Home long enough to gather a snack, then homework right away. In first grade we played around with the timing a bit, with the result that DS always tried to negotiate a later homework time. He does his 20 minutes of reading as part of the bedtime routine, though.

After dinner. After school he gets downtime and then after dinner we do homework.

At the daycare. He is also in fifth grade.
I pick him up at 5. We have dinner or snack depending on his basketball/hockey/soccer practice time. He is back from his sport activities around 7:30 - snack or dinner - shower - bed. I check his homework when is asleep already.
No time for TV during the week .
And yes, there is one night when he doesn't do sports. It's Monday night.

we don't get home until 5 or 5:30. my son is always starving by then so he does homework after dinner. if he came home right after school might do it differently...

Anonymous wrote:by the way, op, am i reading this correctly or did you basically say your child sits in front of the TV or a computer screen daily from the moment she comes home from school until just before dinner? That sounds more habitual than it does about needing to unwind.

For an hour and a half, is what the OP said. Which I think is too much. I don't think an hour and a half of unwinding is too much, but seven and a half hours of screentime during the week is.

OP, I'd tell her since her homework is not getting done in a timely fashion, she's now going to be put on an Incentive Program. When she gets home from school she has to do her homework FIRST. If she gets that and shower done before 5:30, then she can play on the computer the next day AFTER homework & shower are completed.

Welcome to life. You have to fulfill obligations before doing fun stuff.

by the way, op, am i reading this correctly or did you basically say your child sits in front of the TV or a computer screen daily from the moment she comes home from school until just before dinner? That sounds more habitual than it does about needing to unwind.

Anonymous wrote:Up until high school, after school is best (with a short break to decompress). Once they get to high school they will probably have after school activities, and they should be controlling their schedule anyway.

It depends on the child.

My kids need a nice long break before getting into homework, at least through dinner.

When I come home from work, the last thing I want to do is jump into and hour or so of more work. I prefer to tackle anything I bring home later in the evening.

Many kids are the same way. They need a nice long recharge to be productive again.

My children do their homework right when they get home from school. This isn't what we require, rather it is what the prefer to do. The older child has always been like that -- great work ethic, she likes to get it done and be free after that. The younger child so far is following her sister's model. Fourth and Second grades.

Up until high school, after school is best (with a short break to decompress). Once they get to high school they will probably have after school activities, and they should be controlling their schedule anyway.

Right after school, we do snack/down time for about an hour. Then homework. This has been our routine since first grade. If she does not finish, then we finish after dinner. I like to get an early start, because I don't know how long it will take.

Different with each kid. Oldest does it right after school. Middle child does it early morning. Youngest does it right before bed. I just go with what works for each kid. Also, I vary locations depending on what works with each kid. My oldest always works on the desk in his room. My middle child lays on a tile floor and has an iPod playing music in the background. My youngest had been sitting in the kitchen, but just this last week, it seems right in front of the fireplace with a board on her lap to hold her work works better. And, my oldest just decided he reads better with some quiet music playing.

Point is try lots of things. Be creative. Help your child figure out how they can best and most efficiently fulfill their obligations. And, change it as your kids change.

Also, all shower in the morning and have been since kindergarten. I also have a dwadler and after a reasonable amount of time in the shower, I go and shut the water off and hand him a towel. My guess is that he washes about four times a week and washes his hair five. Good enough for me. Having them shower in the morning adds less than five minutes to my morning routine.

Anonymous wrote:Wow...shower in the morning. That never occurred to me. Though with my dawdler I don't think I could pull it off. I do like the idea of chill-out time after school, with all its regimentation.

I remember as a kid curling up with the "Four-thirty Movie" in the NY metro most days after school...it was such a treat.

I have found that the morning shower actually speeds up the getting ready process. It wakes them up, and when they get out they are ready to start the day.

On the mornings they don't take showers, my dawdler is so, so, so slow.

Wow...shower in the morning. That never occurred to me. Though with my dawdler I don't think I could pull it off. I do like the idea of chill-out time after school, with all its regimentation.

I remember as a kid curling up with the "Four-thirty Movie" in the NY metro most days after school...it was such a treat.

Freetime after school. Homework after dinner, usually around 8:00 PM. 1 show if it is finished in a timely fashion. Then bedtime. Shower in the morning.

My 5th grade daughter gets to relax when she gets home from school. She's allowed 1 1/2 hours of screen time (TV and/or computer) a day and she almost always does it from 4 to 5:30pm. (She doesn't have a FB or Instagram account, but sometimes plays low-key fashion video games and such.) After dinner she dawdles a bit, then does some homework, more dawdling, little more homework. Then we have to really push her to take a shower. She procrastinates and almost always goes to bed somewhat later than we would like. Someone suggested to me that she instead do her homework as soon as she gets home, and then shower immediately after dinner. Not sure I would like the new routine, though.

As a kid, I always did homework at night with no TV allowed after dinner. I'm just curious if my husband and I are in the minority.