Parent guide
How to help with maths homework without giving away the answer
A child slides a maths question across the table. You can see the answer. You also know that saying it aloud will finish this question without telling you whether they could manage the next one.
Start by finding the exact point where they got stuck. Then offer the smallest useful piece of help and let them try again. Sometimes that means a question. Sometimes it means showing an example. It does not mean leaving a frustrated child to guess indefinitely.
The approach below is a practical routine, with invented examples you can adapt to the method your child's teacher uses. It is not a promise about grades or a replacement for support from school.
First, ask what the homework is practising
Before explaining, ask: “How did you do a question like this in class?” Look at the example in the book, a teacher's note or an earlier exercise.
Perhaps the task is practising a written multiplication method, even though you can calculate the result mentally. Your shortcut may be correct but miss the purpose of the homework. If the school method is unfamiliar, ask your child to describe the parts they remember. You can write down the missing step for the teacher rather than introducing three competing methods tonight.
Also check whether this is independent assessed work. Follow the school's rules about help and permitted tools.
Find the stuck step before offering a hint
Try one question at a time:
- “What is the question asking you to find?”
- “What have you tried so far?”
- “Which bit still makes sense?”
Avoid delivering all three as a rapid-fire quiz. Give your child time to point, draw or explain in their own words. A long pause might mean they are thinking. It might also mean they need the question read aloud.
Imagine this problem: “There are six boxes with eight pencils in each. How many pencils are there altogether?”
A child might understand multiplication but lose track of the wording. Another might correctly write 6 × 8 but not recall the fact. Those are different starting points. Repeating the whole explanation for both would be unnecessary.
Use a small ladder of help
Start with a light prompt: “Could you draw the boxes?” If needed, make it more specific: “Draw six boxes and put eight marks in one of them. What would the other boxes contain?”
For a child who has already written 6 × 8, try: “Do you know 5 × 8?” They might use 40 plus another eight to reach 48.
Let them say why the extra eight belongs there. If the prompt still does not help, show a related example clearly. You do not have to turn every step into another question.
The Education Endowment Foundation's guidance on maths at home recommends clear worked examples followed by a similar problem, and highlights routines and encouragement when supporting older children. Read the EEF guidance.
Show one example, then hand back the pencil
Suppose the homework asks for 7 × 14 and your child is learning to split a number into tens and ones. On separate paper, demonstrate 6 × 13:
- Split 13 into 10 and 3.
- Six groups of 10 make 60.
- Six groups of 3 make 18.
- Add 60 and 18 to get 78.
Now return to 7 × 14. Ask your child to choose the split and complete the calculation. Keep the example visible if they need it. Later, offer another question without the example.
If they write 7 × 10 + 4 = 74, ask: “How many groups of four are there?” A drawing with seven rows can make the missing multiplication visible. The answer is 98: 70 plus 28.
These examples illustrate a possible conversation. They are not a prescribed sequence for every age or curriculum.
Check the thinking with a slightly different problem
A correct copied solution tells you very little. After finishing, try a small variation such as 7 × 15. Ask: “Could you use what you already know?”
One possible explanation is that 7 × 14 was 98, so one more group of seven gives 105. Another valid method is 70 + 35. Ask your child to explain the connection rather than insisting on your preferred wording.
If they cannot yet manage the variation, that is useful information. Return to the representation or leave a short note about the difficulty. You have found something to practise, rather than a reason to add ten more questions immediately.
When the session gets tense, reduce the task
Agree on a manageable stopping point: one question together, one attempt independently, then review. If everyone is getting upset, pause. A brief note to the teacher can be more useful than a completed page that hides how much help was needed.
For example: “Understands the grouping story; needed a drawing to work out the multiplication. Please check the written method.”
Notice specific effort: “You checked whether your answer matched the number of boxes.” That gives your child something concrete to repeat.
A simple plan for tonight
Choose one question. Ask where the difficulty begins. Offer one useful hint or a related worked example. Then let your child try a similar problem and explain their thinking.
For a different topic, use our equivalent-fractions explanation as material to discuss together. The same parent routine applies: find what is understood, support the next step, and make room for an independent attempt.