Should I help my child with his homework?
You want to kind of bear in mind the purpose of the homework. The purpose of the homework is for the child to practice the skill and get better at it. So to the extent that your help is helping him do that, then you're doing a great thing. You're saying, "okay, you don't forget--remember how to do that. Let me show you and let's do the problem out here, let's do the process and let's talk about it. Okay, now you try it. Okay, that looks good, try another one. Okay, you're making a little mistake there, let's correct that. Do you remember? You're supposed to subtract before you multiply," or whatever the process is. And as long as you're doing that, as long as you're talking them through it, as long as they're learning and as long as they're practicing, then your help is a wonderful thing. The only time it gets bad is when you say, "Alright, give me that essay, I'm going to correct it for you," and the child isn't gaining anything out of it. The homework's getting done, but the child's not learning. Or when you take, heaven forbid, or when you take the homework and you do it for them: "it's due tomorrow, it has to get done, you go to bed, I'll do your homework." You're not helping anyone. You're not helping your child learn the skill or practice the skill, you're not helping the teacher get a good assessment of what your child can do, and you're not helping your child learn that he needs to get his, his homework done. So there's definitely a line, but as long as you're being productive, definitely. You should definitely help.
