What do your secondary aged children do once home from school?

Swim training morning and evening for DS (12) means eating, homework and music have to be prioritised straight after school. And he has to manage himself as we're not home til 6.
Leaves less time for Skype, Minecraft and general loafing around, but seems to manage plenty of that nonetheless!
I think having a structure focuses the mind. Homework in the week doesn't seem to take nearly as long as it does if he leaves it to the weekend, because he knows he's on the clock. Doesn't seem to affect the quality.

greeneggsandjam that could be true. No1 son doesn't seem to have that much left to do at home as he says he does it at school. I think a lot of the homework seems to consist of finishing up or expanding what they were doing in class and he is a fast worker so has usually done it all!

He got marked perfect 6s for homework (and for effort) from every subject in his school report so I guess he isn't lying.

No2 son has a bit more to do as he is a bit more of a social animal - he got mostly 5s and 6s for homework (and effort too) so I'm happy enough with that.

As I pick my two boys (just turned 14 and almost 13) up on the way home from school, we all get in together (about 4ish). They get changed, hang up the uniform on the floordrobe and head straight onto xbox, PS3, laptop etc. We have dinner about 5/5.30 and then they do any homework that they have been given and if they have no activities that evening and it's dry, then they get kicked out into the fresh air for an hour and then back to play computer games. Other eveings they get to go back on screen before Scouts/Lifeguards/Judo. They go to bed about 10/10.30 with lights out by 11 and get up about 7.30.

One day a week I drop them at the gym for an hour after school.

The theory and the deal is that if they do some exercise/get fresh air and do their homework then we don't otherwise limit the screen time (of course we are actually limiting it by the insisting on the eercise/fresh air and homework but they either don't really mind or haven't figured that out yet).

They rarely go out unprompted - friends do come in for them and they get dragged into whatever game they are playing.....unless I kick them all out again for a bit which I sometimes do (even if it is just a quick 15 minute cycle/scooter round the estate to give their eyes and heads a break)

Depends. Mixture of - homework, music practice, extra curricular stuff (music lessons, dance or theatre group), reading, minecraft, DS often has a shower before he does anything else. DD1 often does other creative stuff too - writing or songwriting - if she doesn't have HW or other stuff on. The telly usually goes on sometime after 7.30 depending on what else is happening - there's hardly ever anything during the week that they watch on broadcast (or at all) - off the top of my head the only things I can think of in the last year would be defiance and under the dome. Oh, and W1A. All of those are 9pm shows. They might watch live or recorded depending on what else was going on. The dr who repeats on Horror, watch and BBC 3 often get watched though, despite having them all in our iTunes library anyway. We usually tend to watch a box set episode when we watch as a family though, so it'll be an hour or an hour and a half of whatever before bed unless so much homework that the older ones can't fit it in (in which case we don't go on without them). We do try and sit down as a family together at least a couple of times a week to do that but with all the other stuff they have on it's often not more than that.

Mine come home, get changed and doss about.

comes in, gets changed, Kerrang music channel on WAY too loud, does homework, shouts at sister, takes dog for a walk, helps make tea, shouts at me, cries, or jokes with me depending on time of the month, eat together, clear up together and watch some TV - Castle box sets on sky at the minute... or go swimming/table tennis before shower and going to bed between 9 and 10ish...

apart from the loud music and a bit of shouting, wouldn't change her for the world...

Comes home.
Changes.
Eats everything that isn't nailed down, but shares with sister and best friend who comes home with her.
Plays on trampoline unless depth of winter.
Watches TV.
Loom bands.
Showers.
Has dinner with us.
Does homework.
Goes on Facebook and plays online games.
Moans about never catching me up on Candy Crush (she's right, she won't)
Goes up.
Reads.
Sleeps.

Dd (16) comes in and starts homework (on hols at mo) and then has supper before heading out for sports or acf mon-thou nights, Friday night is study night and sat and sun taken up with matches or acf

Ds (14) comes in and heads for the loo as he refused to use school toilets. Then trampoline or parkour until supper. Acf two nights a week, gymnastics once a week and weekend activities.

Ds (12) often goes to the park on his way home then has supper before homework. Sports training at least twice a week plus weekend matches. Xbox and mine craft between times

Me.....I eat, sleep and read in the car and dream about how much I'd be making if I was a paid taxi driver

Comes in the door
Strips off and changes into a teenty tiny crop top and a pair of mothercare 5-6 shorts (she's 14) cause 'she's allways hot'
Eats
Goes to her room and listens to music/watches youtube
Comes down for tea
Goes back up and eats from the secret pile of chocolate she doesn't think we know about
Falls asleep on her bed
Comes down for supper
Watches tv with me and dp
Eats more
Goes upstairs 'to bed' where she will twitter/youtube untill the early hours , presumably while eating .......
Ooh for teenager metabolism eh?

DD1(16) comes in says hi. Sometimes chats about her day sometimes vanishes to her room.
DD2(13) toilet, "what's for Dinner" then she gets changed and races out to the trampoline if it's dry or her computer if it isn't

HW may get done after dinner, or it may get done it 6am or she may just get detention if it's German.

DD1 does her HW if she has any, but she her mates are at anther school and she often gets things done in break/lunch or in the bus when DD2 would be chattering to her friends.

DD1 face times and sees her friends in an evening.

Thefirstofhername, do you want to swap?? Even for a short while??

You wouldn't want to swap if you knew what they were like in the mornings!

I need to show this thread to dp who thinks our are abnormal!

Homework, horse riding, swimming training, internet, facebook a bit, listening to music and spending as little time with us as possible (younger sibling with SEN who is hard work)

Ds14- comes home, talks to us for a while goes to his bedroom. Has dinner with us, complains he is hungry, eats bread. Goes to bed at 930. In between this he does homework and xbox/pc talking to his friends. One night a week he does sports training.

Ds12- goes to the toilet. Comes to say hello, routine much the same as ds1 although needs reminding about homework. A lot of the time they are in differenr rooms playing xbox together!

Both seem to be doing ok and appear happy.

Eats, leaves wrappers and empty packets strewn across sofa, does homework whilst watching TV, Skypes her friends, goes on Instagram, insists I watch various videos on YouTube or Facebook, spends hours in shower and rarely gets to bed before 11pm. She's 13.

MrsSquirell. Your daughter sounds exactly like mine. I do have to nag her to do homework though.

I am tempted not to, but she suddenly remembers at 10 o'clock that something has to be handed in the next day and the stress isn't worth it.

Not doing homework means detention, and this means I would have to pick her up from school as the school bus leaves at 3 and there arne't any more after that one - we live in a rural area. So a detention is more aggro for me.

IHaveBrilloHair - yes, DS's definition of 'food' - as in 'mum, there's no food in the kitchen - is 'something instantly edible without cooking/peeling/doing anything to it' (though toasting is somehow an exception to this rule - marmite toast is definitely 'food'), so bread, bananas, apples, crisps, biscuits etc, but not pasta, noodles, rice, anything in the freezer etc etc. I am trying to work on this in the two years left before he leaves for university.

First - go to the toilet
Second - chill - dd1 goes on Facebook, dd2 watches tele

DS2 (12):
Shower.
Music practice.
Homework.
Pack bag for next day.
Minecraft.
Dinner.
More Minecraft.

DS1 (14):
Has a cup of tea.
Starts homework.
Often makes dinner.
Finishes homework.
Shower.
Watches TV with me in his pyjamas.

Mine has a snack, then watches crap TV while simultaneously looking at Facebook/Instagram.

Homework before dinner means she is panicking about some deadline. Normally it's done after dinner, in between bouts of Facebook.

My children are younger but I used to go to sleep on the sofa when I got back from school. In my uniform, having made some snacks