My sister has problems with homework and schoolwork, any advice?

Question

my sister is 8 years old, and although she's a great kid, she does have problem with her schoolwork. She's in the bottom third of her class according to my mum, and homework every night is a struggle. the 30 mins reading and english is fine, but its the maths mainly that she has heaps of trouble with, and homework can take an 1 and a 1/2 hours, sometimes more.

She is almost scared of it and keeps saying she's no good. practising her 5 times tables often involves a fight as she's unwilling to do them and starts crying. My mum has a short temper and tends to get angry and yell if it starts taking too long or my sis starts protesting, even backchatting, and so im the peacekeeper in the house when things get rough.

what can i do to make sure my mum is able to get through homework with her and make it fun? and any tips on controlling anger if it starts to get hard to communicate with my sister? I'd like my lil sis to pass this year, i love her to bits.

Answer 1

help her,,make it easy for her,,i used to dread what i couldnt do at primary school,, when it was time for maths i'd pretend to b ill and stuff like that i feared it..but now im in secondary school and am in top set for maths because i can do it..u enjopy what youre good at, help her to be god at it,, break everything down for her go slower, explain it in a way she'll understand use fun and games

Answer 2

why don't you offer to assist her in her math seeing that that's the subject that she's struggling most with, any bit of help will work for her, also talk to mom about stressing won't help the situation any better, patience is the key, trust me i have 2 boys my eldest used to go through similar problems with math, now he does fine in school, all i did was used alot of patience in teaching him or helping him with his HW and he did well, also a tutor can be of great help too, if mom cannot afford one, she can go to the school that your sister attends and request a tutor some schools has teenage kids that assists in tutoring after school, and it's free of charge so u can check it out, or have mom talk to the teacher about finding one that can help her.Good luck!

Answer 3

Ask the school teacher is she can go in a lower level of Maths and ask about tutoring - it will help her heaps. Look at the homework with her and try and make little rhymes so she remembers things.

She'll be fine :)

Answer 4

A trick for the 9's....

Put the finger of the first digit in the equation down.... so

2x9= She would put her second finger down on her left hand.... The fingers left up would be her answer. The one before her finger thats down is the 10th's, the other are the ones. So if you do it right you will see your fingers equal 18.

Maybe you could practice with her and make her think its fun.

Answer 5

Your mom DEFINITELY needs to have a talk with your teacher. third graders should have about 30 minutes of homework every night, literally!!! Add a zero to the end of their grade that is how many minutes they should have every night, that's what my math teacher told us.

I'm in 7th grade and i get less homework than that!! I only get like an hour each night.

I think if the teacher lowered the homework to about 40 minutes TOTAL ( of every subject ) then she would be fine.

You really need to get her on track now, because when I was in elementary school math was my perfect subject, I had a 97% on my final report card in math, then when I start middle school math ( although I was in adv. math ) I got a C on my first report card because our homework minutes literally almost trippled. Now math is my LEAST favorite subject and im struggling with it.

If it's still too much in the future, hire a tutor. I have a tutor 4 hours a week and its wonderful, he really does help me out!

Hope that helped:)

Answer 6

You should tell your mum that she she go to the school and reequest a tutor or someone that will help her. You can also enroll her into an afterschool program they usually help you with your homework. You can also get  a mentor or someone.

Answer 7

the teacher shoule be able to give u w=eitehr a shorter list of homework during the week and make up for it during the weekend. BTW studies proves that homework does not work. Homework does not make a student become  a better student, the only thing it does is frustrate everyone. Homework is meant to be a period to be creative, read books and write reports.

Answer 8

Get a chart with all the tables and stick it up on the wall. Every night, do a new table with her up as far as 5 (eg 2x1, 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, 2x5) eg. Monday do 2x Tuesday do 3x etc. When she is asking for a treat get her to say up to 5 (eg 2x1, 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, 2x5) If she gets them right, give her the treat. If she gets it wrong, tell her, get her to recite it (give her the treat) and ask her again later in the day. Make sue you praise her loads.

Keep a star chart to see how she's doing. Everyweek, once she has accomplished how many she has done. Be patient with her, and at the end of the week, take her out or ice-cream or buy her a new toy etc

You might consider getting her extra help with maths. Always make sure to help her with maths and be there to check her homework every evening.