Talk to Explore Learning about helping your DCs with their homework - you could win a £250 Love2Shop voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

We've been asked by Mumsnet Family Friendly Innovation Award winners, Explore Learning, to find out about Mumsnetters' experiences with helping their DCs with their homework.

Explore Learning say "As a tuition provider, it's our aim to teach children skills that are directly transferable to the classroom, and give them confidence to tackle their work at school (we don't set any extra homework for our members to do). We also aim to reduce the stress for parents at homework time, and would like to find out more about what would make lives easier for mums and dads when it comes to helping or encouraging their kids."

So, how - if at all - do you help your DCs with their homework? Do you sit with them while they work on it? Or if your DCs are older, do you just leave them to it? What are the challenges when it comes to homework? When's the best time to tackle it? Are there any subjects which you find it harder to help your DCs with? Where's the best place to do it in your home?

Whatever your experiences of helping your DCs with their homework, Explore Learning would love to hear about it.

Every MNer who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw, where one winner will receive a £250 Love2Shop voucher.

Please note your comments may be included on Explore Learning's social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

I usually help my 8 year old with her homework. I go over what she has to do and then she will sit and do the task. If it is English, I then go over her spelling and talk about the sounds etc and if it is Maths, I check her answers and talk about checking through and encourage her to add/subtract etc again to see if she gets the same answer. I feel this is fair because she is doing the work, but I don't see that she will benefit if she doesn't understand and I won't help her. The homework I find the most stressful is the half-termly project. Every time, we try to come up with an idea early on, but then my daughter often changes her mind. In her last project, it was about growing things so, to make it easier for her, with less written work, I took her strawberry picking and then we made jam. We took plenty of photos and then I baked a batch of scones and she took the scones and jam into her class for everyone to try!.

To be tolerant, understanding, helpful and organised
Older children need to keep a diary/planner. This should be kept up to date, will give you an idea if the teacher has set an impossible task in the time. (Be prepared to write a note in diary if you child hasn't had time to do homework)
A child needs a life, maybe ill and problems happen.
Make sure the teachers instructions are clear, realistic ....... ask for clarification if need be.
This is why planning is important, you have the time to get your child to clarify. BUT,remember it is their homework and not yours !!!!!!

Both of our kids read every day and get homework once a week (given out monday for return on friday). Son is now 8 and a very good reader so reading is easy to him, daughter is only 5 so still at the stage of learning to blend sounds etc and she finds it very frustrating (and so do I to be honest!). Once she gets the hang of it I know she'll love reading too. We've always read to them both every day since they were babies.

Daughter's homework isn't too difficult yet, and I still help her. Son gets a list of words to use in sentences and also another task like sums. He can do the work on his own but he tends to be a very slow worker so we have to keep checking on him! I don't want to just give him the answers as I'm not there to do that in class so he needs to learn to think for himself, but we do make suggestions if he is stuck.

I sit with 2 dc and keep an eye on them. I help them out if they get sruck but dont give them the answers. When they finish I check their work and if I spot a mistake I ask them to check that question again.

The main rule is homework first, technology afterwards! I help if needed & where I can but it's difficult when methods are different, it just gets confusing!

on numerous occasions with Dylans science topics we go out and look for activities to do with him to keep the magic alive, best example i casn give really is his current topic of natural disasters, we have bought him a make you own volcano kit for when he starts the sub topic volcanos.

My DS is 14 so I'm a homework veteran, and I also regularly help my 7 year old nephew.

My most important experience / advice is: they have to learn to do homework for themselves. They have to ask the teacher when homework is set if they haven't understood the instructions, and they have to tell the teacher straight away if they found the homework hard (not wait until the homework is marked).

This was learnt from many years of arguing (and screaming) about homework and feeling frustrated (on both our parts). It's hard to help effectively, as you end up explaining things in a different way to the teacher and the child gets confused. I still help with individual questions and revision - but the emphasis has to be on independence.

The breakthrough for my son was finding a hobby when he was about 10 which he was desperate to do (Warhammer). He would finish his homework straight away so he still had time for his hobby. Nothing to do with me - and we haven't argued about homework since. I simply don't feel responsible for it! :)

If you want to get involved - do something else - like read a non-school book together or look at a different topic. My son isn't tasked by school to read a lot of books and I think that has affected his interest in reading for fun.

My son had homework for first time this weekend . Its was fantastic to see where he was at as we are expecting autism/adhd diagnosis.
Maths blinked and you missed it he whizzed through the tasks asked. He then had 10 words to learn to spell and write out he struggled so we split in 1/2 and finished later. Will continue to practice spelling until friday when he will get tested in school

I feel the challenge is keeping up with teaching methods. It's really important to me that I teach my children the same methods to work out problems, particularly in maths, that the school does. Our school offers open evenings for different subjects that show new ways of teaching subjects and current methods for solving problems. This helps me feel more confident that I am not causing further confusion by trying to help!

OMG my eldest daughter has just started year 7 and some of her maths homework is really hard, much more difficult than I remember from my school days

im best to do my sons english and other homework but my other half helps with our sons maths as id probably get it wrong! ha! but we make time for it and if he doesnt fully understand it make a note to the teacher to explain it a bit further - he gets in on a friday to be in on the monday :)

My daughters hw at present is reading simple books, writing words and doing simple maths. I find I need a huge amount of patience to be able to sit through and explain and help my daughter, especially in maths.

Mine have all had homework even from when they were in nursery class. The school sends home work sheets with maths, English and spellings. Some of my kids are very organized and bring their stuff home every night and ask for help and I sit with them and help them do their homework - others of them I have to chase and remind them and sometimes they have even left it at school! The older ones (High School age) tend to work independently and only ask for help when they get stuck. It is much easier when children have the motivation and want to do it and sometimes I wish the work was a bit more fun for them. Occasionally they send home something that I'm really not sure what they are asking or I can't remember how to do it in the way that they want it done (usually maths when there are 2 or 3 ways of doing it!) Sometimes it would be helpful for the school to send home a short explanation at the top of the sheet and an example to help. The worst things are when they send something that they haven't even done in the classroom and they haven't explained it to the kids and the kids can get quite upset and stressed out over homework pieces that they don't understand.
I didn't do any homework at primary school age so I have some mixed feelings about it. It was a shock for me at secondary, but it didn't make any difference in the long run as I still got good grades in my exams at GCSE & A level & I did a degree. Sometimes I think that the kids are very tired after school and it seems a little rough when they are still so small that they have extra work to do at home too. However I give the children stickers and small rewards for good work to encourage them.

We used to get home, they would still stay in school uniform to keep their mind set on the task in hand, sit at the living room table, with NO telly or interruptions, and I would sit with them and offer any encouragement if needed, this was a routine, if they went and got changed, started munching on snacks or the TV went on, we found that nothing got done, staying in school uniform until the work was done really seemed to do the trick!

My daughter is 8, when she gets homework. I ask her to explain it to me...to see if she has an understanding of it. Then I leave her to do it, unless she asks otherwise. I'll check it over afterwards, and if I notice anything wrong, I will ask her if she wants to double check, to see if she can figure out the error by herself.
The challenge we face is that she is in a Welsh school, so the majority is in welsh, and it's our second language. But thank goodness....google translate!

My son has just started secondary school and we are both finding it difficult to keep up with his homework! He has had ten pieces of homework to complete each week, plus he is supposed to read every night. I do enjoy helping him with it; but it has started to become a bit of a chore for both of us because he feels like he has mountains to climb, he also doesn't have a very good concentration span which doesn't help! I think homework is important and extra reading should be essential but has been taking up a lot of our weekends recently, so I do think there should be a certain amount; its about getting the balance right I guess.

My DD has just moved to Year 1, in theory I have no problem with homework and trying to support her with it but so far I believe she is given far too much and a lot of it is outside her capability level as they have merged her year to Year1/Year2. With this I find myself having to do a lot of it for her but presenting it in a way to make it look like she has done it, which I don't like to do as the homework is meant to benefit her own education. She has daily reading, daily spellings, challenge cards and home learning projects to carry out. It is a struggle as I also work and am glad I only have one childs homework to deal with as can't imagine how parents with multiple children manage it

i sit mine down with a drink and a snack to make homework more relaxed time rather than just more schoolwork

be with them as they do their homework to help/encourage them.

I have to be honest, and I know that I am not the only one. I really struggle with my DC's primary school maths!!! My friends school offers maths classes for the parents and I really think this would be beneficial in every school.

DD1 gets a lot of hw (y4) and having left the house at 7.30 and getting back at 5.30, we have just an hour or so to eat and do homework before bath and bed. Reading is often done while I am cooking and some done to herself, she is great with maths and spellings but needs to be pushed into writing. She can do it, she is just usually too tired. With Dd2 having started y1, she is also now doing a little homework as well as reading; she always needs help, and of course, needs to read and do key words with me.

I try to guide as much as I can, but maths methods etc have changed hugely and even as a teacher, I don't understand everything that is sent home!

One thing that makes me laugh is that my students usually tell me if their parents have helps or even done it for them.......that makes me very wary of too much help to my own!

my children get homework it is hard to find a fixed time to do homework and assist each of them :)

We usually sit down when we get home and go through what homework he has been given, I ask what he thinks he needs to do to complete it and give any advice if he needs it, and will be around while he does it, if it is a harder piece I will sit with him while he does it and talk him through the difficult bits encouraging him to work it out. Always try to get it done when it's been given rather than last minute, then theres no panicking and once it's done he can do what he likes

Sometimes I'm ok with homework but with roger after school activities it can be hard to fit it all in!!! I also do not have much patience so not always enjoyable!!

We try to get the kids to do their homework when they come home from school to try to avoid the sunday night homework blues!