Guide

How to stop apps during homework time

Homework goes better when the game is not one tap away. This guide sets up a daily homework hour on your child's iPhone or iPad. The apps you choose rest, and everything else stays open for the work.

Decide what should rest

Lampworth works the simple way round: you tick the apps that rest, and everything you do not tick stays open. A reading app, a calculator or the school's own app will still work, unless you tick them.

The free app takes up to ten apps or websites, ticked one by one. It cannot pick a whole category, such as Games, in one go. Go through the Home Screen with your child and agree the list together. Ask what they need open for the work, and leave those apps unticked. It is easier to keep to a rule they helped to make.

Set the homework hour

1. Open Lampworth on your child's device. Tap Parent, top right, and enter your PIN. On a first run, the setup comes first.
2. Choose the apps. If none are chosen yet, tap Choose apps. If some are, tap Edit on the Timed apps card. Tick the ones that pull your child away, then tap Save.
3. Switch Homework on. It is one of three times, with School and Bedtime. It starts at 16:30 and ends at 17:30, Monday to Friday.
4. Set your own hours. Tap Homework, then set Starts, Ends and the days, and tap Save. Each time has one set of hours, so untick the days you do not need.
5. Try it once. Set Homework to start in two minutes and open a chosen app. The pause screen says "Homework time" and when the app is back. Then put the real hours back.

When the day does not go to plan

• Homework starts late today. Tap Parent, enter your PIN and tap Pause now. Tap Unpause when the work is done.
• Your child needs a chosen app for the work. A video lesson is a fair example. Tap +15 min or +30 min. The apps rest again afterwards.
• Your child finishes early. There is no "finished" button. Add extra time to open the apps, or switch Homework off. It stays off until you switch it on again.

If you also want a total for the day, Lampworth has a daily limit. It is one allowance for all the timed apps together, in steps of 15 minutes, and it starts switched off.

What it will not do

• It does not check that homework is being done. It rests the apps you chose. It cannot see what your child does in any app, and it shows no report.
• An app you did not tick stays open, even a distracting one. Look at the list again after a week.
• It works on the device where it is installed. A second device needs its own set-up.
• The free app is set on the child's own device. Changing the times from your phone is planned for a later paid version.
• If your child asks for more time, the answer is yours. Lampworth gives you the button; the conversation is still between you.

Next

For nights, read how to pause apps at bedtime. To see how Lampworth compares with the settings already on the device, read Apple's Screen Time or Lampworth.