Before and after school routine

[MerryMarigold]

I know this is slightly 'off' primary school topic, but thought this would be a good place to catch parents of the right age group. My ds1 is 6 and in Y1. He has a fair bit of catching up to do on reading and writing. He's very tired after school/ evening, so not sure that is a good time to do stuff (although that is when we do it now). His homework (once a week) generally takes a few 'sessions' and I'm really struggling to fit in anything more. He goes to a laidback school and I am a laidback parent but I think the teacher is pushing for him to do a bit more at home on a daily basis - reading books, high frequency words, spelling, maths etc. (Not all on one day!!)

I'm really bad at routine so I'm coming to the lovely MN people to ask: WDYD? What's your morning and post-school routine and when do you fit 'work' in? I also have younger twins (aged 3). I'd love to know rough times for eating/ cooking/ getting dressed in morning etc. as to how you manage to fit it all in, because I am rubbish at this. TIA

merry

Obviously it goes without saying that tea/coffee x2 is the only way to start the day

Oh, it's good to know I'm not reaaally decadent by lie-ing in till and then having a coffee!!! Gutted that ds1 took the book he was reading back to school library and swapped for something else......we were supposed to read 'The Sun' tonight.

ie. 'The Sun' being a star rather than the page 3 Sun!

Merry I will have a think. When ds1 was in year1 I also had 3year old twins and a 1 year old. Mine are all early to bed and early risers. Between 6.30-8.30 am we were all up, dressed, washed, fed, beds made, spellings/phonics are done but not structured so they don't know they are doing school work, dishwasher emptied, washer on and then into the car. If walking we left at 8.20am.

Dts were in the preschool attached to the school for 2.5 days a week.

In year 1 homework was weekly spellings, 2 reading books and a maths or English sheet on a Friday.

I struggled finding the time to hear the reading more than anything else.

We get home from school at 3.30pm and was brushing teeth for bed at 6.30pm. Tea at 5pm. Schoolwork at 3.45 after a biscuit. All read to individually at bedtime.

Routine still very similar and now ds1 is in year 3, dts are 4 and in reception and ds3 will start preschool in January. It is harder now I have 3 children on school work at different levels as dts are progressing at different rates.

Sorry it is mishandle mashed about

I love the idea of giving dcs a list, will be trying that one!

I live in an intential community - here's a typical day for schooled children ;

6.30 -everyone wakes due to dawn-lamps coming on.

6.30-6.45 - everyone has breakfast together having laid it out the night before.

6.45 - children all have cold water washes, beds are made for them and rooms checked, clothes laid out on their beds.

1. - children are all dressed and begin their studies.

Pre-school children in one room, school aged children in another. One hour of literacy for pre-schoolers, one hour of mathmatical problem solving for school aged, all materials prepared and delivered by community parents, not linked to school-work or national curriculum at all.

8 - preschoolers have 30 mins of creative play (sand, dough, etc) with emphasis on fine motor skill development.
8 - school aged children have 30 mins world studies (discussing topical real-world events).

8.30 - off to school - children view school as a treat that they have earn't through being good community members.

3.30 - school finishes

4 - home from school - all children sit for formal dinner, take turns in reading historical texts.

4.30 - children moved to seperate areas for small group-lead work, includes wood-work, gardening, cookery class, french, science experiments, thatching,
sculpture, history, etc - children rotate weekly between subjects.

6 pm - children present their learning to their Dads and are given targets for following day to scaffold their knowledge.

6.30 - milk and biscuits

7 - bath (hot water this time!)

7.30 - teeth, pj's - younger children have stories then lights out, school aged children have 45 mins of individual reading before lights out.

oooggs, I remember you! Wow, you had a another baby, you're tough.

Bed making is a good idea. And how did you make the spellings/ phonics fun?!

Rosemary. Sounds like you'd need a whole community to implement that!!

The only thing that really helped me was no TV or drawing/ relaxing until we're all ready to go.

Also, if you can do it yourself, you do it yourself. So - I deal with ds2 who needs help getting dressed whilst ds1 can dress himself (but would have me do it if he could get away with it!!)

In the evening also it's no Tv/ PC or doodling until all homework is done, most of dinner eaten. He'll do it while I'm preparing dinner so I can help out and look over his shoulder if he needs me.
After dinner, time to relax a bit. Bath at 7, bed anytime from 7:30 to 8:15 ish.
Ds also y1.

WowOooo, am at the doodling, drawing. That's ds1's speciality!!

RosemaryandThyme that's very interesting. Do the kids play during the week? It sounds fab but wondering where the time for playing is!

Playing (or lack of it) is the most controversial area we have here - unscheduled free-time is hard to justify......

Spellings with scrabble tiles, or on a magna doodle. Phonics with twins is fun as they are learning the same things at the same time so can race at same sort of ability. You will be doing this soon!

We have recently started a morning routine to fit in letters and numbers before DD (4.5) goes to the local Japanese kindergarten. Children here begin primary a year and a half later than the UK. I was trying to do phonics etc. in the afternoons when we were free, but it was becoming a battle of wills, especially if playmates were heard to be running around outside. So now I get up a half hour earlier to squeeze in English before we leave for kindergarten:
7.00 a.m. I get up, make breakfast and bento (packed lunch)
7.20-7.30 DD gets up. Has to be reminded to eat up (frequently gets down to play), but will dress herself quickly and brush own teeth
8.00-8.10 Letters and numbers (have started with Follifoot Farm readers recently)
8.30-8.40 Set off by bike for school (10 mins' cycle)
Afternoons she likes to play in the park with school friends when she doesn't have an activity planned.
I feel it works much better if we get English over and done with in the morning. I can relax because I feel she's done some practice.

Yes. Mornings are key to me

We have lists here too - colour coded laminated ones on the fridge. One advantage is that whichever child I'm not working with can get on with their list without interrupting me. DD is dyspraxic and really struggles with organising herself. The lists have helped so she now has school bag lists as well to help her remember what kit to take each day and when she needs recorder and cello.

We're up at 6.30. First school run is 7.50, second one is 8.30.

All uniform and my clothes and accessories are laid out the night before. Schoolbags go by the door as do shoes.

My organisational challenge is DH!

Rosemary, I'm so interested in your post! As a teacher and a mum of 4, I value play greatly - I feel so many more skills are learned than can be learned through formal learning. What are the arguments/discussions/debates you have about this in your community? And do the children 'play' at school?

Hi - yes I know we're quite odd here ! (Mn'ers have told me so !!)

Children here view going to school as a priviledge they have earn't through, hard graft and perseverance at home.

School time for them is seen as developing their social skills more than anything else, any academic knowledge they acquire is seen as a bonus given that they are essentially taught a full cirriculum within the community.

Because they enter school well prepared and continue at levels of complexity above their classmates they find pleasure and confidence in class. It would be unlikely that a community educated child would struggle in school lessons, teachers are aware of their background and they are tested rigoursly in school each term then given a timetable where they dot about primary school into classes based on areas they don't know, for example this week my 6 year old spent 4 hours in the year4 class learning about Vikings as he had covered the year 2 and 3 maths that his chronologically aged class were learning.

Socially community children do have high levels of social skills (just my observation) thus they get on well generally in the playground. Because they are involved in negotiation and debate at community centre meetings from a very early age they are able to owrk out co-operative ways of engaging with friends.

However the big gap is definatley in imaganitive play - which is reflected in their written stories and the fact that they just don't get what to do with things like Mushi monsters, Bacugan etc, they also can't join in with re-inactments of screen based games (there is no Wii or Ds or anything like that here).

Adults here have opposing views on totally free play - those who value it strongly tend to leave the community - those who stay tend to stick to the schedules, the predominant thought being that children in the wider society have too much free-play (the next sentance is about to sound rude - I apologise in advance) because their parents find it convieniant, thus hours of their precious childhood are essentially neglected.

(runs and hides)

Ok... if I'm working early it's..

6.30 me and DH up, DH in shower, I get dressed
7am DDs up, breakfast, DH makes lunches
7.30 I'm out to work, DH gets DDs ready
8am DH drops DDs at CM, then goes to work

If I'm taking them to school it's...

6.30am me and DH up, DH in shower, I get dressed
7am - DDs up and have breakfast
7.30am - DDs get washed, teeth and dressed, DH makes all our lunches, I'm helping DDs
8am - I'm doing bits of housework
8.30am - set off for school, I drop them off then go to work

Next bit varies as to what time I finish - if I'm picking up its..

3.30pm home from school, DDs play or read
4pm DDs have small snack (toast, fruit or sometimes sweets)
4pm - 5pm we either do homework, read, watch tv
5pm - I start dinner
6pm DH home, we eat dinner
6.30-7 usually try to do some family type stuff, playing a game, baking, painting, that kind of thing
7-7.30 bath / shower and bed

If I'm working late (more usual) g'parents pick up from school then

5.30pm I'm home and start to make dinner (usually quick like pasta, jacket potatoes etc)
6.15 DH home and we all eat, after dinner then we read or relax with some tv, or homework
7 - 7.30 bath / shower then bed

I usually shower in evening then saves morning time ;). DDs are 6 and 7 :)

Rosemary, there are other ways to stimulate imagination. Something I have done with my ds1 for ages is at bedtime, we tell each other stories. I love it and so does he. It's real quality time for us, plus it gets his imagination going! My ds1 joins in with all the Star Wars games even though he's never seen it! He can imagine it, though I am sure in his imagination it is completely different (probably better!) than the one the other kids are thinking of. Luckily he is more of a 'follower' in character though. It would be hard for a 'leader' to just join in with things they don't know.

When do the kids in your community start having to 'earn' privilege? What privileges do they earn? Babies get tons of privilege that I assume they don't earn - free food, sleep, cuddles!!!

It is interesting Rosemary. I've always really valued free play- where they are in charge and direct their activities. DS draws very complex "inventions" for example. Today he made a ticket machine and DS and DD play all sorts of games together. They are 5 and 3, DS is in Reception. I do direct their play sometimes with activities etc, but a lot of the time DS (and DD it has to be said) have their own direction and I feel they need time to explore this.

It is a struggle to get my DS (yr 3) to do any homework without a tantrum and it has been that way for years. He goes to after school clubs monday-thursday and by friday he is very tired and not in the mood to do any homework. We tend to do it on a Sunday after lunch so he has all afternoon to complete it. He usually gets 2 pieces of maths and 2 pieces of writing to do along with 2 books to read. He loves maths and reading so that's no problem but he hates to write with a passion! It is a weekly battle to get something that it readable from him. I have threatened him with the school's homework club but I am not sure even that would help him.

I've found that reading one to one with child in R, Y1 and Y2 daily is really important, even if only a couple of pages are read, or we real alternate pages. Dd now reads on her own (age 7, Y3), so I read with ds (age 5), with baby on knee too! Don't manage any time to do spellings/ tables with ds, but do spellings with dd in car in morning. Homework always weekend mornings. Recently at parents evening, teacher reminded/asked us to practice telling time and counting money at home. Has made a difference in just a few days. Children only allowed on computer for 5 to 10 mins 2 or 3 times a week, as reward for homework/ reading. TV round 5pm while I'm cooking tea. Poor baby watching Tracey Beaker! Bath 6pm, bed 8pm.

One key part of my schedule is to get as much done the night before as possible. Clothes laid out, lunches made, bags packed, permission slips done etc.

On days when DS1 has an activity before school we have to be out by 7.25am for an 8am start. Other days it is 7.40am for an 8.20 start.

6.30 - I get up, shower, get dressed
6.45 - DS2 (YR) usually wakes up and has breakfast whilst watching TV
7am - TV Off DS1 and DH gets up. DS2 has a wash and DH helps him get dressed
7.10 - DS1 (Y4) has a wash then gets dressed whilst I pack their lunches and sort myself out.
7.25 Out of the door

On the 7.40 days if the boys are ready to go by 7.30 then they can watch some TV (or DS1 catches up with HW he swore blind didn't have to be in that day!)

The evening routine depends on what activities are going on after school. We do try to get as much HW done on the week end as possible. Other tasks get broken down into manageable chunks e.g. DS1 has to write 10 sentences using particular words, we might split it into 4 one night and 3 the next two.