What are your best after school homework routines?

rachel
8302

My oldest two are in second grade and have been assigned about 20-30 minutes of homework each day. But between the after school feasting, playtime, and other activities we are struggling to figure out when we fit that it.

    1 answer

    • ritu
      2551

      Ugh. I so empathize. Homework is the worst. I don’t know why it’s a thing, especially for kids in elementary school. These kiddos are already overloaded with structure, adding a meaningless daily exercise just for the sake of “this is how it’s always been” drives me nuts. This answer will absolutely not be approved by any school or educator, but for us, since our homework packet is only due at end of the week, we just defer the whole thing to one quiet afternoon and do it all in one go.

      • rachel—Sadly it’s a daily one! 10 minutes of speed math facts and 20 minutes of reading every day. I’m wondering if I should just do an audiobook during snack time? Maybe that would count!
      • ritu—oof wow that’s a big daily commitment ask for 2nd graders!
      • sarahs—When my kiddos come home they get a snack and unwind for 15-30 minutes, then they do their homework, no screen time til it’s done, it’s annoying for sure, but they just get in the habit of it and develop good time management and study skills. I’m there if they have questions, but also encourage them to try to do as much as they can on their own. It does get less annoying because you and they both have an expectation and routine, and for us it actually goes really fast (at least when they’re still little) because I don’t have them do their reading then, that’s at bed time. After I read to them and tuck them in they can stay up reading. It’s a win-win-win. They get their minutes, they stay in bed, and they feel like they’re staying up later (shhh don’t tell them bedtime just starts 15-30 minutes earlier, they’re still falling asleep when they should).
      • jon—@sarahs splitting the reading to bedtime is brilliant!
      • rachel—@sarahs reading at bedtime is great! We always struggle with them then staying up to late…but just moving bedtime earlier is a good solution.

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