Duke & Duke

Guides · For parents

How to lock games until homework or chores are done on iPhone and iPad.

Apple’s Screen Time can keep games off during homework hours, cap them each day, and let your child ask for more time, which you approve once the homework or chores are checked. That’s free and needs no extra app. What Screen Time doesn’t do on its own is unlock games automatically when a job has been approved. For that, an earn-it app such as ours, MoveToPlay: Earn Screen Time by Duke & Duke, can lock the apps you choose on your child’s iPhone or iPad until time has been earned with chores and exercise. This guide gives both the iOS 27 menus and the older ones. Published 25 October 2026 and checked against Apple’s current support pages, which are listed at the bottom.

What do I need to set up first?

Family Sharing, a Child Account for your child, and a Screen Time passcode set on your own device rather than your child’s. All three are free, and our guide to Apple’s Screen Time tools walks through them step by step.

Check which version of Screen Time you have. If every device in your Family Sharing group is on iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27 or visionOS 27 (whichever each device runs) and you have updated the group’s parental controls, your child’s settings are under Settings › Family › your child’s name. Otherwise, you keep the previous version under Settings › Screen Time.

How do I keep games off during homework time?

Use a schedule. On iOS 27 it is a Screen Time Schedule, made of time windows that each have their own allowed app categories: add a window that covers homework time and leave Games out of its allowed categories. On iOS 18 to 26 it is Downtime, scheduled for homework time. Either way, games stay unavailable during that time on the days you picked, without anyone having to argue about it.

  1. On iOS 27, from your own device: open Settings, tap Family, tap your child’s name, tap Screen Time Schedule and turn on Schedule. Scroll down, tap Add Schedule and select the days it applies to. Then tap Add Time Window and enter a name (Homework, say), the time, and the allowed app categories, leaving Games out of that window’s allowed categories. Apple says you can set separate routines for weekdays and weekends.
  2. On iOS 18 to 26, from your own device: go to Settings › Screen Time, scroll down and tap your child’s name under Family. Tap App & Website Activity and turn it on if you haven’t already. Tap Downtime, then tap Scheduled, choose Every Day or Customize Days, and set the start and end times.

A schedule is about the clock, not the work. It keeps games off from, say, 4pm to 6pm; it doesn’t know whether the homework is finished. The next section is how you connect the two.

How do I unlock games once the homework or chores are done?

Cap games, then approve more time when you’ve checked the work. On iOS 27, set a Time Allowance; on iOS 18 to 26, an App Limit on the Games category. When the time runs out on iOS 27, Apple says your child can tap One More Minute or send you a request for more time, and you can approve it in Messages or on your child’s device. On iOS 18 to 26, your child taps Ask for More Time, and you can approve or decline the request in Messages or in Settings › Screen Time.

  1. Time Allowances, iOS 27, from your own device: open Settings, tap Family, tap your child’s name, tap Time Allowances, tap the Add button and follow the onscreen instructions. Apple describes it as a daily time budget across categories such as entertainment, games and social media, which you can adjust per category.
  2. App Limits, iOS 18 to 26, from your own device: go to Settings › Screen Time, tap your child’s name under Family, tap App Limits, then tap Add Limit. Select Games (or tap the category to pick individual games), tap Next, set the time, then tap Add.
  3. For one evening, on iOS 27: Apple says you can quickly pause your child’s device, allow unlimited use, or change their schedule for the day from Settings › Family › your child’s name.

This is free and it works, but it is manual: each unlock is a request you see and answer, and nothing keeps a running total of what has been earned. That suits plenty of families. If it starts to feel like a second job, that is the gap an earn-it app fills.

Which apps should stay available during homework time?

Anything your child needs for school, plus Phone and Messages. Add these to Always Allowed, so a schedule or limit never blocks a homework app, a dictionary or a way to reach you. On iOS 18 to 26, Apple warns that if Messages isn’t always allowed, your child may not be able to send or receive messages, including to emergency numbers and contacts, during downtime or after an app limit has run out.

  1. On iOS 27, from your own device: open Settings, tap Family, tap your child’s name, then tap Always Allowed. Tap Add Apps, Add People or Specific Contacts and follow the onscreen instructions. Apple says FaceTime, Maps, Phone and Messages are always available by default.
  2. On iOS 18 to 26, from your own device: go to Settings › Screen Time, tap your child’s name under Family, then tap Always Allowed and add apps under Allowed Apps.

Should homework earn screen time, or just come first?

Families do both, and either can work. We would suggest treating homework as something that comes first rather than something that is paid for. A “homework, then games” rule keeps the work about learning, while chores and exercise can earn extra time on top.

For chores, our chores for screen time guide covers what to pick for each age, what each is worth, and a whiteboard version that needs no app.

How does MoveToPlay lock games until time is earned?

MoveToPlay is a screen time app for kids on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Children earn screen time by exercising and doing chores you approve. Minutes go into a bank that never expires, and on an iPhone or iPad you can lock the apps you choose until that time has been earned. With Lock selected apps turned on and Apple’s Family Controls set up on your child’s iPhone or iPad, the apps you pick stay blocked until your child spends banked minutes to start a play session, and are blocked again when the countdown reaches zero.

Some honest limits. Locking is optional and works on iPhone and iPad only; Apple Watch and Mac cannot lock apps. With the lock off, minutes are still earned, banked and spent with a visible countdown, on the honour system. It doesn’t replace Screen Time: schedules for school and bedtime are still worth setting there. There is no Android version. MoveToPlay by Duke & Duke is an Apple-only app and is not connected with the Android app at movetoplay.app. Free to download, and setup is free. To use the app, a parent starts the Annual or Monthly Family subscription (new subscribers get a 2-week free trial, then it renews unless cancelled in Settings) or buys Lifetime once for $19.99 (US price). Read how MoveToPlay works and the questions parents ask, or download it on the App Store.