Helping a child with maths homework without giving the answers

To help your child with maths homework, stay close, ask questions rather than give answers, and let them explain each step in their own words. Your job is to keep them thinking while they do the work themselves.

Primary maths in England follows the national curriculum, which sets out what pupils learn in each year from Year 1 to Year 6. Knowing roughly where your child is in that sequence makes homework easier to support: you can tell the practice of known facts, such as times tables, from a new method that needs patience. This guide covers what each year group learns, how to guide without giving answers, what to do when the method is not the one you learned, how to practise times tables at home and how to handle the evenings when homework ends in tears.

What primary school maths covers, year by year

The national curriculum for mathematics lists, year by year, what pupils should be taught. The table picks out the number facts and written methods that most often turn up in homework.

Two milestones are worth knowing. By the end of Year 2, pupils should know the number bonds to 20, and by the end of Year 4 they should have memorised their multiplication tables up to and including the 12 times table. If homework in Year 5 or Year 6 feels slow, check those two sets of facts first: a hesitation on 8 + 7 or 6 × 8 slows down every longer calculation.

The curriculum also states its first aim plainly: pupils should become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics through varied and frequent practice. Homework is one of the places where that practice happens.

Maths homework help: questions that guide instead of answers

Homework shows the teacher what your child can do alone. If you correct every line, the page looks perfect and the teacher loses the information they need. A short note such as "found question 4 hard, needed help with the second step" is more useful than a corrected answer.

When your child gets stuck, a question usually does more than an explanation. Some that work at any age:

Most of these questions ask the child to explain. Explaining a method out loud is a check in itself, and children sometimes spot their own mistake halfway through the sentence. If they still cannot start after a few minutes, work through a similar example with different numbers, then let them go back to the homework question on their own.

When the method is not the one you learned

Many parents meet an unfamiliar layout in Year 2 or Year 3: numbers split into tens and ones, jumps along a number line, or counters set out in rows. These pictures show the structure behind a calculation, so that the written method makes sense when it arrives.

The Department for Education's guidance on teaching mathematics in primary schools identifies the core concepts pupils need as they progress from Year 1 to Year 6. Its introduction explains that the same representations, such as tens frames and counters, are used across year groups so that new learning connects to earlier learning. It also stresses that pupils need automatic recall of a core set of addition and multiplication facts, so that they can focus on learning new concepts.

Three habits help when the page looks strange:

• Ask your child to teach you. Explaining the class method to a parent is good practice, and you learn the layout the school expects.
• Look for the worked example. Books and worksheets often start with one; follow its layout rather than your own.
• Ask the teacher. A short message about how a method is taught avoids two methods competing at the kitchen table.

Your own method is still useful, for example to check an answer. The risk is in teaching it the night before a lesson that builds on the class method.

Times tables at home, a few minutes a day

Times tables suit short, regular practice at home. The national curriculum spreads them over three years: the 2, 5 and 10 times tables in Year 2, the 3, 4 and 8 times tables in Year 3, and all the tables up to 12 × 12 in Year 4. In Year 4, pupils in England also take the multiplication tables check, which tests that recall.

A few minutes on most days is easier to keep up than a long session at the weekend. Some ideas that need no equipment:

• Build from facts they know. The 4 times table is the 2 times table doubled, and the 8 times table is the 4 times table doubled: 7 × 8 is double 7 × 4, so double 28, which is 56.
• Ask the division too. If 6 × 7 = 42 is secure, ask 42 ÷ 7 and 42 ÷ 6.
• Mix the order. Reciting 1 × 6 up to 12 × 6 is a start; answering 9 × 6 out of order is the real test.
• Use spare minutes. A car journey, the walk to school or a queue is long enough for five questions.

Each of the multiplication tables from 2 to 12 has its own page with tricks and practice questions. Kalc trains times tables, fractions, percentages and algebra in about ten minutes a day, which fits the same short daily rhythm.

Help your child with maths when homework ends in tears

Some evenings, homework turns into a fight. Pushing on rarely helps. A few rules stop maths from becoming the subject everyone dreads:

• Stop and come back. A ten-minute break, or leaving the task until the morning, can unlock a question that seemed impossible.
• Set a limit. If the task takes far longer than the teacher planned, stop and write a note saying how long your child worked and where they got stuck.
• Praise the method. "You checked your answer by adding back" tells your child what to repeat; "clever" does not.
• Watch your own words. "I was never good at maths either" is meant kindly, but it suggests that ability is fixed.

If the same topic causes tears week after week, talk to the teacher. A persistent difficulty is useful information for the school, which can adjust the work or offer extra practice in class. Keep the conversation specific: which topic, which kind of question, and what your child says when they get stuck.

From Year 6 to secondary school

By the end of Year 6, the national curriculum expects pupils to be fluent in written methods for all four operations, including long multiplication and long division, and in working with fractions, decimals and percentages. Those skills are the starting point for secondary maths, described in our guide to maths in Year 7.

The habits you build in primary school travel with your child: explaining a method aloud, checking an answer by another route, and practising facts little and often. They matter more than any single homework sheet, and they are easier to set up at eight than at twelve.

You do not need to be good at maths to help. Sitting nearby, asking the questions above and taking an interest in what was learned in class is enough to make homework a shared ten minutes rather than a battle.

Frequently asked questions

How can I help with maths homework if I don't know the method?

Ask your child to explain the method used in class, look for a worked example in the book or on the sheet, and ask the teacher if you are unsure. Avoid teaching a different method the night before a lesson.

Which times tables should my child know in each year?

The national curriculum sets the 2, 5 and 10 times tables in Year 2, the 3, 4 and 8 times tables in Year 3, and all the tables up to 12 × 12 in Year 4.

Should parents correct mistakes in maths homework?

Usually not line by line. Homework shows the teacher what your child can do alone, so a short note about where they struggled is more useful than corrected answers.

What written methods does primary school maths teach?

Columnar addition and subtraction from Year 3, short multiplication and short division in Year 4, long multiplication in Year 5 and long division in Year 6, according to the national curriculum.

What can I do when my child gets upset about maths homework?

Take a break, set a time limit and tell the teacher where your child got stuck. If the same topic causes problems week after week, ask the school for support.