WorkBuddy: Turning Kids' AI Usage into Parent-Checkable Workflows

My daughter Duoduo is in second grade. Recently, she's been asking AI for help with her homework first. Before, she used an AI learning app to ask questions and then just copied the answers. At first, I wanted to take away her iPad. But later I realized that taking it away only solves the problem for one night; it doesn't stop her from asking again tomorrow. What really needs to be managed isn't the tablet in the child's hands, but whether parents have set up a preliminary process for using AI.

A recent report on "children asking AI before doing homework" mentioned that elementary school students shouldn't use open-ended content generation tools alone. Parents can guide children to ask the same question multiple times and compare the differences.

My understanding is more practical: kids can interact with AI, but they shouldn't treat it as an answer machine.

So I started using WorkBuddy for this. WorkBuddy is an AI office efficiency tool that I usually use for handling documents, spreadsheets, and file organization. This time, I made it act as a "homework triage agent," breaking down the problems first so I could decide what was appropriate for my daughter to see.

Setup: Let WorkBuddy break down the problems, not give direct answers

My workflow is: Open WorkBuddy → Create a new workflow/template named "Duoduo Homework Triage" → Input area takes screenshots or text of the questions → Output format selects table or document. My environment is the personal version, which might not apply to everyone. If your interface names are different, look for entries like "Templates," "Automation," or "Tasks."

I fixed the prompt as follows:

"This is second-grade elementary homework. Do not provide the final answer directly. First output: 1. Restate the question in language a child can understand; 2. Potential knowledge points involved; 3. The first step the child should take; 4. Two guiding questions; 5. Parent checkpoints."

This step is crucial. If the AI only answers "right" or "wrong," the parent is still excluded. The value of WorkBuddy isn't in generating pretty pages, but in turning a jumble of problems into a checkable list.

After using WorkBuddy for a month, I also had some mishaps. I threw a week's worth of screenshot errors from Duoduo into it all at once, and the "knowledge points" and "parent checkpoints" got mixed into one column, making the export unusable. Later, I learned my lesson: run 3 small questions first, click Run/Preview, confirm the fields aren't misaligned, and then batch process. In other words, verify field mapping with a single trigger. Simply put, check if the output columns match the template columns.

Before batching, I also open Excel. I create an index sheet: Date, Subject, Page Number, Question Keywords, Screenshot Filename.

Cleaning the raw data first prevents WorkBuddy from getting messy later. This trick applies to side-hustle materials too, and even more so to error notebooks.

Permissions: Kids can only view after parents edit

I sync the results generated by WorkBuddy to Feishu (Lark). I've only been using Feishu for a few days, so I set permissions very conservatively. For the family spreadsheet: I have edit rights, Dad has comment rights, and Duoduo has read-only access. The answer column is kept separate, and I send it out only after confirming.

The post-school routine is fixed into four steps:

• Duoduo sends me photos of questions she doesn't understand;
• I feed them into WorkBuddy to run through;
• I delete overly mechanical guidance phrases and add my own judgment;
• Then I send the "hint cards" back to the family group chat.

This way, what she gets are questions prompting her to "think first," not ready-made answers.

Daily Routine: Friday reviews, don't let it fail silently

This semester, I try to keep it consistent: run it only once a day, don't get greedy. On Friday nights, I review: which types of problems WorkBuddy organizes accurately, and which ones still need parental explanation. After about two weeks, organizing word problems, dictation, and mental math errors has become quite stable. Picture description writing isn't working well; it tends to give formulaic sentences, so I manually edit those.

Another small pitfall: if you plan to set up scheduled tasks later, don't immediately auto-sync to the whole family. First, make it output only to a "pending parent review" sheet and manually export it once. Once permissions and workflows are smooth, then consider automatic reminders.

My current judgment is that the real hassle in families isn't whether AI will arrive, but whether parents have integrated AI outputs into their daily routines. Looking ahead, workflow tools like WorkBuddy that can link data organization, table generation, and file archiving might first be adopted by moms, teachers, and home homework scenarios. After all, what people lack isn't an AI that answers better, but an entry point that can handle the chores for parents while leaving a trace for checking.