In 2 short long months, our GCSE journey will finish. I say ‘Our’ because they affect us all – Oh yes, its definitely a family effort (Not sure Millie would agree!) For anyone who hasn’t danced with GCSE’s before, let me take you down the path of how your life will change when your little cherub is in Year 11:

A Parent’s Guide to GCSE’s:

Your Dining Room Table

Your Dining Room table will no longer be your own. Slowly over the past 6 months, our table has become less of a place of dining excellence and more of a storage yard for textbooks, A4 pads of paper & pencil sharpening. That’s before we even get to the Art GCSE offerings. At this point we have clay liquorice allsorts, felt donuts & hand sewn snowflakes as well as several sketch books.

Taxi Service

Gone are the days of finishing school at a normal time. Last week Millie finished school at 5.30PM 3 days running. I have to admire her dedication and stamina but quite frankly it left me exhausted with all the extra journeys.

Personal Shopper

Revision Cards. Printer cartridge. New leotard. New notebook. All needed desperately and needed NOW! Thank the Lord for late night shopping. There is no reasoning with a stressed out teen.

The Bedroom

I’m aware that a teenager’s room quite often resembles a swamp pit at the best of times, but in the midst of exam revision and coursework deadlines, this reaches new heights.

Lost Property

As the bedroom gets worse, so does our problem of losing things. I’m talking about important items here, you know, like English coursework that is due in that day, a completed Art Sketchbook, A tie dyed piece of material with hours of stitching on (don’t ask, we still haven’t found it). I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, “Don’t worry, I’ll look for it tomorrow.” And I wonder why I never get anything done.

Cafe

Teenagers take a lot of feeding at any age. That much is a fact. Another little known fact is how many snack and meal requests they make when studying. Woe betide any household that doesn’t have a steady supply of biscuits, starchy carbs and treats to get them through. And don’t forget the gin for yourself – How do you think I’m coping?

So there’s a  snippet into life at the Costellos for the time being. In all honesty, we cannot knock Miss M for her hardworking whilst juggling her synchro training. We have great plans for how life will improve after the 19th June…and then we can get ready to do it all over again with Vi in 4 years time!

For more advice on How to Help Your Children through GCSE’s click here

In all seriousness, you WILL get through this and your cherub should be looking at several weeks of free time. One way to keep them occupied is by getting a summer job – Emma at Emma and 3 tells us how to go about this.

We are hoping to finally get our home back before the next child starts on the exam merry go round, maybe even doing some house renovations like Staircases Scotland , building new Simba beds or moving bedrooms around.