Does your child do homework before dinner or after dinner?
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Anonymous
Meh, my kids' school starts after 9:00 AM. We are about 15 minutes away, and even with a shower and breakfast, he is up and ready in about 20-30 minutes. Going to be at ten is standard for him, and he still gets around 9-10 hours of sleep each night. |
Anonymous
| But you forgot the extra 15 minutes of piano that he does before school.... |
Anonymous
My kid doesn't do piano. |
Anonymous
| My apologies. I thought you were the pp who said that her fifth grade DD plays piano for 15 minutes before school... Then 45 minutes at night... Then one hour of violin ... And then bed at 10 pm. |
Anonymous
| I stay at home, so I have the luxury of making them a snack and sitting down with them to do homework. The 4th grader needs a bit more guidance to stay on track, the 2nd grader is quick and finishes up within 20 minutes or so. By 5pm I need to have them in a bath, because I start dinner at 5:30, eating at 6, they do their chores (dish washer, taking out trash, wiping table, sweeping under table) until 6:45, then upstairs for teeth brushing and potty. By 7:15, I have read the little one a book, and the older two are snuggled in for book reading until 8:30. They have bookmark timers to let them know when to turn off their light. I have no idea how I could get homework done if it wasn't right after school. |
Anonymous
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OP here. For the person who mentioned the chat rooms on the fashion games, thanks for the info! I will check the next time she does it...I sure hope there's no chat room.
Re: the 10.5 hours of weekly screen time: I wish so much that my child would enjoy reading for pleasure, but she never has. I've done the standard: read to her starting at two months old everyday once she was older; consulted Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook for fantastic read-aloud books (which my daughter loved hearing). I've stocked the house with Harry Potter, Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, Harriet the Spy, Island of Blue D., etc. She just never chooses to read for fun. I think one small part of the problem is they always have to read about two books at a time at school (she's in 5th Grade). She just finished Stargirl and When You Reach Me, for example. But since she always has to read for school, she doesn't want to do it for pleasure. (I actually broke down this week and bought her a Clique novel by Lisi Harrison in the hopes that she might enjoy reading it. It's kind of catty, but could be a guilty pleasure.) So part of the reason she gets 10.5 hours of screen time per week is she is not curling up with a book as I did as a kid. But on the plus side, she never watches tv after dinner, she is in Choir, and she plays the trombone in band. She also sets the table before dinner. Believe me, we have TONS of time for interacting, laughing and goofing around together. |
Anonymous
| No room for TV/screen time during the week. The first week we implemented this, they seemed a bit jarred. They moved on quickly and so did we. Now we get in the habit of DVRing during the week, some family movie, then all watch it together on the weekend. Much more fun to do as a family, versus them watching who knows what on their own. Besides popcorn and a movie? It's big fun! |
Anonymous
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To the pp who has her kids in bed by 7:15 for the youngest and 8:30 for the elementary kids: that is great. That is what I did as well with our kids growing up. They were all in bed between 7:30-8:00 and then they read for a while. Lights out by 8:30 ish. They all becsme avid readers.
They had to wake up at 7:15 am for school, but they were well rested. They loved school--all of them--- and had plenty of stamina for it because they were well rested. We were able to do this through junior high, then they had to stay up later for school work in high school. I think so many, many behavioral and academic problems that kids have are exacerbated by being chronically tired. (not all of them, but many) You can't be joyful if you are tired. It is hard to pay attention if you are tired. It is easy to get involved in spats at school if you are tired and cranky, etc. |
Anonymous
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OP: get rid of the tv. After a couple weeks, your DD will pick up a book in the afternoons. Spend that time going to a library with her or a bookstore/coffee shop.
It is a lot easier to veg in front of a tv, but if there is no tv, the chances of her reading are huge. She may become a bookworm after all. 
Just a suggestion. It worked for us. No tv in the house at all until they were in high school. By then they had all become bookworms. Once we had tv, only one took a real interest in it, but she still read a book a week in high school on her own. All had high verbal SAT scores. There is a connection. |
Anonymous
Whaaaa? My 4th grader is in bed, lights out, by 8:30 every night. We insist on it. Tiger Mom? |
Anonymous
I don't know anyone whose kids play video games for 2 hours a day and then TV. Does that family even exist? Why did you erect that straw man? As for your own experience, she's not you. You have already expressed concern about her academics (which is why you began this thread), so your experience is also not really relevant. That's a lot of habitual television watching, no matter how you slice it. You were looking for advice on what to do, and I think many of us are start by nipping that in the bud. If you're counting the number of hours she watches (10.5 hours a week), that's a fixation and a little weird. |
Anonymous
What school starts AFTER 9 a.m.? The latest in the area seem to Arlington Public elementaries which start AT 9 a.m. My dds are in one of those schools and are in bed nightly by 8 or 830. |
Anonymous
| 5th grader, right away after school. 8th grader, often both before and after dinner. |
Anonymous
Louise Archer Elementary in Vienna starts at 9:15 am. |
Anonymous
| Wow. Are any of you dual full time working parent households? We are, and our schedule doesn't really resemble these. Our kids have to be up and out of the house to SACC long before school starts. |