A guide for parents
How to help with math homework without solving it for them
The easiest thing is to show the way. The most useful thing is to ask the right question. This guide is about the questions.
Why it’s so hard not to solve it for them
It’s late, the kids are tired, and you see the solution in a second. The most natural thing is to take the pencil and show them. But when you solve it, the problem is over and the learning stops. The next time they get stuck, they’ll wait for you again.
Your goal on an evening like this isn’t a right answer in the notebook. It’s that they manage the next step on their own.
Five questions instead of an answer
“What have you tried already?”
Start from what they did, not from what you know. Sometimes, while explaining, they find the mistake themselves.
“What is the problem asking?”
Many get stuck at the reading. Ask them to say the question in their own words.
“Where exactly did you get stuck?”
“I don’t understand anything” is almost never the case. Look together for the first step that isn’t clear.
“Have you solved a similar problem before?”
Look for an example in the notebook or the book. What worked once is a good place to start.
“How can you check?”
In an equation, put the answer back in. In addition, subtract. A child who checks for themselves doesn’t need you to say whether they were right.
What to do with a mistake
Don’t correct it right away
Say “let’s check this” instead of “that’s wrong”.
Ask them to check
Ask them to put the answer back in or do the opposite operation, and see for themselves that something doesn’t fit.
Find the step
Ask which step looks suspicious. A mistake usually sits in one step, not in the whole problem.
A similar problem, alone
Once they’ve found and fixed it, give a similar problem. That’s how you check the idea stayed.
What to say instead
Instead of
- “Give it to me, I’ll show you.”
- “It’s easy, just think.”
- “No, that’s not how.”
- “At your age I could already do this.”
Try
- “Show me what you’ve done so far.”
- “Which part looks the most confusing?”
- “Let’s check the answer together.”
- “What’s already clear to you in this problem?”
And what if you don’t remember the material?
It happens to many parents, and that’s fine. Ask your kids to explain the topic to you, as if you were the student. When you explain something to someone else, you quickly see what’s clear and what isn’t yet. You don’t need to know the answer to ask a good question.
When frustration rises
A short break
A few minutes of something else helps more than another try in the same moment.
A smaller step
If the problem is too big, break it up. Just the first line, just the first step.
Remind them what already worked
“You solved the last one on your own” reminds them they can.
Frequently asked questions
How long should I sit with my child on homework?
There’s no single right number. Stop when helping turns into solving it for them, or when the frustration builds. What matters is that they take the next step, not how long you sat.
What if my method is different from what they learn in class?
Ask how the teacher explained it, and try to follow that way. Two different methods on the same evening confuse more than they help.
Is it OK to give the answer sometimes?
Sometimes, yes — for example when they’re stuck on a minor step. Afterwards, ask them to explain why the answer is right, and give a similar problem to do alone.
This is exactly how Maya teaches
Maya, ALMA’s AI math teacher, works the same way: she starts from what you tried and asks before she explains. You can see it in the demo.