Now that I’ve talked for two days about how wonderfully organized I am (yay me!) I’m going to go out on a limb and tell you how wonderfully unorganized I am. How there’s one little, itsy, bitsy part of my day where I’m totally not playing my A game. In fact, I’m probably playing an F game. I’m not sure I even qualify for an E for Effort. That part of my day are the critical hours when my lovely daughters walk through the door at 3:45 until they hit the sack at 8:30. Believe me, by bed time I’m pretty much hanging on by strings to my sanity.
Is there anyone out there who loves these hours? Who embrace them for all they are (pretty much the bulk of the hours I see my kiddos during the week) and is on top of it all?
I, for one, am overwhelmed with the idea that in this period of time I’m supposed to take children who are worn out from the stress of their days (yes, the playground has been hard on one of my children lately) and the taxing of their brains and now make sure their homework is done (math, spelling, reading), their instruments are practiced, tutor them in anything they are struggling in, and make sure they’re doing their chores. Â Oh yeah, and they’re supposed to play too because didn’t Einstein say something about imagination being better than knowledge?
The afternoons around here have a range of easy to hard, but most days they’re pretty hectic. The girls do a lot of their homework on their own, but are still at the age where I need to come behind them and make sure they’re doing it well. Throw in cooking dinner and maintaining a a toddler and sometimes it’s just too much.
Ideally there’d be sweet conversations and I’d feel no stress when putting the kids to bed, but more often than not I’m feeling the pressure of a messy kitchen and thin patience by their bedtime. One thing I’m trying to do is eliminate any heavy duty kitchen work during these witching hours either by using the crockpot or doing prep work while the kids are at school. The chore sticks and chore charts also help.
Anyone out there have suggestions on how to make this time better for everyone?
Comments (4)
I am against homework. Rarely are adults required DAILY to drag their work home with them and put in more time…why do we do this to our children? Homework robs children of positive family time, unscheduled free time and time to dream and time to actually get bored which can then lead to invention and great creativity. I think homework, especially for kids to grade 5, should not be allowed. Maria Montessori did not believe in homework. School should be school and home-life should be for extra-curriculars: music lessons, sports, art, dance, theatre and plain old fashioned playing, reading, movie watching, being outside exploring, helping and learning inside the home and well, just time for nothing. They are only children, why do we ask more of them then we do ourselves? OK, I have just a bit of an opinion on the matter of homework 🙂
MJ
I have no suggestions as my days are hectic enough with just myself & Jack, But, I do have some awesome crockpot recipes… check out my pinterest. Not sure how many are paleo but you could probably figure something out 🙂
Katie
I am struggling with this same exact thing. Sloppy leftovers. Kids in school all day, come home and just don’t want to keep having to listen and have structure. It is so incredibly tough and I am over it as well. My husband works in Washington DC and we live in Maine, and have four children, ages 6.5 down to 18 months. I don’t know how you do it with two in school, because I am struggling with one in school full time. We homeschooled our daughter while she was in Kindergarten and we lived in Northern VA, now back in Maine, she is in public school.
I agree with MJ above, and think homework for the smaller aged kids is unnecessary. They should be coming home to explore and do things they WANT to do….imaginative play and spending time with their family. Thankfully our school system gives very limited homework if any until after grade 2, but even still, I am pretty sure I would not be having my children do homework if their playtime and exploring time was greatly affected.
Such a tough line…..and you are not alone, my friend.
Steph
http://theferriegirls.blogspot.com
Sounds like a typical afternoon/evening in a household with school-aged children. One tip that is helpful for us is to sometimes use a kitchen timer for things like practicing, homework, chores, etc. This way the kids know that they can quit or take a break when the timer rings. On the flipside, I may use the timer to allow them playtime, and when the timer rings, they must begin homework. Either way it helps break up the time into smaller segments and seems easier to manage.
If kids have more than 20 – 30 minutes total of homework, you can always talk with their teacher(s). Our kids’ teachers are very good about limiting homework and giving some guidelines about the time expectations.