Homeschooling: How To Make It Easier By Just Doing Your Kid’s Work For Them

WITH the dreaded news that schools will remain closed until at least the end of January (which many are taking to mean the end of February, when accounting for the Irish government), many parents are stressing about having to incorporate ‘distance learning’ into their already stressed out days.

But fear not! Based on the experience of home-schooling during last year’s lockdown, several parents have submitted the following tips for making sure your child’s education doesn’t impact your daily grind:

PRIMARY SCHOOL: Junior Infants to 3rd class

Parents have found here that the best way to make sure their kids don’t miss out on homework is to just do it themselves. For the first few years, it’s just the alphabet and basic sums. Yeah, you could spend two hours making sure your child can spell octopus, or you could just sign the homework sheet and say that he does. Teachers won’t have time to check any of it, and you’ll be back on a Zoom call in minutes!

PRIMARY SCHOOL: 4th, 5th and 6th

This is the same as the previous advice, except you may need your kid to help you a bit with long division and Irish.

SECONDARY SCHOOL: Exam years

If your child is doing their Leaving or Junior certificates, relax; they can do as little or as much work as they like. Given the fiasco of last year’s grading system, there’s no reason to expect anything else this year. Sit back, wait for their assessment and then kick off and demand a higher mark. Nobody has time to argue with you, your kid will be fine.

SECONDARY SCHOOL: Non-exam years

Who cares?

COLLEGE STUDENTS

That’s really their problem, isn’t it?