Dermot Bannon said he found it tough returning to school after he was homeschooled by his mum when his family moved to Egypt.
Taking part in RTE Homeschool Hub’s final week, he also told how his life in Africa and a love of Lego sparked his interest becoming an architect.
As parents and kids around the country finish up their homeschool efforts this week, the Room To Improve favourite said: “When I was about seven or eight, my family and I moved abroad to Egypt.
“And the first school I went to there was in my living room, because my mum taught us.
“She taught us for about six or seven months. And in my class was my brother and my younger sister and it was just the three of us.
“I don’t think we gave my mum a very easy time, we spent a lot of time messing and because we knew her very well because she was our mother we tended to run off and around the house and have to be chased.
“So it probably wasn’t the best education I had in my life, but my mum really tried.
“When I lived in Cairo everything that we did, washing, cooking, eating, meeting people, socialising happened on the street.
“That didn’t happen in Ireland at the time and it was fascinating to watch people have all of their every day life stuff happen on the street.
“I was 10 when I came back to Ireland and that was quite a difficult adjustment because you are going back to a big classroom and although I knew everyone in my classroom I hadn’t seen them for a few years.
“So I had to make friends and start over again and that was pretty difficult but it was enjoyable.
“It was nice to go back into a big proper classroom.”
Looking back on his schooling days, the dad of three added: “I used to talk a lot in school and was a bit of a chatterbox and that always got me in trouble in school.”
Meanwhile, he said he has Lego to thank for his successful career.
“I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to become an architect and I don’t know how or why it ever started but I know that this stuff here[Lego] is probably a huge thing to blame.
“I made Lego and played with Lego for as far back as I remember, right up until I was probably a teenager, I was way too old to be playing with lego but I absolutely adored it.”
After 58 hours of lessons and 560,000 streams on the RTE Player, RTE’s Home School Hub winds to a close this week with a big finale.
It will include a special graduation concert featuring the RTE Concert Orchestra, plus guests Kelly Harrington, Dermot Bannon, and Sinead Burke.
Home School Hub airs at 11am on RTE Two.
