After reaching an agreement with my son about game reward time over the weekend, his enthusiasm and completion rate for studying have improved quite a bit these past two days.
I still don’t interfere with his school assignments; I simply ask if he has completed them without checking his homework.
My son basically completes his homework at school every day, and I haven’t seen any feedback from teachers indicating that his homework is not done well. This shows that he indeed completes his school assignments daily.
Although I was on a business trip over the weekend, my son took his laptop with him to the countryside on Sunday and diligently worked on practice problems.
However, when I returned today and checked his problem-solving status from yesterday, I found that all the submissions were wrong answers (WA).
He didn’t correct the mistakes either.
Upon closely examining the problem, I noticed it mentioned eight possible walking directions, but he only wrote four.
It was clear that he hadn’t read the problem carefully. After I pointed out this mistake, he immediately corrected it today.
After dinner, my son asked me to play three games of chess with him, and we had a mix of wins and losses.
Then he went to the computer to watch videos and learn knowledge from the first year of middle school.
Today, he struggled with a maze problem that was both introductory and advanced, spending over an hour on it. Initially, we misunderstood the problem, and after continuously adjusting the code, we only managed to solve 40% of it.
When I looked at the time, it was already past ten o’clock.
This couldn’t go on any longer; otherwise, he might not wake up tomorrow. I quickly told him to stop, take a shower, and go to bed.
This introductory and advanced difficulty problem is indeed different; it requires more time, especially in understanding the problem and the rigor of logic, which is much higher than previous problems.
While my son went to shower and sleep, I continued to study the problem and felt I had found the logical point to solve it. Tomorrow, I will continue to research it with my son.
November 24, 2025
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Series of articles on non-computer science parents helping their children learn programming:
As a non-computer science parent, how to guide my child in learning programming
My son’s performance in the semi-finals, sharing from a gold medal coach at Yali, how an ordinary child can achieve a gold medal in 2025
As a non-computer science parent, how to help my child learn C++ programming
Should C++ students learn math in advance? How I helped my son learn math
My son’s bad habit in learning programming is also a form of my own training
My son participated in the programming competition, and here’s how I handled his gaming issues
Data analysis of the Hunan CSP-J/S first prize, which of the four major universities in Changsha is the strongest in programming
My son has set his CSP goals for next year: to win first prize in Group J and to aim for second place in Group S while striving for first.