I keep doing the same sin over and over and I don’t know how to stop.

[Vesper_Jaye✝️]

Because of being on the internet and imagining too much, I haven’t had a lot of time. So, I’ve been cheating on my math schoolwork. I can get away with it more easily than a public schooler would because I’m homeschooled. I don’t understand what I’m supposed to be learning because I haven’t done much schoolwork. I have a lot of sins that I commit habitually, but most have gotten better with time and prayer. I don’t know how to stop this. I’ve told my parents about it before, but they didn’t really help. I tried to do a lesson without cheating, and I needed help. My mom has to work with five other kids, so she didn’t have a lot of time to help. One math lesson took up most of the day, and I was behind several lessons. In my family, if you’re behind, you aren’t allowed to do anything - you can’t watch tv, have electronics, do any activities - until the work is done. But whenever someone in my family needs help, they don’t get it. Several of my siblings are years behind and have lost hope in ever getting caught up. So to keep myself from being behind again I started cheating on my math again. I have no idea what to do. I want to be right with God and not sin, and I want to be able to understand my schoolwork.

 

[bekkilyn]

Math is something in which you really need to learn the basics well because everything builds on those. So if there is something a few lessons back you don't know well, then go back and refresh and learn it because the stuff that builds on it will just continue to be confusing until you do. Also if you're cheating on the internet anyway, go to www.khanacademy.org and watch the math videos on that site of anything you don't know or are learning. They are interesting and easy to understand. Once you start getting pretty good at it, it's actually fun and you can get to where you enjoy solving all of the little math "puzzles". Not to mention that the universe that God created is very mathematical and so maybe if you get good enough, you can figure out some of the secrets he's hidden within.

 

[Torah Keeper]

If you need to cheat, the math you are attempting is too difficult for you. Talk to your parents and see if they will let you go back a grade or 2 just on math. It is often the hardest subject. Don't worry about falling behind. You can always catch up later. You have your whole life to catch up.

In high school, students were enrolled in anything from special ed math to calculus. So don't worry about "keeping up". Just do your best.

And I commend your honesty.

 

[PloverWing]

I would think that one of the advantages of home schooling is that the teaching can go at each student's individual pace -- faster, if it's something you understand the first time you hear it, slower, if it's something you need more practice with. It sounds like your home "classroom" is moving at some fixed artificially-set pace, which is odd to me.

My first thought is to tell your mom that you don't understand concept X yet, that you need to slow down and practice X some more before you go on to whatever follows X. But maybe you've already done that.

My second thought is (if your mom's overwhelmed by trying to tutor 5 different students) to try to get help from other sources, but in a non-cheating way. It sounds like your dad is also present in your family, because you mentioned "parents". Could your dad work with you while your mom is working with one of your siblings? Or, are there other friends or family members that you could work with -- again, not cheating, but someone who could explain things better or differently for you?

I encourage you not to cheat, if possible. The point of math homework is to practice math skills so that you get good at them and can use them later in life. You don't get better at the math skills if you're just copying someone else's answers. (Think of an athlete: You don't get stronger by watching other people lift weights.) But also, it's not useful to just stare blankly at a piece of paper for an hour, so I'm hoping your dad or another family member can help when you get stuck.

(I'm a college professor, and I encourage my students to take advantage of study groups and tutoring all the time. It's a great way to learn, so long as everyone in the study group is actively participating and not just copying answers.)

 

[Gregory Thompson]

If you can cheat by not following the process, you probably need harder questions that give the wrong answer if you do that.

 

[BobRyan]

Because of being on the internet and imagining too much, I haven’t had a lot of time. So, I’ve been cheating on my math schoolwork. I can get away with it more easily than a public schooler would because I’m homeschooled. I don’t understand what I’m supposed to be learning because I haven’t done much schoolwork. I have a lot of sins that I commit habitually, but most have gotten better with time and prayer. I don’t know how to stop this. I’ve told my parents about it before, but they didn’t really help. I tried to do a lesson without cheating, and I needed help. My mom has to work with five other kids, so she didn’t have a lot of time to help. One math lesson took up most of the day, and I was behind several lessons. In my family, if you’re behind, you aren’t allowed to do anything - you can’t watch tv, have electronics, do any activities - until the work is done. But whenever someone in my family needs help, they don’t get it. Several of my siblings are years behind and have lost hope in ever getting caught up. So to keep myself from being behind again I started cheating on my math again. I have no idea what to do. I want to be right with God and not sin, and I want to be able to understand my schoolwork.

We home schooled our two daughters all the way through high school (just so happened to work out that way). Maybe I can get one of them to get in a private conversation with you and help you with the math.

My daughters and I are all software engineers.

 

[Hazelelponi]

Because of being on the internet and imagining too much, I haven’t had a lot of time. So, I’ve been cheating on my math schoolwork. I can get away with it more easily than a public schooler would because I’m homeschooled. I don’t understand what I’m supposed to be learning because I haven’t done much schoolwork. I have a lot of sins that I commit habitually, but most have gotten better with time and prayer. I don’t know how to stop this. I’ve told my parents about it before, but they didn’t really help. I tried to do a lesson without cheating, and I needed help. My mom has to work with five other kids, so she didn’t have a lot of time to help. One math lesson took up most of the day, and I was behind several lessons. In my family, if you’re behind, you aren’t allowed to do anything - you can’t watch tv, have electronics, do any activities - until the work is done. But whenever someone in my family needs help, they don’t get it. Several of my siblings are years behind and have lost hope in ever getting caught up. So to keep myself from being behind again I started cheating on my math again. I have no idea what to do. I want to be right with God and not sin, and I want to be able to understand my schoolwork.

Find math lessons online... Math is especially difficult for some people.

Khan Academy is free, and may be quite helpful. They have math videos which help. Start with the most difficult math you understand, and progress up from there. My daughter was in public school but we used Khan Academy to help tutor her.

Regardless of how difficult math seems, you need to actually learn it and understand it. Think of yourself like you're in the Olympics and in training. They train hard to achieve greatness.