Parents Homework

[gwenmom]

DD is currently in 1st grade and only turns in homework on Fridays. Next year is different though and she will have homework each night due the next day. She is also potentially moving up and requiring more training hours next year

What are your tips/tricks for gym nights and homework? I know this is a few months away but I would like to start implementing now to see what works

 

[gymmiemom]

My DD is currently a 1st grader and trains 11 hours a week. She has homework every night except Fridays. She goes directly from school to gym 4 days a week. Those days she comes home, eats, does homework, and showers. She was my one child who fought me on homework until she started gymnastics last year. She knows that if she so much as looks at me cross eyed when it comes to school she will lose gym time. Thankfully at this point homework only takes about 30 minutes.

The older she gets the more responsible she will have to become to make sure she uses her free time wisely at school. My older kids who are also busy in sports (not gymnastics) use every free moment they can at school, on the bus ride home, etc. In some ways it's easier once they can do their homework more independently, as long as they are responsible with their time. If for some reason they do get to to come home before activities our rule is homework happens before anything else.

 

[DND]

Depending on your drive we find time in the car very useful as our drive is 30 -45mins. each way depending on traffic. Verbal testing, reading and even planning and talking about what is on her plate makes homework after practices much easier as she has to leave school early to go to training so there is no time before training.

My DD has 20min per grade level of homework a night plus reading. I have discussed with the teachers that on her late nights that reading may not be fully done, but will be made up on her early and off nights. There comes a time where both sides have to give a little to make it work and I have found that some years depending on the teachers it is easier than others.

 

[MaryA]

DD is 12 and goes straight to practice after school 5 days a week. She has gotten VERY good at using her time wisely. She uses every spare moment in school to do her work so she brings home as little as possible. I also make sure to talk to her teachers. I want them to let us know immediately if she starts getting behind. So far so good. She knows school comes first, so she is very motivated to keep on top of things so she can go to gym.

 

[ginnymac]

We have a clipboard with some school supplies in the car at all times and my kids will do homework in the car if necessary.

 

[Jen H.]

My girlie is in 4th grade and trains 16 hours a week- 3 days x 4 hours a week (+ 4hours on Sat).
Her school time is from 9:15 - 4:15 so she goes right from school to the gym and then doesn't get home until 9:00- by the time she has dinner and down time it is close 10:00 and too late for homework IMO.
She will do it either in the morning before school or on the 2 days she has off of gym during the week.

Luckily her school has a low homework policy being that they are a late start/end school.
I personally think a lot of homework is bunk anyway, they have my child for 7 hours (5 ish hours being purely instructional time), surely she can learn what she needs to in that time right?!

 

[gymmomtoo]

Since her homework will all be due on Fridays, I would make sure she works on it over the weekend and during non-gymnastics days--trying to keep open those gymnastics days as much as possible. Of course she'll only be in first grade, so hopefully she won't have that much homework anyway !

And, as others have said, if you have a long-ish car ride, have her do things in the car (if she doesn't get car sick)--reading is always good

 

[2G1B]

For my 1st grader, she gets a packet on Fridays. we start it over the weekend and then she finishes it on Tuesdays while waiting for her sister's practice to finish. For the twins, they get homework each night. Worksheets are done as soon as they walk in the door (though I'm planning to suggest that they start doing them on the bus. For reading, they do it in the car on the way to practice. We then go over spelling words and math facts orally on the way home.

I really worry about middle school. our poor middle school kids don't even get off of the bus (a short bus ride) until 4:45. I just don't see how they manage to get homework and after school activities done with getting home so late. I don't know what we will do by middle school.

 

[thefellowsmom]

I agree, if you have the car time use it. We have an hour between school and gym and only have a 10 minute drive, but I go straight to the gym and we sit in the car and do it. We have a bag of supplies and a lap table that live in the car.

I also have her little brother signed up for after school activities on some gym days. It works out that he needs to be picked up after I drop her at the gym. He loves this and it gives her more quiet study time and I don't have to shush him all the time. Win win win.

I also recommend speaking with her teacher about her schedule. They may or may not be able to help accommodate but at least you are being up front and offering to assist in making it work for her with her teacher. I have found that good communication with her teacher has helped her teacher see that we are committed to school and for her to understand that this isn't just an after school sport but something that my daughter takes very seriously and is super committed to. She is also willing to give some work in advance or over the weekend, but dd has to ask herself for it.

Being organized is going to make or break the situation. My daughter is now in third grade and the deadlines are longer and they are encouraging the kids to be more personally responsible for managing their time. They have daily homework, but also ongoing projects and the idea is that the more efficient you are with your time at school the less homework you have.

I have her bring all her folders and loose papers home on Fridays so that we can get her organized and caught up or even ahead going into the following week. Her teacher generally doesn't send assigned work home over the weekend so this has really improved things during the week.

for daily stuff, get the most mentally straining stuff done first (after school or mornings) and save the mindless stuff for after practice. We have had many a tired meltdown trying to critically think at 9:30 after four hours of practice and full day of school. Not a good idea if it can be avoided I would say.

From what I hear, the transition is tough for a few years but then they learn how to be super organized and it gets better. I have talked to some of the older girls at the gym about how they manage it and they all are really funny and nonchalant about it. "Oh yeah, we are just REALLY organized, it's fine". They are all very good students.

 

[cbifoja]

Tally another mark for homework in the car. We tried to get all homework on Monday but her teacher isn't that organized so we get it daily. Her school is not very sports-supportive so they don't go out of their way to help the girls out. No excused absences for meets, definitely no leaving early for practice.

Because of this, I make sure that all homework is finished in the car on the way to gym. She snacks and works in the car and gets it all done.

 

[Gymmonkeymomma]

My 7th grader trains 21 hours, two days out of the week she goes straight to gym after school. The other weekdays she has a half hour for HW and snack. She uses all free time at school to get a jump on HW and also will work ahead on weekends on things such as reading and projects, sometimes vocabulary. She sometimes will use their 10 min snack time to get a few math problems done.

 

[gwenmom]

Thanks Everyone for the advice.

 

[flgymmom]

ughhh this is a rough one for us....

Both my girls are in advanced classes and of course they are required by us to maintain A/B honor roll (atleast lol) and our gym requires it also.

My older daughter stopped gym for a bit because she couldn't balance the 2. she was at the gym till 9pm and then homework till about 11pm. Obviously that is just too much.

My young daughter is at the gym almost 20 hours a week. She is in the 4th grade and all of her homework is due on Friday. She does some of it before gym and then we try to get alot of it done on Tuesday's when she has no gym.

 

[GymBee97]

Our rule has been and always will be Homework comes before the "fun" stuff so if there is homework there is no gymnastics till its done. Usually too all the gymnasts I know are straight A students and learn how to manage their time as the years go by.

For my DD gades 1 - 3 were fine not alot of homework not too many practices missed. It was going into Grade 4/5 that things changed a little and she had to learn to do homework when time was available if she didn't want to miss practice. So even now any time she has a few moments at school she work on homework. At lulnch she works on homework, on the bus ride home she works on home work. by Gr 7/8 she had it undercontrol and now even in high school she rarely comes home with out all her homework done already.

Being organized and learning how to manage your time is the key.
Keep in mind too its just gymnastics and she doesn't have to be at everything.


Oh I almost forgot talking to her teachers and letting them know she is a competitive gymnast and her schedule helped alot. All my DDs teachers were very supportive and worked with us in grades 1 - 8 by giving her all the assignements on Monday so if she has some time in the week she could work ahead. With the teacher, myself and her all working together it worked out really well.

 

[profmom]

I cannot cannot cannot wait until DD is out of sixth grade and on to the junior high where they aren't as uptight about having homework assigned the day before it is due and turned in the day it is due ("we can't give out homework early!" "there are no legitimate excuses except severe illness for late homework, but don't overdo the sick days!"). Our state just adopted Common Core, and it is a complete nightmare; plus the principal has gone kind of nuts with the "school must come first" and "children must be responsible and parents involved" messages. It's beyond ridiculous to be giving a kid with straight As detentions because she neglected to get her 100%+ math or English test signed by a parent, but that has happened more than once this year.

I honestly do not know what we are going to do when DS hits sixth grade. He has already been telling us that he fully expects to be in detention every day, because while he's pretty bright, he's also pretty disorganized.

A few weeks ago, I thought that it was the stress of gymnastics that was making my DD go through a rough patch emotionally. Then last week they had a totally unexpected snow day and her reaction was most enlightening: 1. "YAY!!! A snow day! No SCHOOL!" and then 2. "They're not going to cancel gymnastics practice, are they? It should be clear enough by then, shouldn't it??"

So in a nutshell, yes, talk to the teachers, but don't be surprised if you really have to work out the solutions yourself and the school is, at least at some points, not all that helpful.

 

[2G1B]

I talked to my twins about starting to try to work on their homework while waiting for the bus (they are 2nd load, so have time after school) or on the bus. 1) They were horrified and said that is against the rules since it is *home* work. It needs to be done at HOME. I pointed out that they do it in the car and at the gym; but I don't have them convinced.

I am a little frustrated about the 2nd load thing though. Apparently they are not allowed to take anything out while sitting in the bus port waiting. I guess I can see the problems if kids are spreading out all over the place; but it sure would be nice if they could knock out a few worksheets while sitting there for 15 - 20 minutes!!

 

[LizzieLac]

My DD has a rough transition into middle school, where some teachers seemed to pride themselves on giving a lot of homework. DD is also an overachiever and beats herself up for getting Bs or less. So, first year of midle scholl saw a lot of tears and frustration.

But she learned to prioritize, work on the things that were due first, knock out the little things. She has about 1.5 hours after school to get work done, but then doesn't get home until 9PM, so with dinner and shower, it is best if homework is already done. Last year, she had practice on 3 school nights and Saturday. This year he switched one week night to Friday and that has helped too.

Suggestions: do whatever work can be done in school, do some on the bus home, do some in the car (my DD gets car sick, so that is out), prioritize and be organized, do whatever you can on the weekend and off nights.

 

[iwannacoach]

...........until DD is out of sixth grade and on to the junior high where they aren't as uptight about having homework assigned the day before it is due and turned in the day it is due.........

Tell them their role as educators is to educate, rather than police your child's off hours by dictating how much, how often, and by when school work sent *home* will have to be done. If they threaten you/her with the "red pen" with threats to lower her grade for timeliness let them. You should, however insist they grade each paper upon it's academic merits, place a grade/score on the assignment, record and maintain the record of her academic work, and at the end of the grading period they can adjust her letter grade to reflect the tardiness of her assignments.

Please understand that the position I suggested supports education, but that ends with "the man" telling us they know the best and only way to educate and instill responsible work/study habits in our kids. The bottom line is you are required by law to have your child in school/homeschool, but does the law extend to them control over a child once the school bell rings at the end of the day...... I sincerely doubt it, and in that context they overstep when handing out detentions simply to enforce their homework policy.

I mean, really, what's going on here is they want free reign and complete submission to help them jack up standardized state test scores, and are too paranoid to let any child deviate from their narrow plans to achieve those scores....... and that's so very sad. It sends a message to children that you can't have it all and responsibly fulfill your educational duty.

Ironically, it seems the very message they insist is their right to deliver, is the message they themselves should be getting. I guess they didn't *get* that memo, and for that oversight they deserve detention and a half lettergrade reduction to their "report card".

PS..... Tell them if they don't like it, they can hold me accountable by placing a comment on my permanent record.

 

[gymgal]

Tell them their role as educators is to educate, rather than police your child's off hours by dictating how much, how often, and by when school work sent *home* will have to be done. If they threaten you/her with the "red pen" with threats to lower her grade for timeliness let them. You should, however insist they grade each paper upon it's academic merits, place a grade/score on the assignment, record and maintain the record of her academic work, and at the end of the grading period they can adjust her letter grade to reflect the tardiness of her assignments.

Totally agree... But running for cover in preparation of the potential flaming from the education world....

 

[lhmom]

We are fortunate that both our kids attend a private school that is not totally driven by homework. Homework for both kids has been quite manageable because the teachers only send home sheets to review a topic they feel needs some reinforcement. Neither of my kids have ever been sent home with a ton of "busy"work. DD can usually get hers done before she walks into gym and when a project is due, she starts working on it immediately. She knows that there is limited time during the week, so she is good about working ahead. Hours are going to increase April 1st but she will still have one weekday free (schedule will be Tues-Sat).