If I remember my childhood, a lot of crying and screaming. I hope to do better when my kids get older.

M&M for math is a good one. I used to "earn" a dime per page of math problems.

Just be ready with several strategies. What works today won't work next week, but if you keep rotating strategies, it keeps the dopamine going. This also works for your own to-do lists. Migrate the list to a new system occasionally just to shake up the process and get it moving.

We were lucky enough to find a school that didn't do homework. It made a huge difference

As someone with 7-year old, ADHD-I and AuDHD-C twins, I just have this to say: If you figure it out, please let me know!

When i have a "have to do" thing I'm struggling to start and I've already done just about everything else avoiding it, I "put my ears on". That is, I get my noise canceling headphones and play something like the lofi study girl on YouTube. I actually prefer something more up tempo, so experiment around with the different suggested videos, but that classic is a good starting place.

I wish I'd had this in my toolbox when i was in school but I didn't figure it out until my late 30s. When i put the over the ear set on, it's like it signals to my brain that it's buckle down and do the necessary thing time. I do still have to take some breaks, and I'm afraid to overuse this since it does work well for me. I don't want to wear out its effectiveness! 😅

There's a website: goblin.tools

Ignore the name, it's an AI assisted to do app that breaks tasks down into smaller chunks for you.

Try tricking him with the focus band, and be sure to not let him keep it before the jig is up

Our daughter is in 4th grade as well, she struggles when she has to do her homework at home. So whenever possible we try to leave her at the school long enough to do her homework there as part of the afternoon care. Depending on your school / country this might not be a thing...

When she does them at home, it's best to start as early as possible. The closer to the end of the day the more exhausted you both are.

Change it up, use different techniques. Don't have anything she can spill on the table. Play music over speakers. Allow her to listen to music over headphones. Make little games of the subtasks. If she has to write or come up with sentences or stories, it sometimes helps when we come up with super silly or even wrong answers. Have fidget toys ready. Have scrap paper ready that she can tear/smear/poke/cut/rip apart so it's not her school book. Have something to drink and eat close by.

Most of the time though it just sucks for all of us. She knows it is so much easier to do them in afternoon care. She gets frustrated with herself. We get frustrated. We say stupid things like "if you just do it you'll be done soon". We're looking to get her into a school that doesn't do homework for secondary school.

I have ADHD and I hated homework. I hate it even more now that I have to force my daughter to do it.

In very small, discrete chunks. This question, that sentence, one piece at a time. Which is how I handle my own homework (I’m a teacher, so I have marking at home). If things go really well, we can get into the flow of it, and get a decent chunk done, but the deal has to be just this one little bit. Anything more is a bonus that you can heap praise upon.

have you tried something to focus before starting a task?

I like a small bit of a not very addicting game before I start something, so I can get in the zone, and assess where my head is.

Just an easy sudoku or bejeweled- something you can knock out in under a minute. I started doing this around 14ish and it helped with school a lot.

If they're younger, you being there to keep them on track is important, but asking them to assess how they feel based on that little game could be a great self assessment tool.

Go get accommodations that tell your kid’s teachers you will do fuck all for homework. You shouldn’t have to make your baby cry…

We had our daughter in a laboratory school, with first grade weekly homework packets, and have experienced the horror of upsetting our child over the homework packet. We no longer go there nor is there homework or crying at the table over homework.