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Family AI Learning

The Parent Tool Library · CMP-105 · parentingstagebystage.com/resources/family-ai-learning/

Print the blank sheet to fill in

Use your browser's Print command: Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on a Mac) or, on a phone, Share, then Print. It prints the safety notes, the limits and the blank sheet, without the rest of the page.

The book's explanations for this sheet (PDF)

The book's text for this sheet: its steps in brief, with no space to write in.

Free, and free of conditions: no account, no email address, no purchase, and no review asked for.

How to use it

  1. Print it and keep it near where the work happens. This one earns its place by being visible.
  2. Before the first question, an adult makes the four checks on the sheet: permission for this service and kind of account; the consent, privacy and child-data rules where the child is, with the service’s privacy settings; what the school allows for this task; and whether this learner is ready for it. Adult supervision does not cancel an age rule.
  3. Start with your child's own attempt, before the assistant is asked anything. Said, drawn, signed, typed or written all count, and a rough attempt is enough.
  4. Go through the five in order. Reading them together the first time helps, out loud or with whatever your child usually uses.
  5. Do not skip the check at the end. Pick the claim the rest of the answer leans on, and look for it somewhere other than the assistant. Then close the AI tool and try a small new task using the same idea. Keep your child’s usual communication and access aids, see what they can explain or do, and note where they still need help.
  6. When they can do it without the sheet, take it down.

An assistant is not a friend, a counselor or a doctor, whatever it sounds like. If your child is taking how they feel to one, that is worth a conversation with a person. And if an answer upsets them, or asks them for something private, the right move is to stop there and tell an adult they trust rather than finish the sheet. Use current local safeguarding or emergency routes for immediate danger.

Read the sheet on screen

The blank sheet

Print it, or copy the headings onto paper of your own. The parts are meant to be worked through in order.

Try, ask, compare, explain, check

Use this together for a small learning task. An AI assistant can produce an answer that sounds convincing and is wrong. Your aim is to understand the work, not just finish it. The same activity can use a book or a teacher’s explanation instead of AI.

Make four checks before the first question

Make four separate checks before any educational use:

1. Permission check: Is this child allowed to use this exact service with this kind of account (their own, a parent’s, or one set up by the school)?

2. Privacy check: What do current consent, privacy, and child-data rules require where the child is?

3. School check: Does the teacher or school permit AI for this task, and how must help be disclosed?

4. Readiness check: Can this learner understand the task, the AI service’s limits, and the adult support available?

An age in a provider’s terms does not mark a stage of child development. It also does not settle local law, school permission, or whether the tool fits one child and task. Adult supervision does not cancel an age rule. An adult should not hand over adult credentials merely because the adult could conduct an approved activity.

If any check fails, choose a real alternative: a book, teacher, calculator, library source, speech-to-text tool, printed worked example, or adult-led activity. A child should still be able to pursue the same learning goal if AI is not allowed. Use a non-AI option when no suitable account meets the privacy and child-data rules, the service is not accessible to the child, the needed equipment or connection is unavailable, or the family says no.

Do not enter a name, a health record, a school identifier, a private conversation, an image, or another person’s unpublished work.

Our learning question

The five steps

In this order. Each one can be written, said, drawn or shown, whichever works.

1. Try

Say, write, draw, or show what you already understand. If you’re stuck, name the confusing part. You can ask for a small hint or use the learning support you normally need. My attempt or question:

2. Ask

Ask for help with the next step. For example: “Give me one hint. Let me try before you explain the answer.” An adult can enter the question where the service’s rules permit it. What we asked:

3. Compare

What matches your thinking? What is new, unclear, or possibly wrong? What we noticed:

4. Explain

Explain or demonstrate the idea in your own way. You can use your usual communication aids. If you can’t explain it yet, choose the part you need help with. My explanation or next question:

5. Check

Check an important claim with a suitable source, such as a textbook, a teacher, or the organization responsible for the information. For a calculation, work through the steps. A second AI assistant is not independent confirmation, and checking one claim does not verify the whole answer. A small new task, with the AI tool closed, comes at the end of this sheet. What we checked, where, and what we found:

If we couldn’t verify it, what we’ll ask next

Try a small new task using the same idea, with the AI tool closed. Keep your usual communication and access aids. What I can explain or do, and where I still need help:

Drafts and disclosure

Before starting schoolwork, ask what help is permitted. Keep meaningful drafts and notes. Disclose AI help in the form the teacher requests. A short record might say, “I used an approved tool to suggest three headings. I chose one, wrote the text, and checked the dates in the sources listed.” Disclosure should describe the real contribution, not make the tool an author or hide the child’s work.

Know when a person must take over

Stop the activity and involve a trusted human if output is sexual, violent, hateful, coercive, or asks for secrecy or private data. Do the same if it encourages self-harm, dangerous acts, or illegal access. Use current local safeguarding or emergency routes for immediate danger. The worksheet cannot act as a crisis tool, disciplinary process, diagnostic test, or legal opinion.

If an answer is upsetting or asks for private information, stop and talk to a trusted adult. You don’t have to keep using the tool to complete this sheet.

What this will not do
  • It is not a curriculum and it does not teach a subject. It sets out an order to work in.
  • It cannot tell you whether a service suits your child or this piece of work. An adult decides that before the first question, with the four checks on the sheet, including whether this learner is ready for the task. Passing one check does not settle the others, and an age in a provider’s terms does not mark a stage of child development.
  • It will not tell you whether something was written by an assistant. Detectors disagree with each other and can flag a child's own writing, which is a serious thing to get wrong about a child.
  • Working through all five steps does not make an answer correct, and it does not mean the learning stuck. Checking one claim tells you about that claim, not about the rest of the answer. The small task at the end, with the AI tool closed, shows what your child can explain or do that day and where they still need help. It is not a test and it certifies nothing.
  • It is not a rule about homework. What your child's school allows is the school's to say, and it is worth asking them rather than guessing.
Privacy and sources

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Related tool

Sources of this sheet

Written for any country: nothing on it is specific to where you live yet.

The book's references for chapter 34