Enough for today

The sheet

A card for homework: the time agreed with your child’s teacher, the words to use when it’s up, and what to do if homework keeps taking far longer.

For the fridge · A4, four cards to cut · One page · PDF, 56 KB

How it helps

For a child who can’t stop until homework is perfect, a time agreed with their teacher settles the question before the evening begins. Stopping when the time is up, finished or not, shows them that what they have done is enough, and protects their evenings and their sleep.

How to use it

1. At the start of term, ask your child’s teacher, or their form tutor at secondary school, how long homework should take, and agree that your child can stop there and hand in what they have done.
2. Fill in when homework starts and how long it lasts, and put a card on the fridge.
3. When the time is up, say the words on the card, in the voice you’d use to tell them it’s time for supper, and stop.
4. If homework often takes far longer than the school expects, or ends in tears most nights, talk to your child’s teacher, and to the SENCo if you wonder whether something is making it harder. If it’s affecting their sleep or mood, talk to your GP too.

How to get this sheet

This sheet comes with a subscription. It is also yours with its chapter, if that is the chapter you read free, or if a teacher or therapist sends it to you. School staff and therapists signed in to their shelf can print it too.

The first chapter you open here is free to read in full, with its sheets. This one goes with Perfectionism and Neurodiversity, and the Conversation with the School.

Free to print

These are free to anyone, with nothing to sign up for.

• A plan for a bad dayTo fill in together · A4
• Before you ring the schoolFor a call or a meeting · A4
• What to say: school and friendsCards to cut out · A4, eight cards to cut
• Before the SENCo meetingFor a meeting · A4
• Three reports, side by sideFor a meeting · A4 landscape
• The return-to-school meetingFor a meeting · A4
• The move to secondary school, for a parents’ eveningFor a parents’ evening · A4, five pages
• The last half-hour before bedFor the fridge · A4
• The worry ladderTo fill in together · A4
• Before you see the GP about your childFor an appointment · A4, two sides
• A record of what happenedFor a call or a meeting · A4, two pages
• The people I can tellTo make together · A4, two pages

Every sheet, marked free or with a subscription, is at theparentbook.com/printables.