They are like coiled springs all day and the have to let loose for their own sanity. Have you ever seen kids at recess?

The best thing is to let them burn some of the post-school energy for 30 min. or so. Just be wild and free. No structure – they’ve had enough.You will have much much better luck getting them to quiet down later.

Then I’d even let them decompress in some way – I’d even let them watch 1/2 hour (no more) of a PBS after-school show (Arthur, Cyberchase, SuperWhy, etc are great shows) if you can (If not – do a book on tape) while/after they have a snack.

I guarantee they will settle themselves into a quieter activity. Then you can use all the ideas given. Allow them to choose what to do, but have toys, a craft, etc. available for them to choose from.

You need to be organized, but keep the “structure” to a minimum. Again, they’ve had enough of it already.

A lot of parents want kids to get their homework done – I’m personally against that. When I taught I always intended the homework to be done with the parents – as much as a way for parents to know what was going on then for extra practice.

go here there is tons of different things you can do with them

you can also play sport with them

make clay

heads up 7up

musical chairs

semen says

telephone

dogball

hope i could help