What do your kids do straight after school?

[MajorClanger123]

Just curious really....mine do after school activities Wednesday & Fri. Other than that its straight home and muck around until tea, then after tea they're allowed some screen time (depending on my day will depend on how early / late I cook tea and therefore what time they get screen time ), then we do reading / homework and hurry them all upstairs for bath etc.

It always feels abit manic (3 kids to bathe, read to / be read to etc). Just curious what other families after school weekdays look like...

How interesting everyone's day is:)

Mine have snacks and drinks in the car on the way home as its a bit of a drive. They they faff about ( dd can't wait to get her uniform off) and then after about 20 mins it's homework time.

Then I cook and they have free time. Then bath and bed- i have lots of work calls with the US starting about 9pm so they know not to mess about.

Activities are a time for me to spend a bit if time alone chatting with one or the other and they both do the same thing Friday night whilst I dash about doing chores. I cut down on activities now they are yr 2 and 4, they were dropping behind.

Walk home (2 mins), empty and put away bags, have snack, go for dog walk, come back, homework if there is any, screen time/lego/reading/play a game, then tea. Only do one totally regular after school activity (Taekwondo ) but others periodically at school (baking club, craft club etc).
They have also recently decided that Friday is official Make A Den day and have compiled a very organised list of 52 themes for dens (one for each Friday of the year). So on Friday I have to move the living room furniture to their requirements and they then cover the room in bedding and all manner of crap . Sometimes they invite a friend round for Den Day.

Ooo my favourite bit of the day not

She cries

Complains about her day

Tells me how much she hates school

Cries some more

Then sits mute on the sofa with her tablet and headphones until dinnertime.

Mine eat a snack and do homework straight away before plugging into electrical devices. Showers are every other day.

I too find this fascinating (partly hence why I asked in my original post )

How do those who do late teas keep kids going until 6 or 7pm? I think my 3 would go completely bonkers with no tea til then....substantial after school snacks?

snack/drink/trampoline/other play
no tv until after homework is done
dinner before or after homework depending on afterschool club timings
dinner usually 5pm/5.30pm at the latest

Home, homework, reading, (possibly a snack somewhere here, although she doesn't always ask), then she potters around either playing outside/half an hour of screen time/reading/playing while I sort dinner. Dinner at 5, maybe play a game afterwards, bath at 6:15 or 6:30, read in bed afterwards until 7:30, at which point it is lights out.

My children are 9 and 12 and have become used to getting dinner late as I don't always start it early enough! They only really have something like a bag of crisps after school and then electrical devices seem to dull their hunger pangs

Collect from school or clubs between 3 & 4.

Straight into the house, wash hands, hang up coats, empty school & lunch bags, then get changed. Snack, then homework. Brings us to about 5 or 5.30.

Screen time or drawing until dinner at 6 or 6.30pm, then play around until going up to bedrooms at 8pm. Reading until switch out at 8.30 (8 yo) or 8.45 (10 yo).

Chip is your DD ok at school?

I ask because that's exactly what my DD was like until we moved her to a different school.

She does clubs most evenings now except Fridays and is a different child. No more shutting out the world behind screens and headphones.

In about 4.15** if no after-school club on. high pitched wailing for snacks from school gate to kitchen (although obviously allergic to anything healthy!)

Ditto bickering from school gate, home and for rest of evening.

Depending on how strong I'm feeling it's homework before tea but more often than not its 'Next Step' and 'Police Inteceptors' on various gadgets

Tea normally about 5.30 (would like to push back to 6 but not sure they'd last), then homework, bath, reading and bed.

And breathe about 8.30.....

It depends if I'm picking my nieces up as well as DS (6). If I am, it's drive home, snack for all of them, then they go off to play til my sister picks the girls up about 4. After that it's motorbike practice then reading and then tea. DS has Beavers on Tue and street dancing in Thurs so after that it's bath and bed. Any homework is done after tea on Mon, Wed or Fri. DS reads for a bit before he sleeps. He's allowed an hour of TV a day which he chooses to have in the morning, which works for us as he gets up at the same time as me but I leave for work at 8am (dh takes him to school).

If I'm not picking the girls up and it's not torrential rain, DS rides home on his push bike then swaps straight to his motorbike 😂 Then the rest of the evening carries on as above.

Phew I didn't realise how busy we are!

Mine are in childcare. It sucks. I have 9 and 7 year olds in school and 4 year old not yet in school.

2 days they get the school bus to a childminder where they chill, do crafts, watch TV, if it is nice they play in the garden. We pick up at 5. We eat some point between 5.30 and 6. Then there are reading books to do and homework plus showers and so on. The kids just end up feeling rushed and like they don't have time at home to jsut be. I hate it.

The other 3 days we have a nanny (who has the 4 year old in the day) and she picks up from school and they usually walk home (a little over a mile) and she encourages them to sit and do homework but tbh that ends up creating more trouble because her attention is split too many ways and they end up having to do stuff again later with us because they have missed something or got the wrong end of the stick. At least it is a bit better though as they can chill out a bit at home and then when either dh or I get home we take one of them to sit at the kitchen counter and do homework while we cook so we can chat and help out. But what ds1 really misses is the playing out we used to do down the park all the time before they were in childcare.

Home 3.45 unless she has an after school club. DD gets changed, has a snack, does violin and piano practice which takes us up to about 5ish, and then usually reads, talks to me or watches TV while I cook. Dinner at 6pm. Then she reads or writes a story or we chat or something. Bed at 8. She is 9.

Monday - swimming
Tues and Thurs - Afterschool club
Fri - chez grandma for a sugar overdose

Which leaves Weds. On Weds we tend to get the board games out for a hour or so. After about a hour at least one person is sulking, so they put the iplayer on for an hour until supper. After supper, instrument practice/reading/spellings etc.

Today my 8 year old cleaned the bathroom...Mostly because the couple of jobs he has to do in a morning he didn't get done as he turned into a snail... Lessons learned hopefully..

Usually it is TV, DS , tea then activities , supper... He goes to bed to read before bed...

Then gets up to tell me 20 things that he has ignored all evening but are now urgent.

After school snacks here are usually crumpets/toast/flapjack/bag of crisps plus a piece of fruit. That's at 3.30pm, dinner is at 6pm.

If dinner is going to be later than 6 mine get a snack after school.

Other times they might have tea, go to an activity, come home and have seconds.

Every night is different depending on who has what club, who has what homework, what shift DH is working, & what hours I am working to accommodate all the above.

Wednesday routine usually involves 2.5 hours of different child being dropped/collected every 30 minutes. The idea is to all have a book to hand in the car. So there is a chance to read amongst all the ferrying! (It wasn't meant to be like this but clubs changed their timings, can't be helped)

Food and playstation!

Pick up at 3.15 drive home by 3.30. Coats and shoes off, kettle and TV on. Check through bags for notes etc whilst kettle boils, feed pets, the cups of tea and a big snack for everyone e.g toast, banana, yoghurt etc. Chill in front of TV for about half an hour. Then when everyone's recharged, homework, chatting, playing, whilst I start tea. Possibly go out to drop older siblings to an activity depending on the day. Tea about 6pm. Music practice. Bit of minecraft or whatever. Upstairs for baths, sort out uniform for next day. Bed. Reading and then lights out.

Then I have a bath, sort kitchen, do emails, faff about with laundry or other household stuff, then bed about 1030 for me.

Mine have swimming on one day a week and usually go to a friend's house for tea or have a friend here once or twice a week. They are in Y1. On days we come straight home, they have a drink and snack and then it's straight into homework....reading , spellings and sometimes Mathletics. This takes about half an hour. Then they play inside or outside while I finish dinner which we have at 5ish. After dinner we all hang out and watch tv or play, then shower or bath (for my preschooler too), then at 7.30 one adult reads to and settles the older children while on settles the youngest. Older ones can play in their room or on tablets until 8.15.

We do a family dinner at 6.30-7pm and DD has a snack at her childminder or at home. This is a mini-meal (CM) or a sandwich and fruit mix at home.

When she has late clubs she eats a fast tea (jacket with beans, sandwich etc) around 5pm and then a bowl of cereals when she is back home at 7.30pm. It gives DH and me a chance to cook something DD hates.

She is used to it since she was born and started eating.

eats, eats, eats, raids the kitchen, eats my stuff, poos on floor on a bad day. Asks to be taken to toilet 10000 times as she likes the attention. Fun times.

in between she plays with at least 5 musical toys at a time

and we have the odd song and tickle