How Much Homework Help Are You Able to Offer Your Child?

According to a recent story by The Daily Mail concerning parents’ ability, or more like inability, to help their middle school-age children in the UK, there is a problem. The Daily Mail reports that only one in 20 can do the math required to help their child with homework.

It’s not that the parents aren’t smart, it’s just that methods have changed so much since they were in school that they can no longer explain it. They can still get to the same answer, the students just cannot understand how they got to it. According to the article, the government in the UK is considering reinstating tried and true techniques to tackle this problem.

So what about here in the U.S.? Is the math homework your middle schooler brings home the math you did in middle school? Are you able to explain to your child the correct way to come up with the answer, or do you leave him or her confused?

Has the U.S. got this under control? Or do you find that math systems have changed so much since you were at school that you’re no help at all when it comes to homework?