Homework in our house was a war zone. Our two kids — ages 10 and 13 — would sit at the kitchen table with textbooks open and phones buzzing. Every two minutes, a notification. A text. A TikTok sound. Homework that should take 30 minutes would stretch to two hours.
We were part of the problem. My husband would be answering work emails at the same table. I'd be scrolling Twitter while telling the kids to focus. The hypocrisy wasn't lost on our 13-year-old.
Our son said, 'Why should I put my phone away when you won't put yours away?' He had a point.
So we made it fair. Family First's Homework preset locks every phone in the family from 4 PM to 5 PM on school days. Not just the kids — everyone. My husband reads a book. I work on puzzles. The kids do homework. One hour, zero screens, no exceptions.
The results were immediate. Homework that used to take two hours was done in 45 minutes. Our daughter's math grade went from a B+ to an A. But the best part wasn't the grades — it was the conversation that filled the quiet. Kids started asking us for help. We started asking about their assignments. The kitchen table became a classroom, and we were all students.
It turns out, when you remove distraction from learning, you don't just get better grades. You get a family that learns together.
