I’m in a bit of a time warp because my youngest doesn’t start school for another week, while my older two are doing year round school now so haven’t really had a summer vacation to come back from. Still, it’s hard to ignore all the signs and I know that there are a lot of you that are breathing a sigh of relief that it is indeed back to school season. Finally. 🙂
After three months of relaxation it might be hard to remember, but soon enough we’ll be facing one of the great challenges of parenting school-age children: helping them with homework. If it’s a subject you know well or they’re in an early grade, no worries, but your 8th grader asking for help with Civil War history or even your 5th grader asking for assistance with their honors algebra class can be cause for that cold chill that runs down your back when you realize it’s possible that they already know more about something than you do!
Pop online and particularly if it’s an essay project or book report, there are tons of sites that sell assignments. Yes, that’s cheating and plagiarism is far more prevalent than it’s ever been in the past (don’t believe me? Ask a teacher). There are also kids who every year believe that Wikipedia is a legitimate source, citing it as if it’s the gospel. It’s not, and certainly in college that’s a quick path to a very low grade indeed.
Enter HomeworkHelpdesk.org, a great Web site aimed at both students and their parents and focused on the big three: math, science and English. It’s also not run by a bunch of suspicious characters but a national non-profit called Get Schooled, founded on the belief that students have the power to improve their own future if given the right information.
I’ve pointed my kids at the site — and sometimes they definitely seem to prefer being able to find an answer themselves instead of always asking Mom or Dad for assistance — and hope you can find a few minutes to check it out too. Frankly, even if you’re quasi-omniscient, it’s helpful to have a legit site for assistance with your children’s homework, and one that’s designed to help them learn rather than help them cheat and take some shortcuts that could prove a problem down the road? That’s just a win in my book.
Oh, and they have a fun video advertisement too:
What do you think?
Homework Helpdesk.org. Darn helpful!
Now, tell me about how you help your child with their homework assignments?
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Get Schooled. The opinions and text are all mine.