Illawarra parents of primary kids say home schooling 'too difficult

Mother-of-two Emma Grima admitted she would "limit" how much home schooling time her seven and nine-year-olds would be involved with as she needed to work too.

"You cannot multi-task, and no matter what words the NSW Government or the schools use to say 'you can work alongside your child' my children are too young ... you can't do both at once," Mrs Grima said.

The NSW Illawarra-based owner of Grima Accounting and Taxation said this was the busiest time of year for her, while numerous small businesses relied on her help.

"They should close schools for another week, that would be a lot less pressure on everybody," Mrs Grima said, noting if lockdown was extended she may need to send her children to the classroom.

"I may need to revisit that so I will weigh up the risk and compare it to the case numbers ... I am pretty conservative with risk but at the same time my mental health, my clients and my business are important."

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Julie Oloughlin said she would be sending her two primary aged children to school regardless because her family could not cope with being cooped up at home - her sons "frustrated, literally crying" at the situation.

"I can't do the homework, I can't sit two boys down at a table with laptops and get them to do it, one of them has ADHD and the last time we did it we had two smashed iPads and a cracked laptop," Miss Oloughlin said. "They're better off in school because they're climbing the walls here."

Both parents said their youngest children were still understanding reading and writing so needed assistance with every step of their work.

When asked how many parents were likely to take their children to classes the Catholic Education Diocese would not comment, while the Department of Education said it was " impossible to predict" how many. No child would be turned away from their schools, each said.

"As with the period of remote learning last year, parents and carers in Wollongong, Shellharbour and the Macarthur regions are again encouraged to keep their children home wherever possible, but no student will be turned away from any of our schools if they are unable to learn from home," a spokesman for the Diocese said.