Can you try a toy or activity rotation and have it set out on the table so they get to "discover" it when they get home?

My es kids haven’t had homework for years

The occasional project, the ocassional work sheet. My current 7th, 3rd and K dont have ES homework.

(7th when she was 5th and lower. Now she does of course. Sadly it was a learning curve)

I have one kid and we do allow screens a few min in the morning and after dinner if there is time. But she doesn’t always want them then as will get engrossed with playing or crafts or whatever.

I think the type of screens matter. I think the mindless use of YouTube scrolling on an iPad like watching unboxing or whatever is of little value but I have no issues with a tv show with a plot and possibly educational elements. My kid age 5 is allowed to watch numberblocks on the iPad and a reading app from school.

Anonymous wrote:Oldest is starting K next year. When do you find time to… hang out? Play/relax as a family?

Spending the entire day apart then rushing to do everything from 4-7:30/8:00 sounds horrible!

No judgment, but a real question! Is there no family time when kids head to elementary?

The family time becomes more about quality than quantity

I also had the no screen during the week rule when my kids were in ES and I miss it! Definitely do that. So much harder with teens. Weekends are chock full of family time and weeknights we have dinner together every night unless we can't. One parent walks the dog with one kid and one parent washes the dishes with the other. So they're definitely a lot of kid-parent relationships, not necessarily "everyone all together at once" which is ok! Like a pp said; this is a part of them growing up and developing separately from you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else not care about screentime that much? I watched a ton of TV after school as a kid and I think I’m just fine. My kids all have friends, participate in sports/extracurriculars, and are doing well in school. We go on vacations, visit relatives, go to parks and museums and restaurants and they never ask for screens in those situations (so it’s clear they are capable of happily functioning without them). If they’re tired after a long day at school and they want to spend a couple of hours playing Minecraft… personally I don’t think it’s a big deal. But the more I read this board the more I wonder how much of an outlier I am…

For me in that scenario, I would have them read and go to bed early after dinner.

But Why? What if they’re tired, but not sleepy? What if they just want to decompress by doing something easy and fun that doesn’t take much physical or mental effort?

I am not saying put them to bed right after school, rather 30-60 min early. I do not know of a scenario where extra rest would not help with a kid’s tiredness.

And the problem with defaulting to screens when you are bored or tired is that it becomes a lifetime of defaulting to screens when you are bored or tired.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else not care about screentime that much? I watched a ton of TV after school as a kid and I think I’m just fine. My kids all have friends, participate in sports/extracurriculars, and are doing well in school. We go on vacations, visit relatives, go to parks and museums and restaurants and they never ask for screens in those situations (so it’s clear they are capable of happily functioning without them). If they’re tired after a long day at school and they want to spend a couple of hours playing Minecraft… personally I don’t think it’s a big deal. But the more I read this board the more I wonder how much of an outlier I am…

For me in that scenario, I would have them read and go to bed early after dinner.

But Why? What if they’re tired, but not sleepy? What if they just want to decompress by doing something easy and fun that doesn’t take much physical or mental effort?

I let my kids watch/play fifa etc on the weekends when they’re not playing sports, Fridays are usually a movie night. But we just do better with no screens during the week - it works for us. Maybe it’s just my kids but I find it better to just go zero during the week. They are super busy anyway plus add homework… Friday-Sun they can have at it.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else not care about screentime that much? I watched a ton of TV after school as a kid and I think I’m just fine. My kids all have friends, participate in sports/extracurriculars, and are doing well in school. We go on vacations, visit relatives, go to parks and museums and restaurants and they never ask for screens in those situations (so it’s clear they are capable of happily functioning without them). If they’re tired after a long day at school and they want to spend a couple of hours playing Minecraft… personally I don’t think it’s a big deal. But the more I read this board the more I wonder how much of an outlier I am…

For me in that scenario, I would have them read and go to bed early after dinner.

Anonymous wrote:No screens is too harsh for our kids, but if that works for your family, that's great. We get all the homework and activities done and if there’s time left they might have 30 minites of screen.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Yet people still line up one after the other to tell us about how they've banned "screens".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oldest is starting K next year. When do you find time to… hang out? Play/relax as a family?

Spending the entire day apart then rushing to do everything from 4-7:30/8:00 sounds horrible!

No judgment, but a real question! Is there no family time when kids head to elementary?

I mean what did you expect? Your kids dont need or want to hang out with you all day. School becomes their social outlet. Your job is to care for them and prepare them for the world. But good news, elementary school hours are wack and there are tons of holidays and breaks so you'll have the opposite problem "my kid doesn't want to hang out at home all day and im trying to work what do i do..."

They also don’t want to sit at a desk all day and learn to read on an iPad. Or participate in active shooter drills…

Being home more doesn’t mean being on top of one another all day. It means plenty of time to sleep in, play, explore hobbies, play with friends, and yes — spend time together as a family.

This is so sad.

Mine are a few years older now, but no screens isn’t really that harsh. If the expectation is there, everything seems to revolve around it at that age. We were lucky because our school has a rule no screen time during the week in the Lower School, so we were all in it together. The kids find things to do and always play soccer or bball outside, go to a park, play ping pong, read, have friends over/vice versa. Now that they’re older and sports have become more serious for them, I miss that free “veg” time for them - something I am trying to work into the schedule for them whenever I can now but it becomes tough.

Does anyone else not care about screentime that much? I watched a ton of TV after school as a kid and I think I’m just fine. My kids all have friends, participate in sports/extracurriculars, and are doing well in school. We go on vacations, visit relatives, go to parks and museums and restaurants and they never ask for screens in those situations (so it’s clear they are capable of happily functioning without them). If they’re tired after a long day at school and they want to spend a couple of hours playing Minecraft… personally I don’t think it’s a big deal. But the more I read this board the more I wonder how much of an outlier I am…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oldest is starting K next year. When do you find time to… hang out? Play/relax as a family?

Spending the entire day apart then rushing to do everything from 4-7:30/8:00 sounds horrible!

No judgment, but a real question! Is there no family time when kids head to elementary?

Our kids are up at 6 and we leave for school at 7:30 so we have an hour and a half in the morning. Then they're home at 4. I try to have dinner already prepped so we play from 4-5, eat together, play and baths 5:30-7 then do bedtime. So we still get like 4-5 hours per day together.

Another early riser here. My kid often gets up at 6-6:30 and creeps down to quietly read or play. I sometimes get up a few minutes early for a snuggle on the couch. We also chat while I make breakfast and I always sit down to eat with him or at least have a cup of coffee.

I also run him a bath whenever it’s my turn for bedtime routine and I stick my feet in the water and we chat.

But you’re right… not much real playtime.

Anonymous wrote:Oldest is starting K next year. When do you find time to… hang out? Play/relax as a family?

Spending the entire day apart then rushing to do everything from 4-7:30/8:00 sounds horrible!

No judgment, but a real question! Is there no family time when kids head to elementary?

I mean what did you expect? Your kids dont need or want to hang out with you all day. School becomes their social outlet. Your job is to care for them and prepare them for the world. But good news, elementary school hours are wack and there are tons of holidays and breaks so you'll have the opposite problem "my kid doesn't want to hang out at home all day and im trying to work what do i do..."

Anonymous wrote:Oldest is starting K next year. When do you find time to… hang out? Play/relax as a family?

Spending the entire day apart then rushing to do everything from 4-7:30/8:00 sounds horrible!

No judgment, but a real question! Is there no family time when kids head to elementary?

Our kids are up at 6 and we leave for school at 7:30 so we have an hour and a half in the morning. Then they're home at 4. I try to have dinner already prepped so we play from 4-5, eat together, play and baths 5:30-7 then do bedtime. So we still get like 4-5 hours per day together.