With all the homeschooling parents have had to do in the past year, it’s little surprise if some relationships have become a little tense.

However, there are many ways of making the final weeks of homeschooling more bearable for everyone, and of building a closer relationship with your youngsters going forward to. An article for iNews recently shared some advice for parents from clinical psychologist Dr Naomi Fisher.

She recommended that parents empower their children to take control of their own education, adding that the dynamic between children and their parents is different to that between them and their teachers, which is why parents need to take a different approach.

Among her tips are to focus on your child’s strengths and help them develop those, as well as to say yes to unexpected requests when you’re homeschooling, such as allowing them to bake a cake without a recipe.

Where does Minecraft come in? Dr Fisher said that it’s important to “join them in those experiences”. She stressed that, rather than seeing the computer game as a negative, it is better to embrace it.

“If you join them in their interests and say to the child “I value the things you’re doing,” and you learn together, you can realise how much learning potential it may have,” she asserted.

You might even want to join your child for a Minecraft modding online course to develop both of your interests in the game further.

Last year, About Manchester highlighted the many benefits that playing Minecraft can have for your child, especially at this time of social isolation.

Among the advantages to letting your child play the game with their friends are that it allows them to improve their social skills, while enhancing their ability to work as part of a team and teaching them skills like coding, problem solving and creativity.