Time to put some structure in place around homework and wifi

[Mitfordhons]

I have three teens and both Dh and I work full time so we've made it their responsibility to do homework under their own steam. The youngest struggles with writing and we've been told ever since he started secondary school that some of his homework is rushed. The middle one does ok, but is a bit lazy and has also had times where she struggled with planning homework and got anxious about it. The eldest is the most sensible but didn't do too well in exams for the first time ever and has admitted to not being as focused as they could be.

As school starts again soon I'm thinking that perhaps we've been too easy going and it's time to put in some kind of structure. I know that they listen to music when doing homework and I suspect dc1 watches tv at the same time. So I wonder if they should do homework out of their rooms at a set time of day, so there are no distractions and establish some kind of discipline/good habits or if I'm being daft and they're old enough to learn to self motivate.

Any ideas?

[Mitfordhons]

Oh and the wifi thing is that I was thinking of turning it off for periods of time/at night after say 9.30.

[lljkk]

Will they agree, will they welcome the supportive structure or will they plot how to undermine & ignore the system you suggest?

[BackforGood]

Issue with denying access to wifi, IME, is that lots of the homework they need to access the wifi to get on to the school's intranet stuff, or the schools e-mail stuff, or occasionally other research.

No harm in letting them know you will be turning it off at certain times except it stops you MNing, but different people will always need to be using it at different times, IME.

[Eastpoint]

The trouble with turning off wifi is that they can use 3G/4G on their phones 😓

[JustDanceAddict]

My DD asked me to take her phone off her while she's doing homework as its too much of a distraction. I didn't need to be asked twice!

[iknowimcoming]

Hoping to gain some wisdom here! My Ds is in the rush it and do the bare minimum gang also, it's really hard as he/we are constantly being told by school that he is really able but just cannot be arsed to put any effort in. Made slightly worse by his older sister being a machine when it comes to schoolwork and has aced her GCSEs as a result. I feel torn between feeling really bad for him feeling like he is being compared to her (by school not us) and feeling cross because he is capable just cba. I have tried making him do homework before any gaming but that just seems to make him rush even more. We do have his pc set to timeout at 9.30 every night rather than the wifi as that means whilst he can still use his iPad he is more likely to come and do that downstairs with us so we do at least get some interaction with him. Not much help I know, sorry OP

[iknowimcoming]

Bump

[Claramarion]

My daughter was always good at school but my sons the class
Prat is a nightmare to do homework and is constantly on report.
I take his phone off
Him and his ps4 saying That his grades are okiah but
Both teachers said for daughter also they needed
To put more Effort in I talk to him but not sure what else
I can actually do.

[16augustholiday]

Watching with interest. We did put the wifi on timer for a while but the timer went with the summer holidays. Back to school on Weds and need to get thinking again properly.

[CodyKing]

Aren't here homework clubs at school?

Could the middle one meet friends to do a study group?

Do they need some more parental input?

Could you reward rather than sanction?

iPads have dictation tool - you need to turn it on - DS could dictate his homework which is easier than writing - the results are vastly improved !! Try it it's worth taking your time to learn how to do it properly - we are talking huge grade leaps