Not much homework - eve activities?

[belowfrozen]

My DC don't get much homework - maybe 30 min max a night. They do extra . Good big state school. They do plenty of sports / extra stuff etc but are still home before dinner & I am genuinely wondering what others Yr7-9 do in their evenings? They don't go to bed until ten and I'm not a fan of them gaming all eve.

Watch Netflix/YouTube/TikTok mostly. Or have endless conversations with friends. When it's light enough they would be "playing out" with local children at the lower end of this age range.

I think if your child is going to school, doing "plenty of sports/extra stuff", and is presumably eating an evening meal and doing things like showering and some chores around the house, and spending time with other family members, then, even without homework, there won't be a huge amount left of the evening, so it's fine for them to spend it how they want.

On evenings they don't have much on they are free for a few hours. They just sit on own on phones

My daughter does the usual staring at her phone but she also does stuff like jewellery making or playing on her keyboard. She is into very specific films at the moment so she watches them but also reads about them, watches alternative versions, learns all the songs if they are musicals.
She isn't much of a reader of books but when I was that age I would read for hours in the evening (when I should have been doing actual homework 😂) or I went through a stage of making clothes for my Care Bear when I was about 13.

Hi
I'm a teacher in a secondary school.we have been told ks3 homework should be 20m. No idea when this was decided😫I get a bit annoyed when parents ask for extra homework as a way of their kids filling their time. I know this might be contentious but schools are not their to provide extras they have something to do😫if u don't like them.beung in their fone,limit the time. It's ok.to not have every minute of the day accounted for. If they are bored put the onus on them.to suggest what they want to do. They won't I'm sure suggest it,but allocate jobs they need to do to contribute to the smooth running of the house. When I was a child,little money,one tele, no phones etc. Watched TV,read and listened to music if coukd not go outside.

There not their and apologies for typos

What would you like them to do? They don't have to spend every second of their day doing "worthy" activities.
Bear in mind that "on their phones" also covers a range of activities - if they are like my teens, then being "on their phone" might mean they are watching a film/TV series or reading an article or reading a book or socialising with others. Or it might mean they are playing a game, and some of these are pretty educational.

DD goes through phases of doing "artistic things" but I think what you describe is normal for most teens after school. They are allowed some downtime!

I was genuinely pondering it. According to frequent threads on here about phones and kids, Mumsnet is full of pre teens and teens with no phones, very limited old phones, no WAp, no insta & no tick tok or snap chat. Not my experience however.
I have decided that they need to help more with a few chores & go to bed earlier !

My dd is in year 6 and during her free time she will do art, crafts, reading, play w siblings, watch tv or YouTube, bug me for an hour before she finally sleeps 😂 meaning bed 9pm, but constantly having an excuse to come chat to me, get out for toilet, water etc and I have to tell her ten times to go to bed!

Forgot to mention she doesn’t have a phone, but has charted to a friend on FaceTime a couple of times while they were both doing crafts (building miniature furniture). They both like doing that

@Mamabear12 your Y6 child without a phone who happily engages in hobbies at the moment will morph into a different being once they start secondary school. Maybe not straight away. But it will happen :)

@sheepdogdelight never a truer word said. I see so many MN posts saying Yr7 DC won't be getting phones and aps and older ones not needing them but literally every Yr7 I know had / had one. Most get in yr6 to get ready for high.

A couple of friends' children did girl guiding, which took up a lot of time as it involved the weekly meetings, camps away and then helping at Brownies.
My DD, and lots of friends, started the Duke of Edinburgh scheme in Y9, which involved a hobby, volunteering, etc.
DD also did after school clubs at school.
SHe had a lot more than 20 mins homework per day though! If they are keeping up with schoolwork, and doing lots of sport, I would probably leave them to organise their own time out of school. But I would also suggest things like family film night, or family board games night, or get them to help me cooking something special just so that they weren't spending most of their free time on screens.

20m maximum for a subject. Obviously they might have more than I e set of hwk.to do.

Helping out with dinner prep, watching a tv show with us (currently working our way through modern family), reading, gaming/on phone/chatting on discord.

Our homework is less than 30 min a night

Mine love to walk home with friends, sometimes they stop at someone's house enroute. Then some quiet time - first in the day for them as they leave for bus early - in their rooms with phone, music, reading inappropriate romance books!
Then we eat together as a family and catch up/have a giggle/have an argument depending on everyone's moods.
Then I put in to play my secret weapon - they have a choice between 'homework or housework' for an hour (if none set then I say do some reading (non romance) or go over your notes.
They pick homework every time.
I wouldn't worry too much, the less intense their life structure the more likely their mental health is to be impaired by stress.

I think I'll adopt the chores / work hour on the days they are not out with sports.
They always have extra on line stuff they can do.