Homework After School or After Dinner?

Why don't you ask her what she feels would work best for her. That way she's in on the planning and that can be a lesson in itself. She might be more compliant that way too. Have a great school year.

First of all, kids need a bit of a breather right after school, so give her a snack and let her work on the most difficult assignments first, If Math is difficult spread it out over the week. Give her choices of how o plan out the work, she will be better if she has some control over the work she does. You might consider having her read when she is in bed just after her bath time. Routines are the best! By the way, you may think about having a conversation with the teacher if Math is taking too long to complete or consider gettting a tutor to work with her. Good Luck!

Snack right when they walk in the door (10-15mins), then homework straightaway while their brains are still in "school" mode. If they do anything else before homework, they just can't refocus when it's time to do homework. That's what works for my kids, but other kids are different. Plus, I tend to schedule their occasional after school activities later in the day (after 5pm) so it's important for my kids to finish their homework first. By 4th grade, your daughter should be able to do her homework without you sitting by her side. Have her work on her own in the afternoons, then if there are specific problems she needs help with, have her save those to go over with you or dad later. I have my kids do the easy stuff first for a couple of reasons. 1) They succeed at it and it gives them a mental boost to tackle the difficult stuff. 2) If they start with the hard stuff, they'll burn out and be too mentally tired to complete even the easy stuff. I tell them "get through the easy stuff (in our case, spelling and reading), just blow through it, then if you need help with the hard stuff (math, usually), come to me". It seems to work just fine for our family.

My kids play and have a snack for a little while after school (half an hour or so) and then they do their homework. That way by dinner time, they are done with work and can relax (and take a bath, get their clothes ready for the next day, read before bedtime, etc.). Also on the days during the week when they have dance class, at least they are done with school work by the time we head to dance. I wouldn't want to leave homework to be done starting at 7:00. They're too tired to really focus at that point, and homework becomes a drudgery for all of us.

Sorry if this seems a short answer but I would definely recommend after school.Then you as a family can have some down time after dinner instead of spending all evening being stressed over homework.
Best of luck
B.

Depends on the child. I would probably ask the child when he/she would prefer (give a little power to give a little responsibility) to do the homework, and have a set time agreed upon every day......BUT, if homework is not complete after dinner then no t.v. (or whatever it is your 4th grader likes to do) until all homework is done.

After school is best and definitely start with the hardest thing first.
However, we often did reading or spelling words together after dinner because those were more light hearted. My daughter would read to me and my son, like story time, and it seemed less a chore that way. If she had to write her spelling words 10 times each, we got that out of the way after school, but if she had to make up sentences, sometimes we saved that to do together depending on the circumstances or I'd have her read me her sentences.

The more you can get out of the way in the afternoons, the better, but saving the reading worked well for us.

Best wishes!

My daughter gets totally distrated if she doesn't do her homework as soon as she walks through the door. We've tried doing it after dinner and all that got us was her, my hubby and me all sitting around the table til 10 p.m. trying to get it finished accompanied by a mess of tears and sobs.

In our house----
Come home, wash hands, have a snack, brush teeth and get the homework done if you want to watch tv, go on the computer, or go outside. If they know about a test a few days beforehand, they don't leave studying to the day before, they do a little each day. Seems to work--one has a 99% average and the other a 96% average.

I second the snack after school then get down to work. The TV does not get turned on until the work is completed. My son just can't seem to focus very well after supper. Once supper and shower are done, there might be time for 1 TV show before bedtime, or he reads.

My rule (which applied to me when I was in school and later to my children) is when you get off the bus you have 15 - 30 minutes to get a snack, relax, play whatever...then start your homework. If they have an unusual amount, they can certain return to homework after dinner. Sounds like your child has several days worth of homework so completing all of it on any one night is not necessary...you could ask your child if they want to do a little of each subject each night or select one or two subjects a night until complete.

I nanny for a family. we walk home, have snack and right to the homework. better to get it over with. then some extra reading before bedtime.

Each child and each family is different. IMO what usually works best is to have a little down time immediately after school, go outside get some air, eat a snack, etc. Then to start on homework, this would probably be arround the time your starting dinner. Then if she needs some help, you can give her some full attention after dinner, the goal is for her to get it done before dinner.

I have found that after being in school all day my son needs to get a little energy out before doing homework. So once he hops off that bus we go outside for about 15 minutes to half hour come in snack and start homework usually math after dinner his younger brother gets a bath then my oldest will read to him. Once my youngest is in bed we do spelling words and a few flash cards. On nights he has soccer he has a snack and has to do homework right away. No outside fun for him.

After school.
All after school.

My son does his right after his snack after school. 10 mins of after school homework could turn into O. hour of after dinner homework! It's just smoother for him after school and about 10 mins to relax.

All after school. She'll have too much down time if she waits till after dinner. It would be hard to get her motivated. Home, snack then start the HW.

AH, the eternal dilemma. One thing that i've learned is that homework is never-ending... and I mean never! If I started my kids on homework the minute they walk in the door, I could keep them busy until the minute they went to bed. Between the actual homework sheets, computer tutorials, spelling lists, math facts, ongoing reading to get AR points, tests, etc., I send them to bed every night realizing that not everything was accomplished. Add activities on top of that (we have girl scouts and dance), and the situation is even more complicated.
For years, my husband and I have made evenings homework time. He gets home around 5:30, we eat, then we do homework altogether as a family. Now the activities are getting in the way of that, and I also care for 2 other children after school. So, they all do their written work after they grab a snack in the afternoon, and we save reading for the evening just before bedtime. This is not optimal as sometimes they are too tired to really focus on the reading, but I don't know what else to do. There are just not enough hours in the day to fit it ALL in.
Some kids get tons of AR points (where do they find all that time to read?)-- we just have to focus on "meeting the required goal". As for the math facts, maybe we can try those on Saturdays! EH!
Good luck.

I would give he a 30 min break and then start homework. This will give her time to get a snack and unwind after a long day at school.

after school is when we work on my daughters.