Oh NO! Homework hell.

My daughter is in preschool, so far her only homework is to practice cutting with scissors lol. but i worked in daycare for a number of years and we helped the school kids with their homework. so i know how you feel. there was a lot of stuff that i couldn't remember how to do. it drove me crazy, especially math stuff because i was always good at math in school. its scary how much sooner kids are learning stuff too. have you ever watched jeff foxworthy's show "are you smarter than a 5th grader"? it makes me feel better because i'm not the only one who doesn't remember that stuff.

No stories of my own really, but I do remember clearly one of the first homeowrk assignments I brought home and how it stumped my mother. It had instructions that said "place a ring around the one that is different" and while I was trying to figure what was different, she was having a hard time figuring out why we would place a ring on it! Eventually, she decided that it meant circle the one that is different, but she laughs and tells people that was the day she figured out she was going to have to go back to kindergarten because she couldn't remember how to do homework! She also tells people she graduated highschool 5 times, once for herself, and 4 more times with each of us because she spent so much time on each of us through our schooling!

Wow!I have a 7 year old but I must say his teachers are really good!All that stuff is taken care of at school and he does his homework on his own. If he has a problem and a parent cannot help, the teacher says 'Write me a note and send it right back' and then she helps them at school. He usually needs my help with projects (getting pictures and reading) and we do that together. As a child I had to learn lots of stuff by rote...so I was quite impressed when my son's teachers teach them the quick fix methods (alligator,tables,etc) I'm not stumped yet by what he is learning and I do handle revision during tests and holidays. But there are a lot of sites on the net where you can help your child. Or another technique you can use is..try role play. Kids are usually smarter and understand what happens in the class though they might not be able to put them together and make sense. Ask HER to teach you and while she is doing it...she'll be reinforcing what she has learnt and you will be re-learning it. Ask her to be the teacher and do what the teacher did in class.

First of all, I am surprised you were able to post this discussion using those two symbols. Anytime I try and use them in a post it gets booted, or I get told to fix it. My daughter told me the alligator thing too and I was confused because I remember being taught that the one that is a tilted 'L' stands for "less than" but my daughter tells me it's otherwise. *shrug* (that's where I usually use those symbols LOL!) Yes, I was dumbfounded with my children's homework when they first started going to school. First, my parents NEVER helped me with homework so the idea that parents are expected to help their children with homework has me sitting on the fence. Some people say it is a benefit to parents as it helps them learn something new (or relearn something old). I have never been a math person so always have to leave that up to my husband. My oldest daughter was in grade 8 last year and you can't imagine the number of notes I had to send back to school saying that nobody understood the work. I am the English tutor of the family and, unbelievably French. My husband's first language is French but he is hopeless at it because they speak very bad slang where he is from. My eldest studied "The Outsiders" in grade 8 and I was happy to be able to help her because I loooooved that movie and read the book. Now, in grade 9, she is studying Shakespeare. Ugh! I hated Shakespeare. I have to tell her that she is in high school now and is not to rely on her parents for help anymore. If I can't help her she just shrugs and says, "Okay, I'll just tell the teacher I don't know." So the teachers are accepting of this. But I have been trying to help her. My sister was nice enough to give us a video of Romeo & Juliet so she has been reading along while watching the movie. I hope it is helping her. Am I rambling? Teaching my first daughter to read in kindergarten was a real fight. I hate homework as a kid, hated school, so having to help my kids with homework is aggravating for me.

I got left a long time ago. Have you watched the game show "are you smarter than a 5th grader"? I am astounded at the things these kids are doing in 1st-5th grade. A lot of the stuff they are doing now, we didn't do until jr high or later. Jeez.

Well I don't have kids so no. I think I'll do well with kids homework though. I've got the interests and even posts on mylot to prove it.

My son is to small. So now I don't have to worry about it. In case of maths, I think my hisband can handle it if required. All other subjects I can handle is what I think. For maths,youcan take the help of the website: http://www.songsforteaching.com/jennyfixmanedutunes/alligatorgreaterlessthan.htm http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/creekvalley/staffdev/Internet%20Sites/studentsites.htm Hope this helps.

Oh, you are so not alone here. I had to laugh when I read this one because I am always doing some crazy homework assignment with my 6th grader. Tonight after school we had to cut letters out of magazines and newspapers and spell out her spelling words "ransom note" style. It took forever! When she has questions about math though, she has to call a friend because that is not my strong point.

I don't have kids, but I am fortunate that i am actually very good at elementary and high school level work - it's what I do every day. I am a tutor, and I help kids aged 6 - 18 with their work, so everything stays very fresh in my mind.

Oh my goodness...Everything has changed so much since I went to school..My daughter is in second grade, and too fell silly sometimes...

I am dreading the age when my son starts bringing home homework too. I was never good at school and the things they learn these days are just so much more than what I was taught way back in the day. Don't worry, i know its going to be hard for me. Just as well his father is smart LOL

I remember once my mother did my math homework for me. It wasn't something she normally did, there was some reason for it but I can't recall what that might have been. Anyway, the next day more than half of the answers were wrong. I never asked her to do my homework again, and I've wondered over the years if she did it on purpose so I wouldn't ask her to or if she really is that bad at math.

You're not alone, sometime I also need to re-learn stuffs in order to teach my daughter how to answer her homework. And not only that, everyday she brings home tons of homeworks, schools are really not the same as they used to. Even her school projects are too hard to handle for her age, she always need my help in order to make them.

I help a 4th grader with his homework, and I definately know what you are talking about. Some of the things he is learning I didn't do until middle school, and often I don't have a clue how to solve his problems. I am in college now and the only solution I could think of is that now I am more advanced, and have forgotten about all of the "elementary" stuff; Especially with myself I noticed I try to overthink my cousins questions? It is either that or kids now are eating their weaties...lol..

Maths was always the worst one for me to deal with because I'm just so hopeless at it - even when I was at school myself I could never do it. I just don't understand it, no matter how many times it's explained to me. So when it came to my daughters maths homework she was really on her own with it. I was not much help at all I'm afraid!

First of all let me say that it feels very nice to connect with mothers in similar situations like me, who take an active personal interest in their child’s homework. Most moms I know around me either appoint part-time teachers in the evenings or take their child for after-school tuitions (I dislike both options). Now for our children and their homework…I have a saying that all of us go to school twice in our lives – once when we actually go ourselves and second when we visit school through the books & homeworks of our children. My kiddo is a year older to yours and is in Std 3 but from Std 1 itself I had to ‘initiate’ myself into the nitty-gritties of spellings, small sentences, simple arithmetic (your ‘greater/lesser’ incl), and such. The latest was a few months back when I had to teach him ‘short division’. Now division as we adults do is something totally different from what kids are taught in class and believe me I had to actually go thru his books & examples to rehash what I had myself learnt in Std 3. It was infuriating to say the least and got worse by the day, when in the course of ‘teaching’ him, I made silly mistakes just coz I no longer do my divisions that way. What a laugh my boy has at my expense and how I curse these schools!

No you are not the only one who has problems with their kids homework. You are not stupid because if you are so are almost all the parents in the world. LOL I was taught that the point for less goes to the left. So I think of Less = left. I like the aligator eats the greather number. Good luck and itn't the internet great. When my kids where little we did not have the internet to fall back on. We had to go to the library to call someone.

Hi, with the changing times, this is a common problem at all ends i think. I also have two kids and face this problem with my older one as what shes doing now in her 8th standard is something we did in our 11th-12tha nd that goes way beyond me at times and i also have to seek advice of my husband or then read and study up her book, to recollect or then look up the internet and find the answers for her. Though her school and teachers are good and make sure that what is taught in school, is well understood so that the kids can do it on their own at home, but at times when the kids fac probelms or have difficulties, they ask us at home,and we are caught up that time. But for smaller kids, my husband and myself are well able to manage and let her know whatever she wants. And i would suggest that incase you have a problem and are not still able to understand what to do in the home work etc, do write a note and send to your childs teacher, requesting that the topic be explained again in school ( as kids should know it well enough before they are sent home ) and to send a sample or some work thats been done previously in the class, so that we can refer to it and explain our kids too.

I've had similar problems before. I just look in the math book until it comes back to me... Had it been a paper I would have had to look it up on line though. Just wait till you have to explain fractions. And pre-algebra. ;)

I agree with you 100% ! I think with the homework today the parents are teaching more than they teach in school ! The worst part is that they do the work different than we was taught, and if we show them the break downs that we was taught they say it is wrong they teach different now ! It does make us look like a bunch of jerks ! LOL !