How to help your child improve in POA: What parents can do at home

If your child is taking Principles of Accounts (POA) in Secondary 3, you may have noticed that it is quite different from the subjects they have studied before.

For most students, POA is a completely new subject. Suddenly, they are introduced to unfamiliar terms involving businesses, money, accounts and financial transactions.

And when a child starts struggling with POA, the answer isn't always simply:

“You need to study harder.”

Sometimes, they genuinely don't understand the concept yet.

Sometimes, they understand it during the lesson but forget it a week later.

And sometimes, they have been relying heavily on memorisation without really understanding what the concepts mean.

Tuition can certainly help provide explanation, guidance and practice. But what happens between lessons matters too.

Parents don't need to become their child's POA tutor. In fact, you don't need to know POA accounting at all to support your child's learning.

There are many simple things you can do at home to help your child become more familiar with the real-world ideas behind POA, while also developing better revision habits.

Here are some practical ways to start.

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1. Help Your Child Connect POA to Real Life

One reason POA can feel difficult at first is that many of the terms are completely new to a 15 year old.

A bank statement, debtors or investment may seem like abstract concepts when they only exist on a worksheet.

But money and financial transactions are happening around your child every day.

You can help by pointing out these real-life situations when they naturally come up.

For example:

After dining or shopping

Take a look at the receipt together.

You could casually discuss:

• What was purchased?

• How much did each item cost?

• What was the total?

• Was there a discount?

• Was GST included?

• Did the final amount match what you expected?

You don't need to turn this into a POA lesson.

The purpose is simply to help your child become more comfortable with financial information.

When looking at a bank statement

If your child has a bank account, show them what a real bank statement or banking app looks like.

You could point out simple transactions such as:

• Receiving allowance

• Transferring money

• Paying for food

• Paying a bill

• Receiving bank interest

Again, the goal isn't for parents to teach the accounting treatment.

It's simply to help your child realise:

“These aren't just things in my POA notes. These are real transactions that happen every day.”

Over time, this familiarity can make some POA concepts feel less foreign.

2. Talk about how businesses make money

This is another simple conversation that can help students become more familiar with one of the most basic ideas behind accounting:

A business needs to earn more from selling something than it spends to obtain or produce it if it wants to make a profit.

You don't need to explain accounting formulas.

Instead, use businesses your child already knows.

For example, if a cup of milktea costs $2 to produce and is sold for $5, you could casually ask:

“Why do you think they sell it for $5 instead of $2?”

Talk about the different costs a business may have:

• Ingredients

• Packaging

• Staff wages

• Rent

• Utilities

• Delivery

• Advertising

Then discuss:

“So if they sell it for $5 but it costs them $4 altogether, how much do you think they actually make?”

This gets your child thinking about selling price, costs and profit without turning the conversation into a POA lesson.

You can do the same when your child sees:

• A restaurant

• A clothing shop

• An online seller

• A hair salon

• A small business on Instagram

The idea is to help them start looking at businesses differently.

Instead of simply thinking:

“This shop sells clothes.”

they may eventually start thinking:

“How does this business make money?”

That kind of curiosity is useful when they encounter business-related concepts in POA.

3. Let them be involved in everyday financial decisions

Whenever there is a suitable opportunity, let your child think about financial decisions instead of having everything decided for them.

For example, if your family is buying a new television or appliance, you could involve them in the discussion.

Ask:

“Which one would you choose?”

Then talk about factors such as:

• Price

• Quality

• Brand

• Warranty

• Features

• Lifespan

• Value for money

Or perhaps the family is deciding between two restaurants.

You could ask:

“Which one do you think gives better value for money?”

These conversations don't have to be about POA.

The objective is to help your child become more comfortable with thinking about money, costs, value and financial decisions.

The more familiar these ideas become in everyday life, the less abstract they may feel when they eventually encounter related concepts in their studies.

4. Give them opportunities to handle small responsibilities

This is closely related to the previous point.

If parents handle every financial decision for their children, students may have very little opportunity to experience financial situations themselves.

Where appropriate, give your child some small responsibilities.

For example:

• Managing a small allowance

• Keeping track of their spending

• Paying for a small purchase

• Checking their receipt

• Comparing prices before buying something

• Planning how much money they need for an outing

• Deciding whether they can afford something they want

The amount of money isn't important.

What's important is allowing them to make small decisions and experience the consequences.

If they spend too much this week and have less money left for the following week, that's a learning experience.

If they compare two products and realise that the cheapest option isn't necessarily the best value, that's another learning experience.

Sometimes, concepts become much easier to understand after students have experienced something similar themselves.

5. Talk about borrowing money and the risks involved

Here's another everyday situation that can make an otherwise abstract idea more relatable.

Suppose your child tells you:

“My friend wants to borrow $50 and says he'll return it next week.”

Instead of immediately saying yes or no, you could have a conversation about it.

Ask:

“What would you think about before lending someone $50?”

You could discuss:

• Do you trust the person?

• Have they borrowed money before?

• Do they have a way to repay you?

• What happens if they don't return it?

• Would you be comfortable losing the $50?

• What if they keep delaying the repayment?

  
  

This isn't about teaching your child the accounting treatment for bad debts.

It's about helping them understand a very simple real-world idea:

When someone owes you money, there is always a possibility that you may not get all of it back.

That is a much more meaningful starting point than simply memorising terminology from a textbook.

And if your child later encounters related concepts in POA, they already have a real-life situation they can associate with it.

6. If you invest, explain why you invest

If you invest in shares, funds or other investments, this can also become a useful and very natural conversation with your child.

You don't need to teach them how to invest.

Instead, explain why you invest.

For example:

“We invest because we don't want our money to simply sit in the bank. We hope the value of our investments will grow over time.”

You can discuss simple ideas such as:

• Buying an investment

• Selling it later

• Making a gain

• Making a loss

• Receiving dividends

• Why investments can go up and down in value

• Why people don't invest money that they cannot afford to lose

Again, the objective isn't to teach POA accounting.

It's to help your child understand that money can be used in different ways and financial decisions involve both potential returns and risks.

For students who have never had much exposure to financial matters, even these basic conversations can make the world of business and finance feel much less unfamiliar.

7. Test them — but don't turn every revision session into an interrogation 😅

   
   

This is one area where parents can directly help with revision, even if they don't know POA.

You don't need to know whether your child's accounting answer is correct.

If your child's tutor or school has provided a list of theory questions and answers, you can simply help with active recall.

For example:

Parent: “What is the answer to this question?”

Child: answers

Parent: “Okay, next one.”

That's it.

You don't need to explain the answer.

You don't need to teach the chapter.

And you don't need to correct the child if you're unsure.

You can simply ask them to refer back to their notes or answer sheet afterwards to check themselves.

Even 10–15 minutes of this can be useful.

It's very different from telling your child:

“Go and memorise your theory.”

When someone asks them the question with their notes closed, they quickly discover what they genuinely remember and what they don't.

One important point:

Keep it short and consistent.

You don't want every evening to become:

“Have you studied POA? Come, I test you.”

😂

A short, regular revision routine is usually much easier for students to maintain.

8. Encourage a short revision before the next lesson

   
   

Finally, encourage your child to spend around 15–20 minutes revising before each POA lesson.

This doesn't mean rereading the entire chapter.

A useful short revision could involve:

• Looking through the previous lesson's examples

• Redoing one or two questions

• Testing themselves on key theory

• Reviewing questions they previously got wrong

• Checking anything they still don't understand

  
  

The important part is:

Don't just read. Try to recall.

For example, instead of looking at a worked example and thinking:

“Yes, I understand this.”

cover the answer and try the question yourself.

Then check.

This gives the student a much clearer picture of what they actually remember.

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Why consistency matters more as POA gets harder

For most students, POA starts in Sec 3 and continues through Sec 4, or Sec 5 for students taking the subject over the longer secondary-school pathway.

As the topics become more challenging, students also need to remember concepts they learnt previously and apply them to new situations.

This is where some students start experiencing a frustrating cycle:

Learn it in class → understand it → don't revise → forget it → spend the next lesson relearning it.

When this happens repeatedly, progress slows down.

The student may feel:

“I don't understand POA.”

when the actual problem is sometimes:

“I understood it before, but I haven't retained it.”

That's an important distinction.

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Tuition helps, but it isn't the whole equation

If your child is struggling with POA, tuition can certainly provide the explanation, guidance and individual support they need.

But tuition cannot do the learning for the student.

A student can have a very productive lesson and understand everything at the end of it. If they don't revisit the material afterwards, however, some of that understanding may fade before the next lesson.

That's why we believe progress works best when there is a combination of:

Good teaching + student effort + consistent revision

Parents don't need to teach POA at home.

Instead, you can help by giving your child exposure to real-world financial situations, opportunities to make small decisions, and a simple routine for revisiting what they have learnt.

And sometimes, the most valuable thing a parent can do is simply let their child experience things for themselves.

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Let them experience it

A 15-year-old may not immediately understand why a business needs to make a profit.

They may not understand why someone who owes them money might not repay them.

They may not understand why people invest.

They may not even pay much attention when you show them a receipt or bank statement.

That's okay.

You don't need to force every situation into a POA lesson.

Just let them see it, ask questions, make small decisions and experience things for themselves.

Sometimes the concept doesn't click when you explain it.

It clicks later when they encounter something similar in real life and suddenly think:

“Ohhh… that's what this means.”

That moment of understanding is far more valuable than simply memorising a definition for a test.

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Tried these strategies but your child is still struggling with POA?

Tuition can help, but the right support should go beyond simply giving your child more questions to complete.

How InstanTuition Supports POA Students

At InstanTuition, we don't expect every student to learn POA in exactly the same way or at exactly the same pace.

Our POA classes are kept small so that students receive individual coaching within the class.

Depending on their current understanding and school progress, students may be working on different questions or topics while receiving guidance from the tutor.

This allows us to focus on the areas where each student actually needs help, rather than simply moving the whole class through the same material regardless of their individual gaps.

But ultimately, progress is a partnership.

We provide the teaching and guidance. Students need to put in the effort. And parents can help create opportunities for learning and revision at home.

Looking for POA tuition for your child?

Check POA class availability

We'll recommend a suitable class slot based on your child's level and current needs.