Each afternoon my first grade son was trying to put off doing his homework which consisted of writing his alphabet in both upper and lower case letters, writing his numbers, and reviewing his site words. He’d grab a snack once he came home, play with the dog a little and then sit at the table thinking about all the other things he’d rather be doing. Each afternoon it would take us WAY too long to get through his work. Once he decided to give in and do it, he’d be done in a flash. It was just getting him to that point that was the problem. I talked to Michelle over at RealArmyOfMoms and she told me of a homework system they had to use one year at their house. She would give her son until 5 pm to get his homework finished and for every minute afterwards, that would mean a minute earlier that he would have to go to bed. You can imagine how fast those minutes pile up with a kid that does NOT want to study and would rather just sit in the chair and “fight it.”
My husband and I talked about the possibility of using that tactic, but before we got to that point, my son decided that if he got up before school and did all his homework in the morning, then he’d get to play when he came home. There is an after care program at school that is put on by the YMCA and he really wants to go there so he can play with his friends. Last year when I had knee surgery, we sent him to this program because we don’t have a school bus because we live within a mile of the school and my surgery kept me from driving or walking so I couldn’t pick him up from school by myself. He loved the program and wanted to stay until the very end of each day. Right now he is doing so well with his morning homework sessions that I’m going to sign him up for the YMCA program today. I am so proud of him and thankful he wants to do his homework instead of “fighting it” so bad in the afternoons when he is tired.
Do you have any homework issues in the afternoons? Have you come up with a solution to your problems, if so, I’d love to hear about it!
Hey Bobbie! So glad that you were able to get the homework headache solved. Every kid is so different. Mine would NEVER volunteer to get up early. I love that yours does and that he is now going to have more play time.