I helped my 9yo with homework and was ashamed when I saw the answers

" I feel completely stupid. He's in third grade... FML."

A mother-of-two was left feeling embarrassed after her efforts to help her son with his maths homework resulted in him getting a zero grade.

Roxanne Campeau said she was mortified after her nine-year-old son Jax received his results from a recent assignment and found out he did not get any answers correct. 

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Image: TikTok

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Are you smarter than a third grader?

Taking to TikTok, she said, "When your son asks you for your help with his homework and comes back with zero good answers."

"He's in third grade... FML," she added.

She then showed one of the pages of the assignment, filled with countless crosses and corrected answers written in red pen.

One of the questions read: "Write how many hundreds, tens and units there are in each answer."

The first number in the table was 893.

Roxanne and Jax's answer was 800 hundreds, 90 tens and three units. 

The teacher had said the correct answer was eight hundreds, 84 tens and 893 units. They had also circled the word "how many" in the question and wrote: "Use the 'scoop' method."

The teacher also emphasised that the "how many" referred to the number of each amount, not the value.

"The number of units is always the number itself," the teacher wrote over the answers in the final column.

And all the other answers in the table were also marked as incorrect, as the mum clearly misunderstood how the question worked.

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"I feel completely stupid and ashamed"

The mum told Newsweek: "Now that I see the homework corrected, I feel completely stupid and ashamed.

"I actually thought that it was a pretty easy exercise."

She added: "It was math homework so already I was doomed because math is the one subject I struggled with in my youth."

"I would have solved it in the same way"

In the comments, fellow parents resonated with the mum, saying they too struggle with their kids' homework.

"My math wasn't mathing either as I was going by place value then my daughter said 'read'," one mum shared.

Another admitted: "I'm great at math and probably would've gotten them all wrong as well."

"I would have solved it in the same way," a third reassured.

"My kids ask each other for help as I'm terrible at maths!!" a different parent replied.

Others shared suggestions for the mum to help her little one in the future:

• "Google is your friend. I got tabs saved for my son's homework."
• "I highly recommend using Gemini or ChatGPT to explain concepts (not generate answers) to your son and then asking it if an answer is correct and explain. It can be super helpful for learning."
• "If you're a more visual learner, try Googling/buying "base ten blocks"- these were used to teach me this as a kid! Basically you have cubes that are one unit, a stick that is made of 10 cubes, etc."
• "Tip: Google the worksheet & YouTube to make sure ur doing it right. I just downloaded Gauth & it gives answers and steps or Photomath, Mathway."

Originally published as I helped my 9yo with homework and was ashamed when I saw the answers