Help with homework?

And, as Annodomini, I did proof read all my DS's (and one DiL) dissertations. By then I reckoned they knew how to do things themselves, and the physics was way over my head!

Here in Germany parents seem to help their children right down to the tiniest detail. My three DS however, on their first day at school, covered their homework with their arms and leant over the table and told me it was "their" work and they didn't need me!

So I came to hate parents' evenings when other mothers started asking about "Question 3b on page 22" and that sort of thing - of no interest to me at all!

However, now my DS2 is an English teacher himself, he occasionally rings me up to ask me a few things or to help him think of examples for his lessons!

Basically, whatever country you are in, surely it is best for the child to do as much of his homework himself as he can and to learn from his mistakes, as well as learning how to plan his time and work efficiently to be finished as soon as possible.

Interesting that this post pops up when there’s been stuff in the media about students accessing You Tube videos that encourage them to cheat in exams.

Totally agree, mcem.

I don't normally read posts which are clearly spam and am about to report this post.
It would take only a short visit to the site to show what a waste of time and money it would be to use them! Anyone foolish enough to fall for this really does need help but I 'd suggest they look elsewhere!
Riddled with mistakes!

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As both my children and DGC were and are infinitely cleverer than me, my input would have been both useless and futile! DH was always too busy workwise, and far too impatient to be of any help!!! Seriously though I think helping them to understand what they are doing then they can do it for themselves is fine, but just doing it for them is of no benefit at all.

I once did DS's Art homework for him. As a graphic designer who spent 4 years at art school I wasn't impressed to be given a B! My only excuse is that I was suffering from food poisoning at the time. GS1 gets a lot of help from parents and grandparents with some of his projects because some of his ideas are so blooming complicated!

Yes I supervised all my children's homework on a daily basis, they are now all in professional jobs, so definitely worthwhile. I'm now doing similarly for some of my locally based grandchildren though not every evening of course.
Their parents do it on the remaining evenings/weekends.

It’s a positive.
Can lead to discussion and debate.
More involved with their school life.
It needn’t be spoon feeding. It can be discussing, guiding, you being a spring board for ideas.

When DGD came to stay at half term, she brought her SATs revision books with her. Each morning she would sit down and do one paper before we went out for the day. We would read it through with her afterwards and discuss anything she had got wrong, but nothing was altered in her test book. To be fair, there was no temptation as DGD is bright and errors were few and far between.

I think to help them when stuck ie ask them questions or give them ideas is ok. But to actually do their homework is ridiculous -doesn't give the teacher any idea whether they have understood or not. I helped Dgs recently at parents request as he was stuck. Started him off on the right . track but he then did it himself and I was aware it wasn't all correct but didn't say anything . Main thing was he had attempted it.

I helped all three of my children with their homework when they needed it but my husband did most of the helping. I did type the whole of my son's Uni
dissertation.

I agree-homework should be done by the child, not the parents.

My DC never wanted help with homework and usually did it on the bus to school. Then in Y10 DS complained that his English teacher 'had it in for him' and never gave him good marks no matter how he tried. I worked as a teacher in the same school and to prove he was wrong I wrote one of his English Literature essays for him. He copied it out of course! I got a D!

I have a degree in English. The teacher at the time had a Teaching Certificate! By the way I also did training courses in the standardisation of GCSE marks so had a good idea of what was expected.

After that I encouraged him to do his best for a bit longer but ignore her marks. He got a B at GCSE though to be honest he never really made much effort!

45 minutes is ridiculous, probably guaranteed to put a child off reading imo.

Reading to oneself for that long is fine, but reading out loud for 45 minutes every night is just a chore.

Mother dead, father hopeless, so no help for me. Was helped though by power cuts, because that got me out of homework. I helped whenever and however I could with my children, for all the good it did. Me a wordsmith, got son marked down in one essay. But my pic of a horse was liked. This is all pre online work, obvs.
Quite like the rhythm of this post. A gold star to me!

He's 10. He reads for around 15-20 minutes to me.
I think 45 mins is ridiculous. Anyone would be hard pushed to read for that long, and I'd be hard pushed to listen too!

How old is this grandson, MissA? Mind you, if he likes reading to you that's just fine. It's just that by the time they were six and a half or so my kids wanted to be left alone to read to themselves (after we'd read the bedtime story to them) and fall asleep with their face in a book.

45 minutes!!!!!

I have to listen to grandson read for at least 45 mins, 5 days a week minimum, apparently.

My father helped me with the weekly learning of Shakespeare and poetry - he remembered it for years after whilst I forgot! I helped my DSs, first listening to reading and at secondary school giving suggestions on the homework. I do the same now with DGC. The older one asks me first rather than her parents if she wants advice. The difference nowadays is the advice is usually how to search for something online.

My Mum never helped me with my homework, I don't think she often understood it! My grandmother taught me to read and write before I ever started school, and I remember my granddad helping me to understand multiplication and division, and then I was told off for doing it a different way to what we were taught! I never had homework at primary of junior school, only in secondary school.

We helped our children with their homework when we were able to and when they asked for help, which wasn't often, but we never did the work for them. Usually it was spellings, history, geography, maths or research or providing materials for creative projects. When my eldest son was studying Art & Design he remembered one morning that he needed some paintbrushes for his lesson - so he took some of mine. His teacher noticed what he was painting with, and asked where he had got them. When he told her she took my best Sable watercolour brushes off him, carefully cleaned them and gave him something more suitable!

We live too far away to be able to help our grandchildren who are all at the Primary/Junior stage, but their parents help as much as they can with reading, writing, maths, spelling and projects etc. They often spend the best part of the evening on homework, only stopping when it's bedtime. Far too much homework! Personally I don't think children of that age should be given homework at all. After a long day at school they need time to socialise and relax with their families.

Completely agree with you Lucky

This whole business of parents helping children with homework is a farce. Firstly the homework should not exist (particularly in primary school) and secondly it is the pupil's homework and how can the teacher make a judgement as to how the child is progressing if they are being helped with it? - it is not their work.