Trent International

Homework tips for parents: doing homework with kids

So your little one came home from school and they have asked you to help them with their homework. Being the great parent that you are, you don’t want to leave them to fend for themselves. In fact, you would like to be able to provide them with as much help as you possibly can give them to help them succeed. You know that their learning doesn’t stop the moment that they step out of that classroom, but that it carries on into their home life too.

Home encouragement is one of the most important aspects of your children’s learning process. They need to be able to gather the knowledge from school and apply it in their homework. Since for the most of us it has been more than a decade since we were forced to do some of these problems, it may not always be easy to help them with their homework.

So what can you do to help when you may be just as lost as they are?

First: If it is a topic that you are aware of, then just sit down with them and take the time to show them what you know. This is the best way to help them. Try not to give them any answers but to simply show them the technique and then help them work through it on their own.

Second: If it is a topic that you are not aware of, try to pull out of them what they were taught in school this may help you figure it out. For example, they are now teaching a new way of doing division in school. I personally think it is way more confusing than the method I learned in school but to force my child to learn my way can be more confusing. In this case, I try to get them to show me how they are to do it and then help them work through the problems using that method.

Third: Show them how to get the information that they need. For example, when my daughter has to write her spelling words in sentences, instead of just explaining to her what the words mean, I hand her a dictionary and have her look up the definitions. This way she will be able to look them up for herself and help herself in the future.

And there you have it, the three best ways to help your child with their homework. If you don’t know the answers yourself, you don’t even have to let your child know, just show them how to get the answers they need and learn a little something yourself in the process.