Understanding your child's / children's homework and assignments can be rather problematic for parents these days. Not only have the course being studied changed since we were at school, but so have the quantity of subjects being studied. And of course, the amount and types of homework and assignments that need to be completed also.

Every child should also be taught the basics - how to read, how to write properly (troublesome given our kids penchant for all things SMS these days), how to structure essays, how to structure reports, how to conduct research - online and offline (books, journals, videos etc), how to multiply numbers in their heads, how to learn and how to revise. As I have watched the children around me grow up - I have noticed that most offline research is no longer done. Books are no longer the first point of call for children. The internet is. And Google in particular.

So the suggestions in the homework help stakes are:

• Get a decent internet connection.
• Add to favourites all the useful sites - encyclopedias, dictionaries, maps, historical and show the children where they are. If you are not internet savvy I would suggest enlisting the help of someone who is.
• Limit the social interaction time to after homework and assignments have been completed, and be prepared to sit with your child (especially the younger ones) as they try and find the information they are looking for.
• Once this has been done - ask your child / children to write down bullet points covering the topic they are researching / studying. Some may find drawing a mind map to be useful as this allows all "like" subjects to be grouped together.

After this has been completed, it is easy to see where the gaps in the childs knowledge lies. Then research can be undertaken on that "bit" rather than trying to find out everything there is to know, when in effect they already know quite a lot.

This technique saves time, frustration and information overload.