My kids watched RTE’s new Home-school Hub today and this is what it taught

It will be on every day this week.

The last couple of weeks have been stressful for parents and students across the country since schools were required to close to stop the spread of COVID-19. RTÉ recently confirmed that it will broadcast over an hour of "school on TV" to support primary school children and their parents at home. The new segment is part of a cross-platform teaching initiative that has been developed by RTÉ at short notice along with the support of the Department of Education. The first installment of the Home-school Hub was broadcasted today so I stuck it on for my children and this was some of the topics that the show covered. The Home-school Hub has several teachers teaching a variety of short subject segments. The first teacher started off by praising the children watching for following safety protocols like staying at home and washing their hands, which I thought was a nice touch. The last couple of weeks haven't been easy for children who are missing school and their friends and I think it was nice to give them praise and reassurance. We were then given a short lesson in geography and landmarks as well as being given the task of map making. Children watching were instructed on how to make a map of their living room. I was surprised at how eager my children were to do the activities and my son had a map drawn up within minutes, while also excitedly answering the questions being asked by the teacher. The show then moved on to politics and explained how our constitution works and what a referendum is. Then it moved on to math and explored different 2D shapes. I will say that the show today did seem aimed a little more at very young children. My eldest is seven and my youngest is almost three and both of them were glued to the screen but children in fifth and sixth class might have found it a bit easy. Saying that it is only the first episode so the curriculum might expand during the course of the week. Next up was crafts through Irish, which was particularly popular in my home as my child's school is a gaelscoil. Children were instructed in Irish how to make a paper fortune teller while also being taught basic Irish phrases. Finally there was a science segment looking at Bernoulli's principle and explaining how children could try it out for themselves at home. Overall my children really enjoyed the Home-school Hub and will definitely be tuning in tomorrow. If you missed today's episode you can watch it on the RTE Player and catch the rest of Home-school Hub, every day this week at 11am on RTE2.