Sims2: Homework

Calvin helps Genie with her homework.

Given how much people love to hate homework, I'm impressed with how much thought went into it in the game.  Students bring homework home with them every time they go to school.  In the interface where the job goes for adults, it holds their grade. The grade fluctuates according to their attendance at school and whether they do their homework.  The game helps you out by having children almost invariably roll a want to 'do homework' and 'learn to do homework' several times while they're children.  So, you get fair warning before the social worker comes to take them away for not doing their homework.

If there's a desk on the lot kids will put their homework there, and if there is a computer on the right hand side, they'll put it on the left - which is a pain since for some reason they can't get it from there.  I just put some little thing - a sculpture or plant - on the left side and that fixes the problem.

Teens won't get taken by the social worker, but if their marks aren't high enough they can't get or keep a job.  So I always have my teens that roll a career want do their homework, but not the others.  Conveniently, they always stack new homework on top of old.  So, once I know they aren't going to be doing it, I move their current homework to some back corner of the lot.  They go back there and pile it up every day, and I never have to worry about it.

A teen or another child can do any child's homework, and a teen can do another teen's homework.  Any elder, adult or teen in the household can help with homework, but if the relationship between the child and adult isn't strong enough, the older person will refuse the request.  Sims HATE doing their homework, though, and if they are even a little hungry or tired they'll put it down and throw a little tantrum.  They'll also conveniently forget what they were going to ask the nearest adult before they get to them.  I've developed a little routine where I direct the teen or child to "Kiss...", then "Hug..." the adult, then stack up the "Ask to help with homework" direction to happen immediately after.  Oh, and going up or downstairs is a good enough excuse for them to forget again, so I usually have both of them "Go Here" to a spot near the homework before I start the routine.