How to do homework with older children whilst baby frets/crawls/wants to be picked up..any tips?

[hattyyellow]

We have twins who are in Reception and a ten month old. They have just started coming back with homework - where they need to work on their letters/numbers/do simple reading.

Dh generally isn't back until bedtime and we really want to keep that time calm and quiet for stories rather than doing homework then.

Does anyone have any tips for handling this difficult time of day with a schoolchild/ren and baby?

Homework in reception! What is this world coming too!! Children should be playing at this tender age not worrying about wether they have handed their homework in or not!

But if you want to get it done, Is there not a time at the weekend or whenever Dh is not at work that one of you can spend with baby/twins.

They do only get one piece of homework don't they?

p.s. my Ds1 hardly ever done homework at infant school. He is now in college studying science, math, history and govermnet politics.

Don't fret too much about it

Hatty, I have DD1 in Yr 1, DD2 is 3.5 and DD3 is 16mo. I'm afraid I resort to DD2 entertaining herself in the living room, DD3 in her high chair in the kitchen and DD1 at the kitchen table too, with me looking over her shoulder while I cook. Not ideal, but it's all the time we have (I work 4 days a week). She seems to be coping OK with that, and I bribe DD3 with food (breadsticks) to keep her happy.

It's homework every night! .

I explained to the teacher that I will do my best but that I can't guarantee they will do it at this age.

Will try and do it whilst DD3 has her tea - breadsticks sound a good bribe! DT's tend to interrupt eachother though and they really need todo it separately.

I guess I am being too swotty about it - it's not the end of the world if it doesn't get done. I just don't like to think of them missing out if all the other children are doing it..

Don't worry, the rest of the kids will NOT be doing the homework either!

My son just got his achievement levels for parent evenings. He got mostly A3's and A2's. He has the math and science skills of a year above. As I said before - he never does homework he doesn't enjoy.

You can catch up on things like reading or letters/numbers at weekends, lots of parents won't be managing it on weekday evenings. If there's a problem write in the homework book that you are doing this.

We only do homework if and when we/the dc are in the mood, but if you give a general impression of enthusiasm for school and teachers you can get away with not doing all sorts of things, IME.