A simple routine for the homework hour: ask before you tell, and give one small hint at a time.
Ask before you tell. Have your child say what the question is asking and what they already know. Then give one small hint at a time: point to what matters, suggest a strategy, and only then show a similar worked example, not their own question. Let them finish it and check it themselves.
Updated 4 October 2026 · 6 minute read
Homework is practice. When a grown-up gives the answer, the child’s next step is copying it down; when they find it themselves, they practise the thinking the homework was set for. A wrong answer isn’t a failure either: it shows you, and their teacher, exactly which step needs work.
Holding back doesn’t mean leaving your child to struggle alone. It means helping in small steps, so they stay in charge of the thinking.
Ponder’s practice sets use the same five steps for every question, from Foundation to Year 10. They work just as well at the kitchen table:
| Step | What your child asks themselves | What you can ask |
|---|---|---|
| Understand | What is the question asking? | What is the question asking you to find? |
| Plan | How could I work it out? | What could you try first? Would a picture help? |
| Try | Have a go. A guess is a good start. | Have a go, and tell me what you’re thinking. |
| Check | Does my answer make sense? | How could you check that? |
| Reflect | What helped me? What would I do next time? | What helped you? What would you do next time? |
When your child is stuck, climb down the ladder one rung at a time, and stop as soon as they can carry on.
Here is a Year 4 question from Ponder’s maths practice, with the three hints Ponder gives, one at a time:
How do you write 7 tenths as a decimal?
Notice that the last hint works through 3 tenths, not 7. The worked example shows the method on a similar problem, and the learner still does their own question.
| Your child says or does | Try saying |
|---|---|
| “I don’t get it.” | “Which part makes sense so far?” |
| “Just tell me the answer!” | “Let’s find the first step together. What is the question asking?” |
| Gives a wrong answer | “How did you get that? Talk me through it.” (Often they’ll spot the slip as they explain.) |
| Gives a right answer | “How do you know it’s right? How could you check?” |
| “That’s not how my teacher does it.” | “Show me how your teacher does it. You can be the teacher.” |
| Gets upset or frustrated | “Let’s take five minutes and come back to it.” A short break often does more than another hint. |
Some gaps aren’t about reasoning. If your child has never met a word, a symbol or a fact, explain it clearly, then give them a similar question to try on their own. It’s also fine to stop when they are tired: a short note to the teacher (“We got stuck on question 4”) is more useful to them than a page of answers a grown-up worked out.
Ponder is built around this routine. Every practice set follows the five steps, every question has a three-step hint ladder, and Ask Ponder is instructed to guide with questions before it explains. See how Ponder works, or browse what the practice sets cover in each year level.
Try Ponder’s free “Where are they at?” check together: a few maths or English questions for your child’s year, with one hint at a time, then strengths and next steps in plain English. It takes 5 to 8 minutes and needs no account.
Point to where to look rather than fixing it: “Have another look at question 3.” Teachers use homework to see what a child can do on their own, so a page of corrected answers hides what they need help with.
You don’t need to. These prompts work in any subject: ask what the question is asking, what they’ve tried and how they could check. Asking your child to teach you their method is good practice for them too.
A few minutes of real effort on one step is useful; frustration that stops all thinking isn’t. If they are stuck on the same step after a hint or two, move down the ladder or take a short break.
It depends on what the app does. A tool that gives hints and explanations supports your child’s thinking; one that writes the answer replaces it. Check your school’s rules about AI tools too.
Ponder is in preview. Explore the app now with no account, and join the launch list to hear first when accounts open later this year.