Supporting times tables practice, spellings, music practice etc

[Minicaters]

I'm just after some ideas to help remind and encourage my 8 year old with these daily(ish!) tasks.

The only thing that has really worked here is building it into her routine. DD used to do spellings after breakfast, but we never really got times tables or music practice into the routine so they didn't happen much. I'm determined to do better this year. What does the routine look like in your house, or how else do you get them to do it while also helping them take responsibility for it themselves? Do you have rules like no ipad/tv before x is done, and does that work for you?

DD sets herself high standards but, like me, is inclined to scattiness and procrastination, and quietly buries herself in a book given the glimmer of a chance. She ends up not doing the tasks, then beating herself up about it. I need a system to help her get it done and feel good about it!

This year I have started a routine of the kids having to do 2 activities before they can use electronics after school
They can choose each day from a selection and put the apprppriate pin on their chart. So they can't choose the same thing every day and will eventually have to do every activity so they have
Swimming x2
Music practice x3
Excecise x2
French X1
Spellings x2
Maths X1
Maths board game (they get one each week from school)
Reading activity
Library book

Things like spelling and times tables little and often. We have a blackboard on the wall at the kitchen table so dd2 used to write her words on it and we would ask at every meal and yet she still cannot spell Maths facts and times tables usually got practised on car journeys and walking to school or to relieve the boredom while waiting for them getting ready for bed etc. Music practise has to happen when they come in from school - there are 2 of them with 3 instruments each and it has to happen before their younger sister goes to bed at 7. All homework done before anything electronic goes on and almost always before teatime and the day it is given out.
I hate jobs, mine or their's, hanging over me so this gets everything done and out the way - they do have a homework light school though.

Homework, times tables and spellings half hour after she gets in, so maybe about 4ish or 4.30. Then tea time, then after tea she can do her practice, bath and reading before bed.
There's 4 hours between 4pm and 8pm, plenty of time for everything and time left over.

Mine are 10 and 8. We save the written homework until Sunday morning and then have a quiet morning getting it all done. Spellings - french spanish and english are all done in the car on the way to school. Online maths homework is done after school each evening, as is music practice. Times tables are now all embedded as a result of the Timezattack computer game.

Reading aloud is done in bed before their story. DS1 is a fantastic reader and a complete bookworm but we still make him read aloud to us to check his pronunciation of new words and his comprehension.

No computer games unless its the weekend (includes Friday evening).

No TV til after dinner. (No gaming til the weekend.)
They get most things done by then plus playing.
Then they can watch a bit of TV then read.

Thank you all for the ideas.

I think part of the problem is that last year we were busy 4 nights out of 5, We've never really had a routine of having much free time in the evenings, but we have more free time this term.

i also need to figure out how to split myself in 3 between dinner prep, dealing with a knackered 6 year old, and starting off DD, without DD kicking off that DS has more time to play. I probably need to start with not letting myself sit down to watch Deadly 60!

Reading we're sorted on, it's in the routine every night at bedtime. Hooray, we are getting something right!

In our house it is

• Spelling at the breakfast table
• Reading before leaving for school
• Times tables en route to school
• Piano dropped

I would put music practice in the 15mins before evening meal, or straight after evening meal.

Ds1 and 2 mostly sort themselves so it's only ds3 (9) to worry about. We do 30 mins piano practice in the mornings before school. If we didn't do it then it wouldn't get done. Homework is given out on a Monday to be handed in on a Thursday morning so only three nights to do it. We do it upstairs at 8:30 after his shower and before bed. He swims one day after school and has a piano lesson another. Tables and spellings are done on the 4 nights he doesn't have homework and in the car whilst waiting for ds2 to have his piano (45 mins) and violin (1 hour) lessons during which he also eats his packed tea.

He is shortly to start learning a string instrument and will need to practice that as soon as he gets in from school to fit it in. He rarely watches telly and plays out fifth friends quite a bit but is allowed free reign on iPad and x-box in his spare time.

We do times tables on the way to and the way home from school. If I can remember what spellings are to be learnt we do those too. If not they get done as soon as she gets in from school to get them out of the way.

We use Maths Rock which is a mobile game on the ipad, ipod or any non apple mobile device. We like it because although it is 79p to download, there are no links or adverts, and no gimmicks which make you pay more like you get with some free apps. My kids now know all their tables since doing around 10 mins most days over the summer hols - they don't even realise they are learning as its good fun. Can download it from www.madrocksolutions.com - good luck

We have a set routine, printed and laminated so that there is no arguing over what Ds2 has to do on any given day.

We talked through what homework he has, mathletics, spellings, reading, plus numeracy and literacy homework and divided it over the week.

Reading is done nightly in bed and we had a no tech/no tv rule until a particular time because they just raced through work meaning they made silly mistakes.

Spellings wise, I had a A4 plastic wallet hung behind my car seat and every week wrote out Ds2's spellings in a thick marker pen and put the sheet into the wallet. That way every school run he could see the spelling and it helped him learn them.

Thanks for the new replies. The A4 pocket in the car is utter genius.

I am wowed by some of your logistics. 3 instruments per child?! 1h45 hanging about in the car while siblings have music lessons! We have it easy compared with this lot.

I printed out this chart for piano practice. 5 times a week means DD goes to bed at 8.30 on a Saturday, 7 times, she gets £1.

We were doing Percy Parker and 2 games of squabbles times tables on the iPad to keep them ticking over and that made a huge difference as she could really see her speed improving.

Just to add my Y2 (just) son still has a bath as part of his bedtime routine. We find bath a great time to learn spellings and also practice times tables or other mental maths! Brilliant with an over active child as he is in a contained area and so no arguing over sitting down. As part of his bedtime routine then he 'believes' that if he does more then he actually goes to bed later so often asks me for extra spellings/sums! I just tend to start earlier than I used to with tea- Tv - bath - reading routine. For heavier homework then we agree what needs to be done when so he is bought into the plan for the week. We try to do as much as possible early in the day, either pre school or early mornings at weekend as all ready for it rather than exhausted. All other activities then I look to place after school or later in the day so we can relax and enjoy together after homework completed. Does not always work this way but we try!

Spelling in the bath is a great plan, ds1 has a bath some nights still so that could work. We try to do things in the mornings as far as possible, but some mornings he is just too sleepy to concentrate. We also recite spellings on the way to school (though he still gets them wrong a lot of weeks!). Dreading all the homework starting up again....