AIBU to think fitting homework in is so hard?

[purpletick]

I feel like I’m failing ds, and he’s only in reception so I know things will get worse but I can’t see how to fit it in.

Mornings are so busy and frantic. It’s the best time but we often don’t have time. Plus his sister (2) often comes in and disturbs us.

When he gets home from school he isn’t in the mood (understandable) but before bed feels like setting us up to fail as he’s so tired.

It’s just listening to him read, and learning tricky words. That’s it, and I’m struggling!

(Please don’t tell me just to read to him: I do, quite extensively but I’m not sure it makes a lot of difference in terms of his own reading!)

Mornings are not the time to be doing reading etc.
After school yes. And bedtime too.

Please do not assume worse is to come OP. Just keep going.

OP we struggle a bit with it too. We try to do it straight after dinner, before bedtime starts so they're not hungry and not too tired but it's never ideal.

As they have grown it's become easier in that they can stay up later and have more stamina.

But in some ways it's harder as they have more independent social lives, most days they're playing with mates from end of school to dinner time and we can't in good conscience make them come straight home to do their reading practice and miss out when everyone's going round Lucy's house after school. And sometimes they have things going on later so it's too easy to miss a day here and a day there.

I used to find it challenging but the best thing was to get into a routine as others have said.

Everyone has different ideas and obviously children's behaviours are different but what worked for me was:
Home, change out of uniform, homework, tea, play or TV time bath, ( or cubs) bed time story. Then me or dh would pack what is needed for the next day.

Of course there were days when that pattern failed but we were consistent with it as much as possible and the kids got used to it.
Me and dh tried to be organised in advanced, eg any chores were out of the way, rea prepped as much as possible and so on.
It made life easier everyone knowing what was going to happen when.

I've worked with families through children's services and those that are chaotic often have no routine, no idea what the expectations everyone has of each other and every one ends up flustered and disorganised.

So he's home at 340. Drink, snack, play. Etc.

Do you have evening meal together as a family? Do you have a DP?

I'm guessing almost 3 hours before you start bedtime routine. What do you all do in that time?

Can the toddler do some colouring or something at the table while DS reads to you. It's literally 5 minutes. Maybe when toddler is in the bath, can you sit together next to them while DS reads?

I used to use chalk boards so my youngest could draw and oldest do spellings. White boards were not as good as ink/ pens got everywhere

I'll be honest while I usually had help from DH there were a few occasions where I was on my own and the younger one was being so difficult so I resorted to shutting myself in a room with the older one and the book.

We do straight after dinner, that way they’ve wound down after school, not hungry etc and not too tired. Then they have a tiny treat and the rest of the evening is their own.