Prince William Gets Candid About Homeschooling Prince George and Princess Charlotte During Lockdown
Kensington Palace/Twitter Prince William, Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte and Prince George
Like parents around the world, Prince William has taken on a new role during coronavirus lockdown: teacher to his children.
The royal dad of three opened up about the struggles of homeschooling Prince George and Princess Charlotte during a Zoom call that appeared on the new BBC documentary Football, Prince William and Mental Health.
"Homeschooling is fun, isn't it?" William, 37, joked to the other parents.
He then added, "You start to worry about how little you remember from your school days when you can't do the maths questions at home."
Former England goalie Joe Hart joked that he didn't know phonics existed, though his 5-year-old child did.
"The challenges of lockdown, hey!" Prince William replied.
Although 6-year-old Prince George and 5-year-old Princess Charlotte's school, St. Thomas's Battersea, is on a week break for summer half-term, it's very possible that they will continue their homeschooling routine at their country home, Anmer Hall, where they are isolating amid the coronavirus pandemic with their parents and 2-year-old brother, Prince Louis.
Aaron Chown/Getty Images
While talking about homeschooling during a rare interview with BBC last month, Kate Middleton revealed that they continued their kids' learning despite the Easter break.
"Don't tell the children, we’ve actually kept it going through the holidays," the royal mom said. "I feel very mean!"
"The children have got such stamina, I don’t know how," Kate, 38, added. "Honestly, you get to the end of the day and you write down the list of all the things that you’ve done in that day. So, you pitch a tent, take the tent down again, cook, bake. You get to the end of the day — they have had a lovely time — but it is amazing how much you can cram into one day, that's for sure."
BBC/Kensington Palace Kate Middleton and Prince William
Kate revealed that it's been a challenge to get George excited about his own schoolwork when he has Charlotte's "cooler" assignments as a comparison, the mom said in another interview on ITV's This Morning.
"We’re stuck into homeschooling again," Kate said. "George gets very upset because he just wants to do all of Charlotte’s projects. Spider sandwiches are far cooler than literacy work!"
Samir Hussein/WireImage Prince Louis, Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince George and Princess Charlotte
Prince William spoke about fun times with his children as well in the documentary, which uses soccer as an anchor to help raise the issue of mental well-being in men. William was in the stands with George, Charlotte and Kate when Aston Villa took on Norwich City in October 2019. In the film, the royal dad chatted to the CEO of the Football Association, who had just seen pictures of the family enjoying a goal by Villa — but the family were watching among supporters of Norwich.
"Yeah, I saw you celebrating. Great one to get the kids to," Mark Bullingham, the CEO of the Football Association told William.
"I wasn’t celebrating — that was the problem. I was sat with all the Norwich fans,” the prince replied. "So George was doing my bit of celebrating for me."
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The BBC program, Football, Prince William and Mental Health, is available on the BBC iplayer.
