So DD's clearly getting a far better education that I did and its starting to show

[listsandbudgets]

DD was asking me questions while doing her homework tonight and not only did I not know the answers I didn't even understand the question. She was asking me if certain words were adverbs. I don't know what an adverb is. Not the first time she's asked me things like this and I've had to quietly google the answer before I respond.

dd is in year 4 at a good school. My schools were not good. I only found out well after I left that the year I did GCSEs only 27% managed 5 grade A-Cs. I was sitting next to people in class who could barely read at 16 and were really disruptive. I somehow did well at GCSE followed by A Levels and a Russell Group university but despite all that I feel my basics are so lacking. I'm worried as dd learns more the gaps will become more and more obvious.

Does anyone else feel like this?

Chunking does help some of those who struggle with number concepts, place value etc. Unfortunately it tends to confuse those that do get it as it makes something that intuitively makes sense to them seem far more complicated than it needs to be.

Good teachers will use all methods as appropriate, of course.

The DC school only used chunking and grid for maths for children having supplementary lessons that are struggling. which is a good job as I really don't understand it.

I really like those Carole Vordeman "help your kids with ..." books, as much as it pains me, as they clearly explain each grammar concept in one page and show you all the maths methods for doing the same thing.

I was a primary TA / helper for over twenty years, during which time education, teaching and expectations changed greatly - and are still changing.

In the '50s I went to a good grammar school, but only obtained three 'O' levels, failing many others, including maths, French, Latin, chemistry and physics.

Today children know things that even the best scientists didn't know fifty years ago (plate tectonics, for example), so rather than hide your lack of knowledge in specific areas, explain to your children that the world has moved on at such a pace that you haven't kept up with everything, and invite the children to help to keep you up-to-date.

Books by David Crystal and Lynne Truss should help with English grammar and language (which is still evolving, anyway).

Watch TV programmes such as Sky at Night, "Click" (tech and computers on the BBC News Channel), Horizon, natural history, etc to try and keep up with things, and encourage children to take an interest in them too.

I have this problem with dd1s homework, she's in year 6 and already working at the equivalent to a grade C GCSE ( which is higher than I worked at in year 11 ), her homework confuses me and it upsets me that I can not be any help when she asks me.

I really like how they learn place value so thoroughly now, it makes much more sense using the new methods. DS showed me the grid method for multiplication and it's so logical!
I generally google the grammar stuff and 50% of my work is writing. I can write, I just forget what each bit is called...