Skip to main content

Brainhub guide

AI for parents: helping with homework when you don’t remember the topic

You don’t need to remember long division or what a fronted adverbial is. AI can get you up to speed in minutes, so you can help your child think without doing the work for them.

Written by the Brainhub Editorial Team Cites published research Updated 4 Nov 2026 7 min read

Key takeaways

1. You don’t need to remember it

Your child asks for help with simultaneous equations, and the last time you saw one was at school. That is normal. AI can explain most school topics in plain English, so you understand enough to help.

Your child may be using it already: Ofcom’s research, published in May 2026, found that over half of 8 to 17-year-olds (56%) use AI. Our guide to choosing an AI study tool covers the age rules and settings.[1]

You don’t need to become the teacher, either. A large review of research on secondary-age students found that talking about learning, and linking schoolwork to future goals, had the strongest link with achievement. Direct help with homework was more mixed.[2]

2. Get up to speed on a topic

Tell it you are a parent, your child’s year group and the topic. Ask for plain English, one worked example and how schools usually teach it now, as methods change.

Then ask your child to show you their method. If it is different from AI’s, go with what the class was taught, so you don’t confuse them.

A strong prompt, in full: “I’m a parent. My child is in Year 8 and learning simultaneous equations. Explain the topic to me in plain English in under 200 words, with one worked example. Then tell me two mistakes children often make, and three questions I could ask to check they understand.”

3. Help them think, not finish

The risk with AI is that it finishes the work and skips the learning. In a large trial, maths students who practised with ChatGPT freely scored 17% lower in the exam than students who had practised without it.[3]

So use AI to make questions, not answers. Ask it for three questions to check your child understands, with the answers for you only. When you check their work, ask AI which line has the first mistake, then give your child a nudge to find it themselves.

Our guide Homework that counts: a parent’s guide explains why letting mistakes through helps: they show the teacher what to teach next.

Ask AI for the questions. Let your child find the answers.

4. Parent prompts to copy

Change the parts in [square brackets]. Type out the homework question rather than uploading a photo of your child’s work, and leave out names. For younger children, our times tables games need no screen at all.

To…
Copy this prompt
Understand a topic
“I’m a parent. Explain [converting fractions to decimals] in plain English, for an adult who last did it at school. Use one example.”
Ask good questions
“My child is in [Year 5] and learning [fractions to decimals]. Give me three questions to ask them, from easy to harder, with the answers for me only.”
Check without giving it away
“Here is a homework question and my child’s answer: [type both]. Don’t tell me the correct answer. Say if it is right. If not, give me one question to ask that helps them spot the mistake.”
Decode a teacher’s comment
“My child’s English teacher wrote: ‘[add more analysis]’. Explain in plain English what that usually means at [GCSE], and what it looks like in a paragraph.”
Turn a report into next steps
“My child’s report says: ‘[paste the comment, without names]’. Explain what the teacher probably means, and suggest three small things we could do at home over a month, 20 minutes at a time.”
Plan a week of revision
“Plan a week of revision for my [Year 10] child: [maths and science, with a test on Friday]. 20 to 30 minutes a day, one rest day, topics mixed up, and a quick self-test in every session.”
Practise with a younger child
“Make a 5-minute times tables quiz for a [Year 3] child on [the 4 and 8 times tables]. Ask one question at a time.”

5. Turn a report comment into next steps

Report comments can be short, or full of school words such as “working towards” or “greater depth”. AI can explain what a comment probably means and suggest a few small things to try at home.

Treat its answer as a starting point, not the truth: it doesn’t know your child or the school. Take its ideas to the teacher and ask, “Is this what you meant, and what would help most?” Our guide to reading the school report has three good questions to ask.

6. Plan a week of short revision

AI can quickly turn a test date and a list of topics into a plan. Ask for short sessions, spread out, with a quick self-test in each one. Spreading study out and testing yourself are the two techniques a major review of study methods rated most useful.[4]

Then let your child change the plan: it’s their revision. Our guide to helping with revision covers the rest of your role, from routines to quick quizzes.

7. What not to do

The Department for Education advises that anything put into AI tools should not identify a person, and warns that AI can produce false information presented as fact.[5]

For the rules on homework, coursework and exams, see Is using AI cheating?. For how tutoring and AI fit together, see our guide to using AI alongside tutoring.

Don’t…
Why
Put in your child’s name, school or photos of them
What you type or upload may be stored. Keep it anonymous.
Let it do the homework
The homework gets done, but the learning doesn’t, and it shows in tests.
Trust it without checking
AI can be confidently wrong. Check against the textbook, the class notes or the teacher.
Use it on coursework without asking
Exam boards treat unacknowledged AI use in coursework as malpractice.
Use it instead of talking to the teacher
The teacher knows your child and the course. AI doesn’t.

8. How Brainhub can help

Brainhub tutors teach one-to-one, online across the UK or at our seven London hubs. If your child uses AI at home, they can bring what it told them to a lesson, and their tutor will check what it got right and what it got wrong. Every family starts with a free assessment.

Try it now

Test yourself on this page

Answer in your head first, then check.

  1. 1. What should you tell AI first when asking it to explain a topic?

  2. 2. How can AI help you check homework without doing it?

  3. 3. What should you never put into an AI tool?

Your next steps

  1. Try the strong prompt above on a topic your child is learning this week.

  2. Ask AI for three questions, then ask your child one at dinner.

  3. Turn one comment from your child’s latest report or feedback into a next step.

Sources

  1. Ofcom (21 May 2026). Younger phone owners, the rise of AI, and consumption over creation: our latest look at UK children’s media lives (read 4 November 2026). ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/protecting-children/younger-phone-owners-the-rise-of-ai-and-consumption-over-creation-our-latest-look-at-uk-childrens-media-lives
  2. Hill, N. E. and Tyson, D. F. (2009). Parental involvement in middle school: a meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement. Developmental Psychology, 45(3), 740–763. doi:10.1037/a0015362
  3. Bastani, H., Bastani, O., Sungu, A., Ge, H., Kabakcı, Ö. and Mariman, R. (2025). Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning: evidence from high school mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(26), e2422633122. Summary: Knowledge at Wharton (read 4 November 2026). knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/without-guardrails-generative-ai-can-harm-education
  4. Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J. and Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. doi:10.1177/1529100612453266
  5. Department for Education. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) in education (updated 12 August 2025). gov.uk/government/publications/generative-artificial-intelligence-in-education/generative-artificial-intelligence-ai-in-education

This guide is general study advice. Every student is different. A teacher can help you work out what fits.