Play to your strengths: balancing homeschooling, work and creative practice
With her daughter E out of school with COVID-19, Dr Jackie Bailey found herself a homeschooling teacher juggling screentime and the pressures of other parents.
The first week of homeschooling was actually quite pleasant. E has asthma so we pulled her out of school before the NSW government started encouraging parents to do so.
I look back on that first week as the halcyon days of homeschooling. Back then, there was no one to compare myself to, no parents posting pictures to the Year 3 Whatsapp group of artistic masterpieces (‘Sara made this fairy garden in the park so other kids can enjoy J’), maths geniuses (‘100%! Go girl!’), or science projects (‘Jake made a model photovoltaic system while I was doing the laundry. LOL.’)
Dr Jackie Bailey is the founder and Principal of the award-winning research, strategy and evaluation consultancy BYP Group. Jackie has a PhD (Creative Writing) from the University of New South Wales, a University Medal, BA (First Class Honours) from the University of Queensland, a Masters of Theology from The New Seminary and a Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Media from the University of Melbourne. Jackie is also a writer of creative fiction and non-fiction. She has been published in a number of publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, ArtLook, Arts Professional UK, Global Storytelling and Online Opinion. Jackie is currently working on a non-fiction book about spirituality for non-religious people.
