Working parents, how do you help your child with homework?

[Imp75]

As I am a FTWM, I don’t have the luxury of time to coach my 3 kids everyday. I wil ensure the kids finish their homework, then I will eyeball their homework to ensure it is ok. That’s all for weekdays, for weekends, my kids will go for Chinese enrichment and other activities/play sessions. I think it is still ok as my kids are in low Primary and coping well in school without much supervision, so I am not overly concerned over their studies

[iLoveChubby]

Hi all

My DS is in P2, pm session.
I have a timetable for him : -
Morning : Assessment book/enrichment homework.
Nite : School homework/reading.
At night, after my work, I will mark his work, help him on questions he doesnt know and I always make sure I allocate time for his reading at nite, even its for only 15 mins.
Like Yong HL, i also limit abt 1-1.5 hours per session, if not they will get cranky and the concentration will be all gone esp they are doing work without any supervision.

The challenge is for them to follow the timetable and be disciplined.
And I give them star rewards if they behave and do their work well and they can redeem the rewards to get sth they want (eg small gifts like angry bird sharpener etc)

What to do?... since cant be home to supervise them all e time.. and they totally do not listen to my helper at home too... and at times hell broke loose whenever I am not ard, my helper wil call me and complaint, \"Mdm, they are not doing work...\" :boogie:

And my kids hv enrichment classes on Thur nite, Fri nite, sats and suns!!..

[HAPPYH]

I always ask my DD to do her school homework and spelling first. After that, few pages of assessment books. It worked fine in P1. I started to see the deviation in P2. P3 worst. She is going for enrichments, swimming and CCA in the afternoons/evenings. She waits for me until I reach home - sometimes 7 pm sometimes even 8 pm. Then starts to do the homework, etc, etc. Although very tiring, I will sit with her at least for an hour during the week days. She has no choice during weekends as I will be around. So most of the extra work (assessment books) are done during week ends. SO far looks fine.

[HAPPYH]

iLoveChubby:

Hi all

My DS is in P2, pm session.
I have a timetable for him : -
Morning : Assessment book/enrichment homework.
Nite : School homework/reading.
At night, after my work, I will mark his work, help him on questions he doesnt know and I always make sure I allocate time for his reading at nite, even its for only 15 mins.
Like Yong HL, i also limit abt 1-1.5 hours per session, if not they will get cranky and the concentration will be all gone esp they are doing work without any supervision.

The challenge is for them to follow the timetable and be disciplined.
And I give them star rewards if they behave and do their work well and they can redeem the rewards to get sth they want (eg small gifts like angry bird sharpener etc)

And my kids hv enrichment classes on Thur nite, Fri nite, sats and suns!!..

Yes, I am trying my best to implement the timetable, but so far no fruit:(
Even the stickers, rewards did not work.

[Yong HL]

Is the homework time at night effctively used? My case, often spend time repeating things which she forgets… Can be very frustrating coz we are stuck and cannot move forward… Then before i know it, the precious 1hr is gone and everything else brought forward to following night… And sometimes history repeat itself… Is this a common situation or… Its just me?

[iLoveChubby]

Yong HL:

Is the homework time at night effctively used? My case, often spend time repeating things which she forgets... Can be very frustrating coz we are stuck and cannot move forward.... Then before i know it, the precious 1hr is gone and everything else brought forward to following night.. And sometimes history repeat itself.. Is this a common situation or.... Its just me?

Me too.. i get v frustrated (esp after a long day's work, exhausted) whenever I need to explain couple of times to my DS.
My DH always tell me not to scream at him, hv to be very patient... trying v hard to control my temper at times... :frustrated:

That's why for me, enrichment classes are a must because if i m the only \"teacher\" for him outside school, i thk my DS will detest learning because of all my nagging/screaming....
And i do realise he seems to absorb/learn better at the classes...

[Yong HL]

iLoveChubby:

Me too.. i get v frustrated (esp after a long day's work, exhausted) whenever I need to explain couple of times to my DS.
My DH always tell me not to scream at him, hv to be very patient... trying v hard to control my temper at times... :frustrated:

I just had my fair share of screaming this afternoon. My precious hour is wasted coz she is careless this time. All problem sums wrong! Wrote the wrong numbers in formula.. Misread the questions!! Then yesterday was forget! I really :mad:

[HAPPYH]

Yong HL:

iLoveChubby:

Me too.. i get v frustrated (esp after a long day's work, exhausted) whenever I need to explain couple of times to my DS.
My DH always tell me not to scream at him, hv to be very patient... trying v hard to control my temper at times... :frustrated:

I just had my fair share of screaming this afternoon. My precious hour is wasted coz she is careless this time. All problem sums wrong! Wrote the wrong numbers in formula.. Misread the questions!! Then yesterday was forget! I really :mad:

I can understand your frustation. At the same time, we must also realise that most of the kids (esp my DD) are like this only. We should constantly encourage them. They are just kids; but because of this stressful educaion system here, we parents end up with frustation.

[Funz]

Yong HL:

iLoveChubby:

Me too.. i get v frustrated (esp after a long day's work, exhausted) whenever I need to explain couple of times to my DS.
My DH always tell me not to scream at him, hv to be very patient... trying v hard to control my temper at times... :frustrated:

I just had my fair share of screaming this afternoon. My precious hour is wasted coz she is careless this time. All problem sums wrong! Wrote the wrong numbers in formula.. Misread the questions!! Then yesterday was forget! I really :mad:

How old is your kid? This is only the 3rd week of the new school year so maybe she's still cranking up her gear?

Problem sums? School work or work assigned by you?

DD is in P3 and sometimes when I try explaining something to her, she simply doesn't seem to get it. I get frustrated, she shut down. I did my fair share of screaming and yelling at them but over time, I realise, sometimes they simply won't get it the first time round. You can explain until the cows come home and they still will not get it and soon their eyes will glaze over. So I shelve it and move on to other stuff first. If it involves her school work, I will show her and let her copy first, just to complete that piece of work. When the time allows, I will revisit the topic and explain to her again.

I am also trying to enforce the timetable for my 2 fellas. I reward if they do follow the timetable well. I remove privileges if they ignore the timetable and work does not get done. It is still a work in progress and they need constant reminders about what is next on their timetable.

[nms1]

Homework is for the children to do not for us to do. I know taht we want to help them but I would suggest letting them do it before you come home so that they really have to try to do it themselves.


I get very frustrated with my m-i-l sometimes as she will sit with my daughter when she does her Chinese so as soon as she hits a small problem she will help instead of letting her figure it out.

If your child really doesn’t understand something even after you explain then let her hand it it wrong so that the teacher knows. Last year when my daughter was in P1 my m-i-l virtually did all her maths homework for her one day but she didn’t understand it at all. I emailed the teacher and she called a few days later to say that it turned out hardly anyone in the class understood so she was going over it again. Don’t pretend that your child did it on their own when they didn’t. You are not helping.