Free Homework Help Videos for K–8 Parents

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• The definition of expanded form
• How to break numbers into tens, ones, hundreds
• Why this builds number sense (not just memorization)
• How it connects to mental math and future algebra

📐 Why Expanded Form Matters:

Expanded form teaches children to see the value of each digit — not just its position. Instead of treating 342 as a single unit, they see it as 300 + 40 + 2. This place value understanding is the foundation for multi-digit addition, subtraction, and eventually algebra.

📚 Perfect for parents helping with:

• Kindergarten – 3rd grade homework
• Place value lessons
• Common Core math methods

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What decomposing means in math
• Multiple ways to break apart the same number
• Why flexibility matters for mental math
• How this connects to addition and subtraction strategies

💭 Example: The number 47 can be:

• 40 + 7 (place value)
• 50 − 3 (making friendly numbers)
• 25 + 22 (equal groups)

All are correct! This flexibility is what builds number sense.

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 1st – 5th grade students
• Kids learning addition/subtraction strategies
• Anyone confused by “new math” methods

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• How to read and use a number line
• How to make strategic “jumps” for addition and subtraction
• How fractions and negative numbers appear on a number line
• Why this visual method builds number sense across K–8

📐 Why Number Lines Matter:

Number lines help students see what's happening in a problem — not just get an answer. A student who jumps from 47 to 50, then 50 to 55 isn't just adding. They're learning to work flexibly with numbers, which is the same skill that makes algebra and mental math click later on.

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• K – 8th grade students
• Kids learning addition, subtraction, fractions, or integers
• Anyone confused by jumps, arcs, or open number lines on homework

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What a number bond is and why it's not just “new math”
• How one number bond gives your child four math facts at once
• How the “make a ten” strategy depends entirely on number bonds
• Why understanding beats memorizing — and how number bonds build that understanding
• The most common mistakes kids make — and how to catch them

💭 It's Not New Math. It's Visible Math:

When you memorized 8 − 5 = 3 as a separate fact, you were actually using the same relationship as 5 + 3 = 8 — you just couldn't see it. Number bonds make that connection visible, so students understand why the answer works, not just how to get it.

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• Kindergarten – 4th grade students
• Kids learning addition and subtraction
• Anyone confused by part-part-whole diagrams or fact families
• Parents who want to help without accidentally confusing their child

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What the area model is and why it's not just “new math”
• How to solve a one-digit multiplication problem using the box method
• How to extend the area model to two-digit by two-digit multiplication
• Why the method your child learned actually makes more sense than the standard algorithm
• The most common mistake kids make — and how to catch it

💭 It's Not New Math. It's Visible Math:

When you multiply 34 × 7 the traditional way, you're actually doing (30 × 7) + (4 × 7) — you just can't see it. The area model makes that visible, so students understand why the answer works, not just how to get it.

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 3rd – 6th grade students
• Kids learning multi-digit multiplication
• Anyone confused by box multiplication or partial products
• Parents who want to help without accidentally confusing their child

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What reading comprehension strategies are and why teachers name them explicitly
• How making predictions, asking questions, and summarizing work together
• How these strategies are taught differently from kindergarten through 8th grade
• The most common mistakes kids make — and how to catch them
• Exactly what to say before, during, and after reading to reinforce what teachers are building

💭 It's Not New Reading. It's Visible Thinking:

Most of us developed these habits without ever naming them. Today's teachers name every strategy explicitly — because research shows that when students can identify what they're doing, they do it better. When you use the same language at home, it clicks faster.

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• K – 8th grade students
• Kids struggling with reading comprehension homework
• Anyone confused by ELA strategy assignments
• Parents who want to reinforce what teachers are building without creating confusion

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What a tape diagram is and why it's not just “new math”
• How to read and draw a tape diagram step by step
• How tape diagrams are used from 1st grade through middle school
• Why this visual model makes word problems significantly easier
• The most common mistakes kids make — and how to catch them

💭 It's Not New Math. It's Visible Math:

• When your child reads a word problem, they're trying to hold a lot of information in their head at once.
• A tape diagram puts that information on paper so the math becomes clear — before a single equation is written.

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 1st – 7th grade students
• Kids struggling with word problems
• Anyone confused by bar models or strip diagrams
• Parents who want to help without accidentally confusing their child

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What text features are and why they matter for nonfiction reading
• How to use headings, bold words, captions, and diagrams
• The difference between a table of contents and an index
• How text features are taught from kindergarten through 8th grade
• The most common mistakes kids make — and how to catch them

💭 It's Not New Reading. It's Visible Navigation:

• You already use text features every day — scanning menus by section, reading captions on social media, using bold text in emails to find key info.
• Teachers are giving students the vocabulary and habits to do this deliberately with any nonfiction text.

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• K – 8th grade students
• Kids working on nonfiction reading assignments
• Anyone confused by “identify the text features” homework
• Parents who want to help without accidentally confusing their child

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What partial sums addition is and how it works
• Why teachers start with this method before the standard algorithm
• Step-by-step examples with 2-digit and 3-digit numbers
• How it builds real place value understanding
• Common mistakes to watch for at home

💭 It's Not New Math. It's Visible Math:

• You already use partial sums thinking — calculating tips, adding prices while shopping, estimating driving time.
• Teachers are giving students the vocabulary and structure to do this deliberately with any addition problem.

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 2nd – 4th grade students
• Kids learning addition strategies before the standard algorithm
• Anyone confused by expanded addition or “partial sums” homework
• Parents who want to help without accidentally confusing their child

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What main idea is — and why it always includes specific details from the text
• What theme is — and why it must be a complete sentence about life, not a single word
• How to use the “no names” test to check whether an answer is main idea or theme
• What grade levels introduce each skill and how expectations change from K through 8th grade
• The most common mistakes students make — and how to redirect without correcting

💭 You Already Use Both Skills — You Just Don't Label Them:

• When you tell a coworker what a news article was about, you're stating the main idea
• When you walk out of a movie and say “it really made me think about how far parents will go,” you've identified the theme
• Today's students are taught to recognize and name these two levels of thinking so they can apply them deliberately

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 2nd – 3rd graders learning to find the “lesson” or “moral” and retell what a story is mostly about
• 4th – 5th graders whose worksheets now use the word “theme” and expect a full statement
• Middle schoolers who need to trace how a theme develops across a full text using evidence
• Any parent who wants to support what their child's teacher is building

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What reading levels are and why schools use them
• How the Lexile scoring system works and what the number ranges mean by grade
• How Fountas & Pinnell letter levels are assessed through one-on-one reading
• How DRA combines accuracy, fluency, and comprehension into a single score
• Why your child can have three different “scores” that all measure reading ability
• How to talk to your child's teacher about their level — and what questions to ask

💭 Reading Levels Are Diagnostic Tools, Not Identity Markers:

• A single score is a snapshot — the trend over time matters far more than any one number
• Being one or two levels below benchmark in K–2 is incredibly common and doesn't mean falling behind permanently
• A child who loves reading will always outgrow a child who's forced to read “at level”

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• K – 2nd graders encountering reading levels for the first time (F&P letters, DRA numbers)
• 3rd – 5th graders starting to talk about their Lexile scores at home
• Middle schoolers whose teachers reference Lexile ranges for independent reading
• Any parent who's seen a score on a report card and wondered what it actually means

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What a ten frame is and why the two-row, five-column design is intentional
• How ten frames build subitizing — recognizing quantities at a glance
• How the “make a ten” strategy works using two ten frames
• How ten frames are used from kindergarten through 5th grade (including decimals)
• The most common mistakes kids make — and how to catch them

💭 Your Fingers Are Ten Frames:

• Hold up 7 fingers and you instantly see 5 on one hand and 2 on the other — that's exactly what a ten frame shows.
• Teachers give this intuition a structure so kids can apply it deliberately with any number problem.

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• Kindergarten – 2nd grade students learning addition and subtraction
• Kids practicing “friends of 10” or “make a ten” homework
• Anyone confused by dot grids, double ten frames, or ten frame worksheets
• Parents who want to help without accidentally confusing their child

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What “Common Core math methods” actually means (and what it doesn't)
• The four visual models you'll see most often — number bonds, number line jumps, area models, and partial sums
• When each one shows up — from kindergarten number bonds to 8th grade area models for polynomials
• Why teachers use visual models before the standard algorithm, not instead of it
• Where to go next for a full walkthrough of each method

💭 The math didn't change — the path to it did:

• Common Core didn't replace the standard algorithms; it built understanding in front of them so the algorithms aren't a magic trick to memorize
• Most methods don't disappear when the next one shows up — number bonds quietly power mental math through middle school

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• K–8 students bringing home worksheets with unfamiliar visuals
• Kids in any Common Core–aligned curriculum (Eureka, Bridges, Illustrative Mathematics, Singapore Math)
• Parents who want a quick map of the whole landscape before diving into any single method

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What close reading actually means and why teachers use it
• The three-read method — what your child is doing each time through
• How to annotate a text and what the symbols mean
• How to answer text-dependent questions using evidence from the passage
• Why this skill matters from 2nd grade through high school

💭 Why the same passage three times?

• The first read: figure out what's happening
• The second read: notice how the author built the text
• The third read: pull evidence to answer questions deeply

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 2nd–8th grade students with close reading assignments
• Kids struggling with text-evidence questions or annotation
• Parents who want to help with ELA without guessing the method

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What partial quotients division is and how it's different from traditional long division
• How to solve a division problem step by step using partial quotients
• Why teachers teach this method before the standard algorithm
• How it connects to place value and the area model

💭 The answer builds up, not down:

• Students subtract groups they're confident about, then add those groups to find the quotient
• There's no single “right” path — bigger groups just get you there faster

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 3rd–5th grade students learning division for the first time
• Kids whose division homework looks unfamiliar
• Parents who want to help without teaching a contradicting method

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What “citing evidence” actually means and why teachers require it
• The difference between an opinion and an evidence-based answer
• How to find relevant evidence in a passage
• How to introduce and explain a quote (not just drop it in)
• What teachers mean by “text evidence,” “textual support,” and “citing the text”

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 2nd–8th grade students with reading response or essay assignments
• Kids whose teachers ask them to “go back to the text”
• Students learning to write paragraph responses or literary analysis

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What an array is and how rows and columns represent multiplication
• Why arrays make 3 × 4 and 4 × 3 visibly equal (the commutative property)
• How skip-counting an array bridges repeated addition and multiplication
• How arrays evolve into the area model in 4th and 5th grade

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 2nd–3rd grade students learning multiplication for the first time
• Kids drawing dots, circles, or squares to solve multiplication problems
• 4th graders transitioning from arrays to the area model

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What an inference is and how it's different from a literal answer
• The text clues + background knowledge formula teachers use
• How inferring shows up across grade levels, from picture books to middle school passages
• Common phrases your child will hear: “read between the lines,” “evidence-based prediction,” and “text-dependent question”

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 2nd–8th grade students working on reading comprehension
• Kids whose teachers ask “how do you know?” or “what does the author mean?”
• Students preparing for state reading tests with inference questions

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What a fact family is and why it always has four equations
• The “whole and parts” vocabulary teachers use at the triangle
• How knowing one addition fact gives your child three more for free
• Why doubles families (5+5, 6+6, 9×9) only have two facts, not four

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 1st–2nd graders building addition / subtraction fluency
• 3rd graders moving into multiplication and division fact families
• Kids who get stuck on missing-number problems like “___ + 4 = 11”

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What PIE stands for (Persuade, Inform, Entertain) and the expanded PIE'ED / PIED versions some classrooms use
• The four points of view in fiction (first person, second person, third person limited, third person omniscient) and how to spot each one from the pronouns
• The two different meanings of “point of view” — and which one applies in fiction vs. nonfiction
• A quick decision tree for telling the two questions apart on a worksheet

💭 The distinction hiding in the worksheet:

• Author's purpose is the goal — why the author wrote it (PIE answers always start with “to” + a verb)
• Point of view in fiction is the narrator — who is telling the story (check the pronouns first)
• Point of view in nonfiction is the stance — what the author thinks about the topic (look at word choice and tone)

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 3rd through 8th graders facing PIE charts and narrator type questions for the first time
• Kids using Wit & Wisdom, EL Education, or any Common Core-aligned ELA curriculum
• Children who freeze when a worksheet asks both questions about the same passage

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What the standard algorithm actually is (and what makes it “standard”)
• Why it's introduced after partial sums, area model, and partial quotients instead of first
• How the conceptual methods set up the standard algorithm — they're not competing strategies, they're scaffolding
• What to do when a worksheet specifically asks for the standard algorithm vs. “any strategy”

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 3rd–5th graders bridging from conceptual strategies to the traditional algorithm
• Kids whose teacher specifies which method to use on each problem
• Parents who learned only stack-and-carry and want to understand why it's sequenced differently now

🎯 What You'll Learn:

• What context clues are and why teachers prefer them over “just look it up”
• The main types: definition, synonym/restatement, antonym/contrast, example, and inference clues
• How context clue work progresses from 2nd through 8th grade
• How to prompt your child without giving the answer (“what words around it give you a hint?”)

📚 Perfect for parents of:

• 2nd–6th graders building independent reading vocabulary
• Kids who freeze on unfamiliar words instead of trying to figure them out
• Students prepping for state reading tests where dictionaries aren't allowed