When does your kid with ADHD do homework?

[Anonymous]

This is the first year with homework we feel we need to enforce and it’s been a huge struggle. When DC comes home they are SO hyper from holding it together all day. By the end of the evening all meds are out of their system and they can’t sit still to finish the work. We have experimented with about 1 hour after getting home and right after dinner but that’s activity time most nights. Morning works pretty well honestly but it seems like it’s a lot of pressure the random days there’s a longer assignment. I am sure you all have dealt with this too. Is it crazy to do homework in the morning? Or some of it? I hate this.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried a small stimulant booster after school? We were having the same problem in middle school, and the tiny booster at 4 p.m. made a huge difference. DC was able to finish homework (1-2 hours per night) relatively smoothly. Before that, we had a meltdown over homework nightly.

[Anonymous]

What age is DC?

[Anonymous]

My 9th grader either does it in school or about an hour after they get home. He occasionally will finish some up in the morning but there’s really not a lot of time. He’s up at 7 and we’re out of the house by 7:30.

[Anonymous]

In elementary school using timers helped a lot. The timer can be used for breaks as well as intervals to focus. Sitting with the child can also help. And, doing work over the weekend before the chaotic week can help if you know what work is coming up.

[Anonymous]

Weekend if its a flexible due date. Mornings if its not flexible. Evenings never worked for us either. I actually made flexible homework an IEP accommodation because it was so disruptive to try and get homework done with one evening turn around, especially if it was an evening with sports practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 9th grader either does it in school or about an hour after they get home. He occasionally will finish some up in the morning but there’s really not a lot of time. He’s up at 7 and we’re out of the house by 7:30.

^PP. He is on a block schedule which helps. Homework is never due the next day.

[Anonymous]

My 9th grader does it after dinner. Not ideal and he needs a Ritalin booster to get it done, but before then he's busy with other activities. When he was younger, he never had more than 10 minutes and/or we didn't worry about it.

[Anonymous]

If this is elementary, I would just do the best I could and not worry about the rest. I would include this in the IEP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If this is elementary, I would just do the best I could and not worry about the rest. I would include this in the IEP.

What would you do if this was middle or high school?

[Anonymous]

This is going to be a very unpopular stance. But we LITERALLY gave up homework in 3rd grade for the same reason. In elementary school, our DD just didn’t do it (and we spent some miserable hours trying). In middle school, we made sure she had a resource class during school hours to do it and she had reduced homework on her IEP. In public high school, she had two resource classes. She’s now a junior in a private school that doesn’t give homework. Thank goodness. She’ll have to go to a college that has really good supports for kids like her, and/or she can primarily take classes that really interest her. She sure does do a TON of homework in her areas of interest - she spends hours researching. They just happen to not align with anything related to the high school curriculum.

[Anonymous]

DD is in 7th. She does it right after school.
Usually takes as little as 15 mins up to an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this is elementary, I would just do the best I could and not worry about the rest. I would include this in the IEP.

What would you do if this was middle or high school?

NP here. No. We had homework removed for elementary but not middle. She has matured and is able to better regulate herself, and follow directions without hassle, and has a later bedtime, and has sports practice after school to help get over sitting all day. So now she's able to do homework. She still needs strategies and support, but we wanted to have her start before HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is going to be a very unpopular stance. But we LITERALLY gave up homework in 3rd grade for the same reason. In elementary school, our DD just didn’t do it (and we spent some miserable hours trying). In middle school, we made sure she had a resource class during school hours to do it and she had reduced homework on her IEP. In public high school, she had two resource classes. She’s now a junior in a private school that doesn’t give homework. Thank goodness. She’ll have to go to a college that has really good supports for kids like her, and/or she can primarily take classes that really interest her. She sure does do a TON of homework in her areas of interest - she spends hours researching. They just happen to not align with anything related to the high school curriculum.

OP here. DC is in late elementary. We also never insisted on homework before because they are 2e and well ahead. But now they are in the advanced track and homework seems to be graded/collected so I am nervous about saying don’t do it. They don’t need the extra practice now but I think at some point they will. It’s only supposed to be like 15 minutes but when they are hyper it can take way longer because it’s like work for 2 minutes, talk for 5. We definitely need to insist they are in a room alone but they HATE that. Ahh.

They have all the meds the dr. will prescribe. Not against meds or more meds but the balance is pretty difficult so I am not looking for more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is going to be a very unpopular stance. But we LITERALLY gave up homework in 3rd grade for the same reason. In elementary school, our DD just didn’t do it (and we spent some miserable hours trying). In middle school, we made sure she had a resource class during school hours to do it and she had reduced homework on her IEP. In public high school, she had two resource classes. She’s now a junior in a private school that doesn’t give homework. Thank goodness. She’ll have to go to a college that has really good supports for kids like her, and/or she can primarily take classes that really interest her. She sure does do a TON of homework in her areas of interest - she spends hours researching. They just happen to not align with anything related to the high school curriculum.

OMG do we have the same kid???