Advice for parents on how much help to give with homework?

My daughter is in year 8 and gets what seem to me to be really demanding homework. She claims not to know what I think she needs to know in order to be able to complete the tasks. Should we let her give in work which is what she can produce on her own but basically incorrect, or should we spend hours effectively teaching her at home? I'm concerned that if we give her too much help then the teacher will think that she knows more than she does, but then if we give her no help, will we know when there's a problem? I'd be really grateful for any advice, from parents and teachers!Advice for parents on how much help to give with homework?
From a (secondary maths) teachers point of view, I see homework as a way of assessing what they have done in class, to see if they have fully understood. I teach Y10 and 11 and encourage the students to write me messages about how they find the work both classwork and homework which helps me. Maybe you or your daughter could write a sentence at the bottom of the work explaining how much support was given.





Children can be sly/lazy, are you sure she's not just making you do the work? Maybe support her by sitting with her while she searches the Internet for help, rather than giving her all the answers. It may be that she starts to remember much more from class if you are not spoon feeding her the answers. But I wouldn't let her hand in wrong homework, as then she is in effect learning something wrong, and Murphy's law would be that she remembers the wrong information.





If you are concerned then contact the head of Year and discuss your concerns, it may be that she is in too high sets and would benefit from being moved down, but only the subject teachers would be able to answer that one!





Hope this helps!Advice for parents on how much help to give with homework?
Our school suggests that homework for our eight year old should take no more then half an hour. If she is stuck, we will explain a question to her etc. After half an hour what is done is done, and we put a note in to say that unable to finish the task in the time.





The school needs to know what the child can do........ if you do too much then you are correct your child may be assessed as being more able and then get less help in class, which perpetuates the problem.





My daughter only gets homework once a week, with reading and spelling on other nights. It is a matter of getting some balance, if she is working hard all day at school then she needs some down time, and also exercise, fun time and family time too.





It might be worth booking an appointment with your daughters teacher and having a chat with her about it. You are both on the same side - wanting the best for your daughter.
as a parent and a teacher, I would definitely help her at home understand what she needs in order to do the homework but definitely let the teacher know what you are doing at home. You might need to have a conference or two with the teachers in order to understand if this is work to follow up lessons in the classroom or to cover material the teacher couldn't cover in school.





I would definitely let the teacher know she's struggling so when the test comes it's not a surprise to teacher that she didn't do well. Maybe the teacher might need to spend a few minutes with your child every day to review.
Discuss this with the teacher who is setting the work, before doing anything else.
I think it is important to help children understand the method, help them as much as you can in teaching them how to work things out but not actually giving specific answers.


Give them the method, let them put it in to practise.





Edit:


I think for something like languages you need to speak to her teacher directly, or put a note in her french book explaining that your child is having great difficulty in understanding what she needs to do, and you are unsure of how to help her.


By communicating your worries to her teacher you can help eachother and your daughter understand her needs in this subject.


Is there an after school languages club where she can go to get help? if not can she suggest to her teacher it might be an idea to set one up for pupils?
Homework is designed to make your child think rather than for you to produce the answers. Tell her the method (if you know!) but don't do it for her. Eventually she will need to do exams and she can't take you with her.
You should help her anyway because if you don't, then she'll stay not knowing much. Show her how to do a problem or two and let her take it from there.
Perrsonally i suggest geting the child to do the work on their own in a seperate exercise book ; then the parent checks it and explains anything the child did not understand and the child makes their own amendments themselves as you go along. then the child copies thier final answers into the book that the school provides.
I have a seven year old, i agree with you that he gets far to much homework. I just help as much as I can, but make him work out the final answer. I also allow him to use the computer to find answers. Hope this helps.