Overview
How this came to be
End of July 2020: Amidst the COVID pandemic and the decision of Seattle Public Schools to go 'full remote learning' indefinitely, the families of soon to be kindergarteners graduating from our (fully operational) preschool were faced with the impending "doom" of having to provide daycare and instructional help for our kids throughout the day while keeping full time jobs.
It felt daunting...
...We were lucky, privileged, and had a large group of sharp parents working together to be able to set this up. We wanted to share exactly how we did it to make it easier for others to make this happen to help families of all situations.
The only way forward was to put together some kind of co-op pod. If felt daunting. We didn't know exactly what we were doing, but we were desperate to figure it out and we had each other to help support and keep us accountable to come through. We had 6 weeks to pull it together in time for the start of school. We had an unfair advantage most don't have, we had the owner/principal of our Montessori pre-school as one of the parents in the group. We were lucky, privileged, and had a large group of sharp parents working together to be able to set this up. Now that we've made it through a month and ironed things out a bit, we wanted to share exactly how we did it...
...SO YOU CAN TOO!
...SO YOU CAN TOO!
Who this is useful for?
- Families that are struggling with managing their kid(s)' remote learning and need help to setup a Pod.
- Families that have already started a Pod but are looking for ways to better manage it.
Why start a Pod?
Starting a Pod (also referred to as a 'micro-school' or 'nano-school') - even with just one other family - serves the dual purpose of 1) reducing or even eliminating your workday parent commitment to help your child complete school activities so you can focus on your job, and 2) improves your child's educational and social development given the significant limitations of remote learning caused by the pandemic. This saving grace of a Pod is even more of a relief if your job requires you to be out of the house. By banding together with a few other parents, you can give each of you a fighting chance at 'normal working hours' and a normal, balanced life with your family.
Research has shown that the value of a Pod for a child's development is greatest for younger kids (K-2 up to K-5) as these early stages are more about building foundational skills, dexterity, and social/behavioral discipline...it comes as no surprise then that this age group is less able to effectively learn/focus on a screen for prolonged periods of time. In our case, we had kindergarteners - starting real school for the first time. Given these unprecedented circumstances, the kindergarten teachers from our schools running the remote classes were very understanding and even supportive of our Pod and were ok with us attending only 1-2 hours of remote school a day leaving the rest of the day open for our own teacher-led, in-person experience.
Research has shown that the value of a Pod for a child's development is greatest for younger kids (K-2 up to K-5) as these early stages are more about building foundational skills, dexterity, and social/behavioral discipline...it comes as no surprise then that this age group is less able to effectively learn/focus on a screen for prolonged periods of time. In our case, we had kindergarteners - starting real school for the first time. Given these unprecedented circumstances, the kindergarten teachers from our schools running the remote classes were very understanding and even supportive of our Pod and were ok with us attending only 1-2 hours of remote school a day leaving the rest of the day open for our own teacher-led, in-person experience.
Notes and Disclaimers
Note: As we went along, we discovered that many resources have arisen to aid parents in constructing Pods (some really strong ones are this Facebook Group and the organization behind it - Pandemic Pod) which is really awesome. Our goal, here, is to supplement resources like these with actual, real life examples and learnings from how our group of parents orchestrated an in-home, teacher-led Pod.
Disclaimer: This is a practical guide that's based on our Pod experience and how we're getting through remote learning amidst the pandemic. It is not to be considered legal advice and you may have differing perspectives on handling COVID-related policies, etc.
Disclaimer: This is a practical guide that's based on our Pod experience and how we're getting through remote learning amidst the pandemic. It is not to be considered legal advice and you may have differing perspectives on handling COVID-related policies, etc.