I would answer my son if he asked for help or if he asked a question. �Sheesh, i cant imagine (most) anyone wouldn't. �I would take the time to show him something he wanted to learn (at the moment it's erector sets). �But in preschool level homeschool I feel quite free to put up one of the workbooks until I see him apply a skill related to the problem before we go on in that book instead of just telling him what the book says and moving on quickly. �Since there's no reason to at this time. �
The last time he didn't know the answer and I put the book up it was over bar graphs. �I could have told him "count this and mark this many boxes". �And he could have finished a worksheet and learned bar charts. �Instead I put it up until I thought he could understand better. �After a while we had a reason to mark off a box on the calendar every day for three weeks. �After he saw that one box meant one day I felt comfortable pulling out the book and telling him how to count the stuff and do a bar chart. �I also feel free to explain and teach him stuff. �I really don't have any restrictive philosophy on this. �
I apologize if there was any confusion as to what I meant. �Speaking of confusion. �That was dh's point, that the Piaget's thing was a trick question to ds the way I worded it. �Ds does know more, less, bigger, smaller. �Well, the set did have more space. �Maybe I should ask him which group has more pieces. �That's the thing. �The early Singapore math is big on sets. �So if it says at the bottom of the page this would help I choose to pause there until he gets it. �
