Cancelling Activities to do Homework?

[Anonymous]

I have a child that hates to do homework. It is a constant struggle to get her to study. But more than that, she has activities so that she has only one night per week to do homework. Another night is used for a tutor but that is reserved for a subject that she has trouble in, so we don't want to spend that time on homework. She does have ADHD and is very hard to get to study. At any rate, she often doesn't get the work done or study for a weekly test. But she's in 2nd grade. Do we really have to cancel some of her activities just to do homework?

[Anonymous]

I would think a kid in second grade would spend at most an hour doing homework, and often less. Are you saying that she has so many activities that she literally doesn't have one hour to set aside for homework? That she really only has "one night a week" that she could do homework?
I think you've answered your own question, OP.

[Anonymous]

I'm a little confused. My girls have activities each day after school for anywhere from one to three hours, yet still manage to get homework done each day as well.

Maybe you need to change up where homework is done (I have one girl who gets it done better when laying on the living room floor rather than at her bedroom desk). Maybe you need to change up how much homework is done at once - maybe 15 minutes at a time and then a five minute break?

[Anonymous]

I get what you mean, OP. My kids get out of school at 3:15 - they need a 1/2hr to have a snack and chill out - then if they are off to an activity by the time we get home it is 5:30 or later (combination of activities being all over the place and dealing with traffic from 4:30pm on in this area!). When they were younger I liked them to eat by 6 so that there was time for bath and reading before bed. That would leave very little time for HW. But, I think where you try to squeeze it in is the window where you make dinner - have DC do her HW at the kitchen table as you or spouse prep and cook dinner - that is probably about 1/2 of time which 2nd grade HW should not take much more than. Since your DD has ADHD I am sure that even 15 min of HW takes twice as long - I get it, I have a kid like that, too - but having the child right at the kitchen table while I'm making dinner helps keep her focused, and you just have to accept that sometimes dinner will be a little late. Also, some kids can go right from school to activity to HW to dinner to bed with no problem - my kids need "down time" - that means they are not the kind of people who can have 5 day/week of activities, either.

[Anonymous]

My DC has homework in 2nd grade every night. Just 1/2 hour, but every night. 3rd grade is the same but longer. You have to figure out a way to include this time into the day.

[Anonymous]

Yes, of activities are interfering that much with school work, I think you should cut back.

[Anonymous]

Our kid takes forever to do homework too. She's in 6th grade now and homework NEVER took just 20 minutes.

We didn't want to totally cancel activities but we have limited activities to an hour each night.
We are also 2 working parents so our kids do not get home till 5:30ish, then dinner.

[Anonymous]

OP, CHILL and let that child play. So she skips some homework. So what.

[Anonymous]

OP, Unless your child is truly world class at whatever it is she is doing, that is clearly too many activities for her.

Sorry (and I am a mom letting her kid do three sports and an instrument)

[Anonymous]

There should not be homework in 2nd grade. This is the problem. With that said, however, she does have homework, and you need to find a way to fit the homework in. I would cut down the chill time to 15 minutes and have her start on the homework as soon after school as possible.

[Anonymous]

Second grade? That would be crazy to cancel activities in favor of homework. Wtf?

[Anonymous]

This is an ADHD issue, OP, so you might have better luck on the SN forum.

My 3rd grader with ADHD has exactly the same problem. He has 6 activities Mon-Sat with just the Wednesday completely free. Three of his activities give him homework as well, which adds to the workload. Monday is the only day he has to finish his school weekly math, the rest is earmarked for other homework. He never works on his spelling because he can remember it without studying, and he reads more than the required amount, every time he has a free minute.

In second grade I still had to sit down with him to keep him on task. He was NOT signed up for many extras then, because we simply could not handle it.

The beginning of 3rd grade was very difficult, but sometime during the Fall we had a breakthrough and he made enormous progress: to the point where now I tell him to do the homework, and he muddles through (finding the homework, organizing it, doing it) with occasional reminders or help from me. I can cook at the same time, and take care of DC2, which is a new and wonderful thing!

My point is, it will get better if you teach her organizational skills and have a set homework routine, materials all ready to go in a basket or box, etc (and follow through!). For now, either get out of some activities or try to survive til the end of the year. Either way, don't worry, this experience will not traumatize your DD.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I have found as the years have gone by, the kids are doing a sometimes incredible amount of homework in an evening. You better hope it's not a night when you have any other out-of-the-house obligations.

It stinks. Homework is ruining our life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, Unless your child is truly world class at whatever it is she is doing, that is clearly too many activities for her.

Sorry (and I am a mom letting her kid do three sports and an instrument)

And I say unless your kid is truly top of her class, let her skip homework and do the activities.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the helpful responses. To answer a question, basically we don't have her do homework on Fridays or weekends. As mentioned, she dislikes homework anyway so it's a lot of trauma to spoil these days. Then there are two activities on Monday, which end late, so no go. There is another activity one night and a tutor the next. That leaves one night.

She does learn from the tutor but we have decided that it's a waste to have her do homework with her instead of focusing on the missing skills that she needs.

Being so young, even if there were no activities, she should be able to play in the yard at night and have dinner, and that would leave about enough time to get a bath and then to bed on time. We have gotten a couple of mega-packs of homework too. Things that take a very long time. It just seems wrong to have to cancel things just to do homework, but obviously something is out of kilter. I can say I disagree with the quantity of homework, but so what.