Homework: how do YOU manage it ?!

[HmmmIwonder]

What's the homework load/routine in your house? Our Dd is in Year 8 (state school), and every night it's about 2 hours of homework. So the routine is: home 515/530, tea, little bit of down time and starts homework by 6pm. 2 hours later (including help/advice/nagging as required by me, so it takes up my evening as well), after getting stuff ready for the next day, having a bath, she's lucky if she gets half an hour to herself before bed. On Saturdays she has a lie in then spends another good 2 hours doing more homework. It just seems like constant slog for a 12 year old - it's like, well, working! I'm sure I had more fun and less work when I was 12.

My dd is only at primary school (though here she gets about 3 hrs every day!) but when she is in secondary school it will be done the same as it was done when I was at school and it was my homework.
She will do it. Or she won't. If she doesn't do it, she'll get bollixed by the teacher.
Not my job. (I'm the one who gives it 'em in the first place)
When I was at sec school, I remember coming home about 4, having a slob round till teatime, which was about 6, then doing my homework. I don't remember, tbh, my mum ever showing much interest in whether I'd got any or whether I'd done it. You just did it. (or didn't)
I think we overthink things a bit these days.

DS is in year 9 and he gets home at about 4.15 so he is normally doing homework by 4.30 and so it doesn't impinge that much on his evening. Your DD gets in very late and so its difficult for her to get started earlier on the work. Perhaps a "binge evening" once a week or getting loads done on a Sunday afternoon to buy some freetime later in the week. DS doesn't do anything other than occasionally ask me to read something through to check that he's on the right lines so I'm not that involved anyway.

DD organises herself. She is out four nights a week, she either completes her homework at lunchtime/straight after school in the school library, or does it on a Thursday night or at the weekend.

I have never been overly involved in it, just ask her 'have you got homework' and suggest when it gets fitted in. It is up to her to manage her workload, if she doesn't do homework, or it is rushed, presumably she has been told off and mkes more of an effort the next time. You have to get teens to learn responsibility, they never will if you take over the timetabling for them.

I generally read her homework now (she has just started GCSE, so is more serious) and sometimes offer guidance, and certainly get involved with testing her verbally when she has to revise.

It has worked well, she is a good student and fits her homework in well with her other committments.

That seems an awful lot of homework - like you say 'a slog' - poor thing :(

Do the school have a homework policy that you could take a look at? Do they give a suggested amount of time that should generally be expected to be spent on homework each night? For example my son's school's policy states that on average he will get three subjects per night with 20-30 mins being spent on each subject....

This would then give you an idea whether she is being given too much homework or even whether she is perhaps spending too long on each piece?

My son (Yr7) does sport most nights straight after school so doesn't get home til around 5.15 but with tea and an hour of homework he still gets time to chill / play his electric guitar / watch TV / play on Wii etc. for a couple of hours...

Hope you manage to get it sorted - the poor girl will be shattered!!

My DS is in Yr 8 private prep. Gets about 1.5 hrs a night, a bit more over the weekend. I have always taken the view that it is not ME that has to do the homework so he knows he has to just get on with it and only if he is genuinely struggling (as opposed to desperate to get on the computer or some such!) will I tell him to stop. It does mean some evenings there isn't time to watch much telly etc but so be it. We have CE exams this year so he knows there is a reason for all this. I'm sure it is more difficult to deal with when there isn't that immediate goal...

ds1 is y9 at an academically selective private school - he has homework most nights but tbh we don't really notice it that much ... he's still at the stage where he can whizz through stuff pretty quickly and he does a lot of it at lunchtime

he has a 2-hour training session every night for his sport so knows that he needs to fit homework in with that

I don't manage it. That is my children's job (one in Yr 6, one in Yr 9). The 10yo knows he'll get detention if he doesn't do it, the 13yo knows it is about her chances to do well in the GCSEs. I keep a low profile.

I'd sometimes like to stay out of the homework, but even if it weren't for the making sure its remembered, nagging to get it started, checking its finished... most of it seems to require my input - I must play maths games with my dc, listen to reading, be surveyed, quiz dc on spellings, etc. Possibly being paranoid but I wonder if going to a school perceived to have a troubled intake, homework is being used as a way to educate the parents! The number of times I've had letters sent home in the schoolbag promoting 'parenting skills', adult literacy, job search help...

DD1 in yr9, appear to be getting average of 2 subjects set a day. Never due in the next day.
If she isn't doing homework when I get in (between 6 and 7) I ask if she has any outstanding. That will normally prompt her to either do some, or say one due for a few days. When she says that, I will ask to check her homework diary to make sure she is not saving too much up. If it looks like she is, I will generally insist she does a particular piece that night.

She also needs to practice at least two of her three instruments per night. She never does any homework on Saturdays as she attends a music school. We also try to keep Sundays homework free, but that doesn't always work.

DD2 in yr3. Get Marhs and Literacy set once a week to be in following week. Unless the literacy requires any research, she generally gets it all done dame day with no prompting. Also advised to read every day, but we gave up regularly listening to her school Reading book in yr1. She reads so much of her own choice, ( a very advanced reader, allowed to choose her books from the yr6 library) sometimes she comes and asks to read to one of us, sometimes we aak her to read some if we haven't heard her for a while.

DD is just in Y7 at a state comp and is getting around an hour a night, though it can vary quite alot and in the first couple of weeks was about 2 hours a night. She is pretty diligent and will spend a long time on some pieces because she wants to do as well as she can, which is good, but equally they need down-time, and time for other clubs, etc.

She gets in about 4 on 4 nights and is supposed to come in, have a snack and then go and get started. Sometimes she has a break for tea and a bit of TV and then finishes off.

After the first few weeks of hand-holding, I have managed to get her doing her homework up in her room, on her own. I agree, they have to see it as their own responsibility.