Love it or hate it, most primary school children are given regular homework. Whilst it’s sadly common for kids to dislike homework, it might surprise you that around two-thirds of parents are not confident in helping their children with homework tasks.

So if this sounds like you, you are in good company! 

In this blog post, I’m sharing with you the five things that parents tell me they dread about helping with homework most frequently.

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Luckily, I worked in schools where I had a decent amount of autonomy, so I set weekly tasks that were open-ended, fun, optional and could be completed in any way that they saw fit.

Persuading kids to sit down and do their homework can be a daily battle. You’ve likely experienced some level of resistance or defiance when trying to encourage them to get tasks done, perhaps they flat-out refuse. That battle is stressful enough, without additional struggles piled on top! 

Here are the five homework issues parents of primary school parents share with me most often…

Home time should be when they can be a child again – decompress from the day, have fun, recharge and just be themselves. Children can’t learn properly if they are tired, which makes most homework tasks pretty pointless! Well-rested, happy brains learn best.

Children tend to think that as adults we have all the answers. Wouldn’t it be great if we did? It’s been a long time since we left school and even if we do remember what was taught, that knowledge is likely to be rusty. The curriculum has changed so much that it’s barely recognisable to most of us. 

Many parents of children that I tutor tell me that they feel embarrassed or even ashamed if their child asks for help with homework but they don’t know how to.

If what they are being asked to do leaves you scratching your head it’s frustrating and stressful. Googling for help might be a saviour, but the sheer amount of information can also be overwhelming.

A shocking amount of adults, myself included, didn’t have a positive experience of maths during our school years. Maths anxiety is very common in adults. Parents with it often worry about their fears transferring to their kids so they prefer to avoid getting involved with maths homework altogether.

Homework can get stuffed into bookbags without much in the way of instructions. Not knowing exactly what your child is expected to do or how they should be doing it is incredibly frustrating! 

Let’s take spellings for example – perhaps it’s routine for your child to get a seemingly random list of spellings each week, but what is the best way to support them in learning them? Unless you know a range of strategies for learning spelling rules or are supplied with interesting and varied activities, what exactly do you do with that list?

Not knowing what expectations are can leave you second-guessing yourself – are you doing it right or causing confusion?

Are any of these five common struggles also your pet peeves or do you have a different struggle with homework? Let me know in the comments below!

Recommended Reading & Resources

• Maths anxiety – new research shows 47% of parents dread maths! – FE News
• Three quarters of parents rely on the internet to do kids’ homework – Heart