to "hear about it" from my mom the next day. I didn't get caught, but I eventually resolved the issue on my own.
Although all situations are different, you showed your daughter that you do not tolerate this sort of behavior, which, hopefully, will translate into other aspects of life when it comes to lying and cheating as well.
However, most 7 year olds, when usually well behaved, good students, do decide to cheat or lie, probably have a reason for it. Otherwise, no, your punishment is fair & shows it's purpose clearly. In a world full of people afraid to upset their children with discipline, it's nice to see there's still a few of us out there!

I think your being a little to hard on her.If it was her first time you should have just asked her why and instead of making her write down 100 time i will not cheat you should have tooken her favoret thinf away for 2 weeks and made her say she was sorry to who she cheated from.

I think the consequences you gave were very fair, and I applaud you for taking the issue seriously. I am an elementary teacher and have unfortunately had to write such notes on tests. The next day when I ask the child what their consequence was, on numerous occassions they will say "nothing. My mom just told me not to do it again" When I ask them if they were told why they shouldn't do it again, they say "no". Unfortunately for these students, the only consequences they ever receive are from me (and I am very limited as to what I can do. I can not even have them write a sentence repeatedly as parents can). I worry about them. I am happy to hear there are still parents who take these issues seriously.

My 7-year-old was caught cheating on a spelling test too. We talked to him about it, banned him from the TV for a week, and then let it go.

His little seven-year-old mind thought that missing a spelling word was a worse crime than cheating on a test. We had to reassure him that while we want him to get all his spelling right, we'd rather he missed a few than cheat on a test.

For the future, you might want to have her write her spelling words five times each one night (if the teacher doesn't already ask students to do so), and the night before her test, give her a pre-test of her words. For the incorrect words, have her write them again three to five times.

As far as the act of cheating, definitely talk to your daughter and find out why she cheated and explain why cheating is unacceptable.

When I was 10, I didn't do my homework one day. My teacher required me to write "By the time I reach the fifth grade, I should have developed enough self discipline to be able to remember to do my homework on time" ten times. Twenty-one years later, I still remember that sentence! More importantly, I also remembered to do my homework every day the rest of that school year. I think your reaction was appropriate and I bet your daughter thinks long and hard before cheating at anything again! I wish more parents would take their children's actions as seriously as you.

No, you were not too hard on your child. I believe the consequences your child experienced were appropriate to the action they took. If more parents were strict and reinforced ethical behavior in the early years maybe more children would grow up to be responsible, moral, ethical adults.

Perhaps the only thing I would have done differently would have been to have my child to write the spelling words rather than the phrase, "I will not cheat".

I also agree that children need to know what is expected in advance. If you show them what to do in a situation, it will help them make fewer mistakes and they will trust you more. Hopefully, your child will come to you in the future and ask for help learning the material before it comes to a choice of cheating again.

The next step I would take, would be to increase my communications with the teacher. I have found that communicating with the teacher on a more consistent basis helps my child be more successful in learning her lessons. It helps the teacher to know what is and is not working. It helps my child to know that I support her and that I value her education. It helps me understand her lessons so that I may help her with her homework more effectively.

I believe that parental involvement, like what you are doing, is the key to a successful education for our children. You're doing a great job.

Hello to all, Yes mom two dumbs up for you . I would have to say that I would have asked her who told her about cheating and then the why she did it. Other than that I feel you did great. At age seven girls are being tested by their classmates and tell each other many things that our children will not dare tell us. In a diverse world with many different ways of talking and teaching a child has become intense. I mean kids are having to decide who should be our president in which I love just as long as they keep the debate even. I am sure she will not attempt to do it again embarrassment isn't' cool at school.

Great work though,

Sounds reasonable to me. My son wants to do so well in school, and when scores below a 90 gets upset. He hasn't cheated yet, well at least not that I know of. Either way, I want my child to know that he can depend on himself. He doesn't need to cheat. If he fails, that's a part of the learning process. Learning how to deal with failure, I think builds character. It certainly makes achieving your goals much sweeter. When you cheat on a test you cheat yourself. So I think you do a good job handling it.

No, you're not. You did the right thing and I hope she learn a wonderful lesson you provided and share the experience with her friends, teachers, and future children.

Creative thinking, mother!

wow, my daugther did the same thing with a math test. I just spoke to her and told her it was a very wrong thing to do and to make sure she doesn't do it again.

I'm a teacher with a different take on cheating but first I'd say - of course we all want our children to learn well in school and do well on their tests. But it can happen that children don't know all the answers - nobody's perfect. I've seen kids who really don't care if they know or now - I haven't see many like that but they do exist and they don't cheat. Why not? Because they really don't care. It's some effort even if not much to lean over and look at someone else's paper. When a student does that, it's a sign they still care. They still care about their grades. They still want good grades because if they didn't - they wouldn't bother to cheat.
When I came on cheaters, I wanted to know what had happened. Was it a child with learning differences? Such kids don't learn in the same way as the other kids. Was it a student with too much on their plate and something's got to get left undone?
What I was interested in was - fixing the problem, not the blame. How could I help this student so they could learn well and do well on tests without cheating?
Spelling is a mystery to some of us - some of us are born knowing how to spell. For every rule of spelling, there's an exception to it.
Has your daughter always had issues with spelling? She clearly cares about doing well in school - how can we help her to do well on her spelling tests without needing to cheat off someone else? You've certainly made clear to her that you disapprove of getting the answers from other students during the test - have you also helped her to clearly understand how to learn the answers for the test beforehand?
When most teachers catch 'cheaters', they go oddly ballistic so reading your daughter the riot act about cheating will save her from being victimized by an over the top teacher. I'm not a big fan of 'writing lines' but that's me. If your daughter had let you know the night before that she needed help with her spelling, did you let her know that's what you want her to do? It doesn't always serve well to just tell children what not to do - we have to tell them what to do and how to ask for help when they need it.

I think you handle everything fine but writing 100 times "I will not cheat " I personal feel that was a little over the top. Did you ever find out why she cheated? Remeber our kids are under much more pressure to preform perect at schools then what we were. Some teachers will only recognize children when thay are performing "A" work and not look at the individual effort. I will try if you have not already to find out why she did what she did. Remember cheating is not a federal offense, it is wrong and kids need to be told but it is not a federal offense.

For a first offense, you sound like you handled the consequences fine, but I do wonder if your daughter would be able to tell you WHY she felt the need to cheat in the first place? Did she forget she had a test, and didn't study at all? Does she find the work to be too difficult, even if she does study? Was she afraid that if she didn't get a perfect score, she would be in trouble? (Obviously, you can let her know that if she's done her best effort, even if it's not perfect, that's okay...but cheating is NOT okay.)
Once you have an idea of what caused her to cheat, you can make efforts to ensure she never feels that it's necessary again...(ie, if she forgot she had a test, you can help her learn to keep a calendar, etc.)

I would say that would be acceptable, for a 1 st offense. I would not let her make you feel guilty, she problely thinks her world is ending, and if she feels that way you know you did the right thing". Do not give in. Follow through with it.