It’s hard to establish routines for your child if you are not there to gently enforce them. One of my biggest struggles as a single parent was structuring Hailey’s time alone so that she would be occupied, not bored, learn some responsibility and get a feeling of accomplishment.
I think it’s important that our children have structured time when we are not at home to take care of things like schoolwork and chores. This leaves more true family time once you get home from work. Our schedule looked something like this:
3:45- 4:15 – Arrive home, get a snack, unpack your backpack, and call Mom
4:15-4:45- Homework
4:45-5:15- chores
I usually got home between 5:15 and 5:30, Hailey knew if she was finished early she could watch Mom approved TV until I got home, otherwise, no TV. It was very hard to enforce this, we had a bit of a rough time along the way but we learned how to hold each other accountable.
Hailey had a chore chart every day, if she didn’t finish the assigned chore by dinner, then it would have to be finished after dinner or if I had plans for us, it would roll to the next day’s chores so she would have even more to do.
As for homework, I think the greatest thing was when schools started having children write their assignments in a journal and having their parents sign it off every night. Hailey’s journal allowed me to make sure that all of her homework was finished. If your child’s school doesn’t do this think about implementing it as part of your family responsibility. It will help your children learn to be organized and help prevent them forgetting something important.
If Hailey didn’t finish her homework then her chores would get pushed back, schoolwork always came first. It took a few weeks but soon she learned that everything she didn’t get done during the week she had to spend her weekend doing while everyone else was having fun. Kids learn fast when everyone else is outside playing and they are putting away laundry because they didn’t get around to it during the week.