I do not stay up. I have also gotten my kids up early to complete an assignment .
School starts in 2 weeks and Iâm happy to report S19 is 2/3 done with summer homework. AP Calc and APUSH complete, AP language to go!
Maybe, just maybe we will have a Labor Day weekend without summer work!
It would be a first!
I stay up just long enough to ensure that all the lights throughout the house and study room are turned off and the house is in semi order for the start of an early next morning, which is usually 11 or so (the kids need to be out of the house by 6:30 on school days). Once they are washed up and in their rooms to do whatever specific reading/homework, I go to bed as well. Dear hubby? Of course heâs asleep by the time we head up.
Do not stay up. D19 is perfectly capable of putting herself to bed & making sure lights are off. She also knows where to find us if printer or something should act up or she otherwise needs us.
On that note we are already back to school here and since high school here doesnât start til 9am most nights sheâs fine with being up late. She has dance team at 6am on Tuesdays so yesterday was rough
No doubt my kids are perfectly capable as well on the lighting front, as are most teenagers. Just my Type A personalityâŠ
@Boilermom S19 is very independent when it comes to getting his work done. Has never missed an assignment and always studies ahead of time for tests. The only reason I would stay up to commiserate with him. Sometimes he likes to talk about his homework, but mostly i just stay downstairs in another room and read so heâs not all by his lonesome. The perk is that he sometimes shares things that he would not during another part of the day (like when all of our kids were little and they would ask all of the âbigâ questions right before bed!). The downside is that my under-eye bags are getting worse. Heâs never been up later than 11:30 and even then very rarely. I donât think we would let him stay up later than that.
It just dawned on me that our kids only have two more years of school as they know it (up super early, busy after school activities, lots of homework and then right back up and doing it the next day). Life in college will be so different. They just have to push through the next two school years!
@homerdog I apologize if my previous post made it sound like I was telling you not to stay up. (realized after rereading the wording was not right, canât edit) I was trying to say I donât stay up. You need to do what is right for you & your son. My D19 does the big question/tell all thing right after school usually when itâs just her and I home or in the car on the way home.
I do think we need to let them start to decide how long to stay up, balancing sleep with homework, etc. When they go off to college in 2 years there will be no one there to tell them to get sleep, wake up, finish work.
I usually stay up, but thatâs mainly because I generally stay up way too late anyway, not because Iâm waiting on my kids to finish. There were a handful of times D19âs homework went well past midnight last year, though (usually but not always because she didnât start it until later than she should), and so when I decided to go to bed, I decided to go to bed.
I stay up a bit if itâs a subject I can help with studying (social studies mostly). But my d19 doesnât procrastinate and doesnât like to stay up late anyway, so itâs rare that I am helping
My S19 only does HW early if he has a lot of it. If he knows he can do it in 30 minutes, he might start it after napping, helping friends with their homework, watching YouTube for awhile, eating, showering, practicing his instrument etc. I may make sure heâs at least close to starting it before I go to bed but I stay up late. Heâs never studied more than 15 minutes for a test. This system works for him and Iâm almost at the point where it no longer drives me crazy.
Things might be different this year with more HW, more challenging classes, and likely supplemental ADHD meds.
@homerdog Someone else does what I do! Yes, I stay up and yes I feel bad when the kids are staying up l8t to study. I try to lend them moral support just through my presence. I may not be in the same room, but Iâm up doing other things around the house. My parents did the same thing when I was a kid and I remember feeling supported and more motivated to do my best. My parents made me feel like this school thing was truly a family affair! So I pay it forward with my own children 
I donât stay up with D19. D15 was pretty self motivated and on top of her schedule, and wouldnât have expected or wanted me to hover over it. D19, by contrast, has ADHD and really struggles with focus and procrastination. Weâve tried various arrangements and what works best for us now is that she goes 3 days per week to a local tutoring center for group âhomework help.â There are up to 4 students in a small conference room with one tutor. Having that structured time away from home helps her tremendously and there is a positive social aspect, too. The other kids in this particular study group are all in advanced math classes so they are motivated students, which creates a positive atmosphere. I am nervous about how she will transition to college, because she really needs structure to her study time.
Oh my gosh, I could never stay up with my D except on a weekend! She has a horrible after school routine. She comes home, plays on her phone, does a little homework, falls asleep, wakes up and eats then doesnât start homework again until around when I am getting ready for bed. There are nights I hear her come out for a glass of water before she goes to bed and it is 1am! I feel like it is such a bad habit but I guess it works for her as she has great grades. I have been trying to teach her better time management lately.
Tonight I went to check on her at 6:30pm and she was asleep. I told her she had to get up because otherwise she would be up all night again. It is now 10 and she just asked if she could use my computer to work on her online class (hers was acting up.) I said since she did not have much homework tonight I would really like her in bed by 11-11:30. She said maybe - she had to do some history, some online French and take a shower. She has been home since 3!! 8-|
@dfbdfb, my D21 wants to go to your school. 10 days of kayaking, zowie!
We started school on Monday. I agree with everyone who feels that the transition between summer and school is a bit of a lurch. It doesnât help that we were on vacation last week too.
Homework has already begun in earnest. but I am still staying up later than they are.
SAT for S19 on Saturday, and the ACT on September 9th, with a trip over Labor Day in the middle to visit grandparents. Itâs going to be a tough few weeks.
A funny read for back-to-school:
http://www.mblazoned.com/september-is-the-worst/
@momtogkc Your D sounds exactly like my son, right down to the 1 am glass of water!
S19 just showed me one of his friendâs schedules: AP Calc BC, AP Lang, AP U.S. History, AP Micro/Macro, AP foreign language, AP Computer Science, and AP Physics. While I realize that I donât exactly have an academic superstar on my hands, I still donât understand how this works. College students donât take 7 courses at once so why do HS students do this to themselves?
Preparing myself for GC to mark âLess Rigorousâ on my sonâs college apps since heâs not planning to take more than 5 or 6 APs in high school, much less 7 in one year! We moved to VA when D16 was five thinking it would be great to send them to VA public universities. In reality, S will likely have to out of state if he doesnât want to go to a regional school, even if he gets mostly As. I guess it doesnât really matter as long as the fit is good, but itâs a little disheartening. Vent over! lol
@homerdog How frustrating that the XC coaches can practically hold their juniors and seniors hostage.
Iâd like to say I donât stay up until my D19 finishes her homework, because I certainly didnât even consider it with D17⊠but I do stay up, and in the same room, because time and again when I wander off I return to the kitchen/living room (where homework is done) to see D19 scrolling through her friendsâ snapchats, or boogeying in her seat to some music only she can hear. @-)
On the other hand I am VERY EXCITED to announce that, with school starting Monday, she has now finished all of one of her two AP LIT summer reading books!! All she has to do now is read the other one, write some sort of compare/contrast essay, and do her Spanish summer homework!! Of course in between now and Monday morning she has a beach bonfire this late afternoon and sleepover tonight, a concert atâŠat the Roxy?..tomorrow night, and a big backyard garden party at our own house Saturday.
This child is NOT gonna like Sunday.
3515: In all seriousness, don't dismiss regional schoolsâin many cases, they're some of the best values out there. Of course, you have to do your due diligence (e.g., I'd send a child interested in most of the life sciences to the noncompetitive regional public I work with in a heartbeat, unless their interests lie in biochem sorts of thingsâwe've got good basic chem lab facilities, but no infrastructure for really advanced stuff), but then again, you really ought to do due diligence with pretty much any school (a kid with a really solid interest in linguistics isn't likely to get as complete a grounding in it at Columbia as they would at, say, the University of Delaware).
@JenJenJenJen I want your daughterâs social life
And, yes, S19 and his teammates are held hostage! If it wasnât for all of the friends and the belonging he feels on the team, I would make him quit. Then again, maybe they are bonded so much because they are all in the same stinky boat.