Technical help with homework

My son knows that I do not know everything. I remind him of this whenever he asks me about subjects that fall outside my knowledge base. When this does happen, I try to use some of the reference books we have in our home to answer his questions, but there have been lots of times when we've used the internet to learn more.

And so far, I am OK with that because I've still been included in a lot of those searches for more information. At school and as he gets older, however, my son will probably start looking up more things on his own.

And it is very likely that he'll stop even seeing if I know the answer first.

The study on that link found that at a certain point, most children stop asking their parents for homework help and turn to other sources for information. It's not clear whether those kids are tired of listening to Mom and Dad complain about "new math" or if it is just more efficient to find what they are looking for on their own.

But it is good for parents to know that this day is coming. It's good for us to think about ahead of time, so we can help teach our children about smart ways to research information - about double-checking sources and encouraging them to seek understanding of the information they read.

The goal, of course, is to ensure that my son has a way to find the things he is looking for. Maybe he'll even teach me a thing or two.

Does your child still ask you for help with homework? Talk about it in the comments.