When Your Child Refuses Math Homework

Iwanai Nishi Elementary School in Hokkaido publishes a home study guide (in Japanese) that gives a target for time at home: 10 minutes per grade, plus 10 minutes of reading. For a second grader, that is 30 minutes in total.

An hour of arguing over one math worksheet every night is a long way from that. Before making it a question of your child’s persistence, look at what is actually happening.

This article is about telling apart the reasons a child refuses homework, and about how a parent can be involved.

Separate what “I don’t want to” means

The same refusal can mean different things for different children, and on different days. Here are the possible reasons.

They don’t understand it. They did not follow what was taught, so they have no idea what to do. They stop suddenly at a particular problem.

It takes too long. They understand it, but the finish looks far away, and starting feels heavy.

Writing is the hard part. The answer is in their head, but writing digits and copying expressions is tiring. Ask them to say the answers and they come out easily.

They hate being wrong. Having mistakes pointed out hurts, so they avoid starting at all. They may erase a lot, or stop when a parent looks.

It is so easy that it’s boring. The same kind of problem goes on and on. In the developer interview, the answer was: “Personally, I was good at both math and arithmetic. Even so, I was bored by school lessons and paper drills.”

It is the back-and-forth with a parent. Sometimes the problem is less math than being told things from the side. If your child does the same problems at school or at after-school care but not at home, this may be it.

They are tired right now. Sometimes it is only the time of day: straight after school, after an activity, just before bed.

It isn’t always just one. A child who at first just didn’t understand can build up memories of fights, until the word “homework” is enough.

What to watch for

When your child is in a good mood, look at three things.

When the refusal starts. If it starts before they have seen the worksheet, it is the memory of homework or the time of day. If it starts when they see it, it is the amount or how hard it looks. If they begin and then stop, there is something there they don’t understand.

Which problems stop them. If it is always the same kind of problem, that is the gap. If they are equally slow everywhere, it may be writing speed or focus. Having them solve one problem out loud makes this easier to see. More on this is in When Your Child Is Slow at Math Facts.

How they treat math elsewhere. If they happily work out money while shopping or add up scores in a game, and refuse only homework, they don’t dislike numbers. The things to look at are the form of the homework and how the time is set up at home.

Research on parents helping

A 2008 review by Erika Patall and colleagues pulled together research on parents’ involvement in homework. In 14 studies of training parents in how to be involved, homework completion went up and homework problems went down, and academic performance possibly improved among elementary school children. Separately, looking at involvement and achievement across 22 samples from 20 studies, the link was positive for elementary and high school students and negative for middle school students, and by subject it was negative for math. Among the ways of being involved, setting rules had a stronger link to achievement than the others.

A 2015 study by Erin Maloney and colleagues followed 438 American first and second graders over a school year. When parents were anxious about math and also helped often with math homework, their children learned less over the year and ended it more anxious about math. In homes where parents helped less often, parents’ anxiety was not related to their children’s achievement.

Neither result says that more help is simply better.

On homework and achievement in general, a 2006 review by Harris Cooper and colleagues found an overall positive effect of homework, but reported that the correlation with achievement is weaker in elementary school than in grades 7 to 12.

One way to read this is to place a parent’s role in arranging the place, the time and the rules, rather than in standing in for the teacher.

When you sit next to them

These are for younger children, or for a stretch when something isn’t clear.

Do only the first problem together. Read the first problem aloud and solve it together, then let them do the second one alone.

Hand over a question, not the answer. When they stop, ask “How far did you get?” or “What does the problem say?” With a word problem, have them read it aloud.

Don’t point out mistakes on the spot. Wait until they finish or reach a break, then say “One of these isn’t right,” and let them look for it.

If you aren’t confident in math, don’t force the teaching. A method different from the textbook’s can clash with what the school taught. “Let’s ask your teacher about this one” is enough.

When they work alone

Once they are old enough to work alone, step back.

Let them decide when. They set the plan in advance, such as “I’ll do math after my snack.” Deciding in advance is covered in the article on if-then plans.

Use the same place. Put only that day’s homework on the desk.

Make the end visible. Fold a 20-problem worksheet so that only five problems show at a time. Another way is to set a timer for 10 minutes and get up for a moment when it rings.

Show it when it’s done. Agree that you check it once.

What to say

“Why can’t you do this?” and “You were just told that” give a child who has stopped because they don’t understand nothing to work with.

Instead, say what you see: “You got this far by yourself.” “This is where you stopped.” It isn’t praise or blame. It only describes the situation.

Once a fight starts, another option is to stop and leave 10 minutes before going back.

Telling the teacher

If it takes far longer than expected every day, you can tell the teacher. Facts get across well. “The math worksheet takes 50 minutes every day.” “They stop at word problems.” “They use their fingers for carrying in two-digit addition.”

If the gap goes back to an earlier grade, What Kids Learn in Arithmetic, Grade by Grade can help you judge how far back to go.

Using an app before or after homework

As Ideas for Getting More out of MathCal says, homework time already happens every day, so a short drill attaches to it easily. Right before or right after both work. Pick one and keep it.

In the developer interview, the question of why Today’s Drill is the same all day rather than random got this answer: “Because practising once a day is enough.” On arithmetic drills, the interview also says: “If you do it of your own accord, I think it is a good habit for the brain too.”

Where MathCal fits

MathCal is a math app I make, where children write their answers on the screen by hand.

The app checks the answers, so a parent doesn’t have to mark anything. The interview puts it as “there is no marking to do.” During this time, there are no mistakes for a parent to point out.

The question count starts at 10, so you can begin with an amount that is over quickly. The Basic Calculation Drill has Enable Dots on Number, which shows a dot for each unit of the numbers, and a No Carrying or Borrowing setting. For a unit they are stuck on, there are 59 Montessori lessons where children move things like beads and rulers. Related lessons appear under a drill’s settings.

Today’s Drill, Today’s Challenge and Today’s Lesson on the home screen are free every day, and setting a birthday picks them to suit the child’s grade. When they finish, they can stamp a calendar. Choosing any drill or lesson from the full lists requires a one-time purchase. There are no ads. How to start is in Getting Started with MathCal.