Best Practices for Pod After-School

Pod After School is an alternative to expensive Pod School programs, which can be organized by small family groups at virtually no cost.

The benefits can be huge, read on to find out how to carry them out safely.

A Pod School Experience for All

Are your kids going to pod school? Not many children are. In fact, there is grave concern that the pod school and micro-school trend taking off right now is going to dramatically expand the gap between the high and low performing students across the country.

With the current Covid-19 case counts at record levels, the threat of cold weather further escalating the situation in the fall, and the recent research published that shows how kids and schools are likely vectors of transmission, it's likely that your school's doors are shut.

While we all hope things reopen soon, families still need to act, so many are organizing Pod Schools as a way to better cope with the situation.

Pod Schools are when a group of families comes together to hire a full-time teacher, so their children can continue with their education even while the crisis rages.

Although many people can't afford the top echelon $100k+ Pod School experience, there are a ton of benefits of pod-based learning, which is why we wanted to share the concept of Pod After School. It's Pod School Light. Pod School for Everyone. And it could really help.

What is Pod After School?

Pods After School is a collection of families that care about their kids, and their safety, and come together to help create a positive learning environment that is a fixed part of the day.

It is more than a play date, it's time dedicated to learning and growing up.

This doesn't replace the virtual programming for your school, but adds to it in key ways that will help ensure your child makes as much progress as possible during this difficult time.

Who Needs a Pod After School?

First, let's face it: virtual schooling for young kids just doesn't work. We've gotten a lot better, but there is a reason that before the pandemic, schools were not rapidly becoming virtual.

The needs of young learners are many: social, emotional, physical and mental, and on virtually every front, virtual schooling falls short. While every child could benefit from Pod After School time, it's most important for parents of children that are 4 to 6 years old. Here's why:

• The most important brain development is happening at early ages
• Children are learning the fundamentals of friendship and cooperation
• If your child falls behind, they likely will never catch up

What do you do in Pod After School?

Some day in the distant future, Harvard will publish a list of the scientifically proven elements that work the best to make progress when kids are in a pandemic. But as parents, we need to act now.

Our view of the research is that your best bet is to focus on just a few key fundamentals. The typical Pod After School should last for 2 hours and occur at least three times a week. Here is how to structure each session:

• Meeting: Start off with a structured meeting and describe the plan for the afternoon. For some ideas, check out The Kindergarten Smorgasboard.
• Reading: The most important skill to teach your kids is reading. Hands down. Without this, every other aspect of their education will be harder, both for them and for you. We highly suggest adopting our Home Curriculum as an easy way to have structured lessons related to literacy and reading each day, that can help you make tremendous progress.
• Art: After reading, it's time to take a break and do some coloring. Give the kids some paper and materials (try to vary this up if you can, but a pencil and blank paper is really all they need). Draw objects around you or elements of the story you just read.
• Math: Next, since we've warmed up our brains, shift gears to math and numbers. Khan Academy has fantastic resources to teach young kids everything they need to know and a ton more.
• Open Play: Lastly, time for some open, imaginative play. Each day, a different child should take the lead and decide what to play. The wilder and crazier the better. Your job here is to run with it. To help the kids explore ideas, work together, and have some fun!

The goal is clear: don't let our kids fall behind. Pod After School is a low-cost alternative to the expensive Pod Schools that can help you give the best possible path forward for your kids.

Who should be the teacher?

If you follow the structure above, Pod After School isn't really hard to manage. While you could, of course, hire a teacher, here are some no-cost options and advice on how to Pod After School for free:

• A Good Kid: When kids teach kids, everyone wins. Some of the best private schools in the US rely heavily on the idea that older students should work with and mentor the younger ones.
  The age gap between the two needs to be at least 5 years, and there should be an adult nearby to help supervise.
  The older child acts as the leader for a part of the session, taking the burden off the parent/grandparent. In the process, the older kids learn a lot of great skills too!
• Rotated Parent Responsibility: This approach is a little harder to organize, but sometimes it's necessary to split the role of teacher across at least two parents in a pod. The key is consistency.
  If you are rotating the Pod Leader role, be sure to be as consistent as you can with the other aspects of the Pod After School.
• Dedicated Parent Leader: Many, many parents are now looking at this as an option for full Pod Schools, but with Pod After School it is possible for a single parent to manage 3-5 children quite easily.
  The Pod should be respectful of the effort and time required and find small ways to show support and appreciation for the effort.

Is Pod After School Safe?

Right now, the safest thing to do is to listen to your doctor and to the health leaders in our community, to social distance, and to wear a mask.

For those still reading, you know that doing all this has costs and benefits that only you can weigh. They are different for every family and different in different parts of the country.

We wanted to talk about Pod After School because the costs of this pandemic are not just physical, they are also economic and social, with the impact on children's education being high.

We are not doctors or health professionals, but as you think about how to make your pod as safe as possible, please follow a few basic guidelines:

• Wash Hands: On arrival, everyone should wash their hands.
• Go Outside: If inside, be sure to find a space big enough that you can social distance.
• Wear Masks: From day one, every child should get a mask that is the same, which helps create a strong community around mask wearing.
• Talk to Parents: Keep in close communication with the parents about potential symptoms in the children or the family.
• Watch the News: Keep a close eye on community transmission levels in your area.

For those looking for more information, check out this article from Edutopia with more ideas on creating a safe learning environment.

Conclusion

In a way, nothing has changed. We have always known that small class sizes with great dedicated teachers lead to great results (like in expensive Pod School programs).

Pod After School is a low-cost alternative to these programs, that can still yield a lot of the benefits, especially when using top-tier program like our TIPS™ Home Curriculum to drive the education side of things.

This is not an ideal world and these are far from ideal times, but we do hope that some of the ideas here help you band together with a few families and find a way through this pandemic.

How we act now will greatly impact the future for our kids, so good luck!