I'm having trouble getting the boys to do their homework so I'm hoping someone might have some tips for us. According to the schools guidelines homework is an hour spread over a week, the boys teachers do Mon-Thurs so 15 minutes a night each. Each boy has a book to read, DS1 is in Yr2 and also has a spelling task & timestables and DS2 is in Pre-Primary and also has sight words. The first issue is that it takes them a lot longer than 15 minutes each night. DS1 carries on like a pork chop because he'd rather be playing and quite frankly I don't blame him... he's spent all day at school which is exhausting enough for him. He has ASD as well as a gut/bowel issue, which is still being investigated, like many kids he has his coping mechanisms for school and by the time he's home he is falling apart. DS2 also carries on like a pork chop mostly because he's tired, he has SPD.

A typical day starts at 6:30am, an hour later we are heading for the bus stop. Doing homework in the morning is not a possibility, we usually only have 5 minutes spare between being ready and needing to leave home. With the exception of Wednesday, they get off the bus at 4pm (Wednesday is 3:30). By the time we get home, they get changed in to home clothes, then unpack their school bags and have a snack it's around 4:30-4:45. Dinner is 5:30, shower around 6:30 then 'quiet time' until bed time at 7pm. Now there appears to be time between the getting home routine and dinner, however my hubby is rarely home to help out which means I have to try and do homework with them and cook dinner (I try and get as much prep as I can done during the day, but I am going to be going back to work in 2-3 months time). Dinner literally takes them close to an hour every night to eat and clean-up and showering/getting ready for bed takes around 15 minutes. If hubby is home by then he will sit and do the reading while I do the other bits of homework. This works great because hubby has some kind of magical power of them lol and they will sit and read without the carry on I get. However hubby is not usually home until well after they've gone to bed.... so through your tips at me please