When you correct your kid's homework

[Anonymous]

My children's homework is graded for completeness, not accuracy, which is fine with me. The schools they go to do suggest that parents help their kids with their homework. If my kids know how to do the work but make a careless mistake, my help is, "Hey, take another look at this problem." If they don't know how to do it, I will teach it to them. So fine, no problem there. I'm not interested in being told not to look at the homework because I am following the school's approach.

I notice a lot of mistakes that are not tied to the homework. For example, my kid brought home a science worksheet that is rife with spelling and grammar mistakes, but not necessarily wrong. Would you correct that? I worry about discouraging a kid with too many corrections, but at the same time, he's got to learn to check his work for things like your/you're or to/too/two mistakes or subject/verb agreement or capitalizing proper nouns. These are things that he has been taught and knows when completing a worksheet geared towards that lesson but does not pay attention to if it is not being specifically addressed. It kills me to see it, but it's 6th grade, not a job interview.

[Anonymous]

Ask him how he’s like you to handle it. Maybe he’ll tell you he wants it to be right in all aspects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ask him how he’s like you to handle it. Maybe he’ll tell you he wants it to be right in all aspects.

OP here. He's a good kid, but lazy about homework. He knows it won't affect his grade and would rather not spend the time on corrections he would deem not necessary.

[Anonymous]

The truth is, if you hold yourself and your children to high standards, they will be better educated and have a better change of going further in life, professionally and socially.

I have always corrected my children, in both the languages we use. For written work, I point out the little inattentive mistakes casually. If I notice the same verb being conjugated wrong every time (in French, happens often!), then I know we need to go over that conjugation. They've never been upset about it, because I've always done it, and I don't blame or shame them.

[Anonymous]

Oh! 6th grade! At that level, YES, I would absolutely go over spelling patterns, grammar, etc. It should really be automatic. I don’t know why soooo many children now are not spelling well. Your kid is not the only one, trust me. I noticed it in my 4th grader, and I am doing separate spelling lessons on the side to reinforce things she’s already learned.

[Anonymous]

My kid is not a good speller. He is ok if he takes the time and truly terrible if he rushes.

I correct all his spelling, punctuation, grammar no matter what he's doing and if his homework is really sloppy, I have him erase it and do it again.

It's the whole - how you practice is how you play the game.

I frame it for him as do your best, always. Not just when you think someone is watching or when it's getting grade. That's how you build habits. I also do it in a really upbeat and casual way and he's used to it.

[Anonymous]

“. I don’t know why soooo many children now are not spelling well.”

Not a surprise since schools do not teach any spelling rules.

[Anonymous]

With things like that, I let my daughter tell me verbally what the corrections are.

[Anonymous]

Are you asking if you should go over your 6th graders homework and correct for grammar or correctness when the teacher doesn't?

I honestly would not. That seems really helicopter-ish to me.

If it's graded for completion, fine, let them complete. If they end up doing poorly on a test, then it may be because they didn't practice well.

Time for the kid to learn how to manage on their own.

[Anonymous]

DD’s math class grades hw for completion, but then reviews all of the answers in class to allow students to correct errors.

I do review her other subjects for errors, but not in a way that would alter her grade. I point out language errors and lack of clarity for SS, but not factual inaccuracies. In English, I point out any factual inaccuracies that are not text-dependent. For example, if DD wrote Mexico was in South America or Morocco in the Middle East in an English essay about her travel bucket list, I’d have her fix those.