đ¤ The 3 decisions you need to make for fall.
We breakdown the options everyone's talking about: pods, homeschool and microschools and help you figure out what's right for you.
Right now, September is scary. There are a lot of things we donât know and without certainty on things as fundamental to working parents as daycares and school, weâre living in constant anxiety.  Thereâs a lot of information out there, but itâs hard to wade through and figure out what makes the most sense for your family.
We all want the same things - safe, effective ways for our kids to continue their development, while preserving our ability to have reliable childcare for the next year and minimize COVID related risk. So weâve made it easier to wade through all of the options, informations and commentary.
đĄFundamentally, there are 3 decisions for you to make:
To Pod or Not To Pod: Decide if youâd like to create a Pod, where you join forces with ~2-4 other families to share the schooling, childcare and general family-ing load. Pods can be an everyday thing or just an âin a pinchâ thing. Theyâll be a critical new social structure where weâre each otherâs safety nets.
âĄď¸We have resources to help you create your pod here.
2. Curriculum choices: If the Pod is for schooling purposes, you need to pick where the curriculum is coming from:
- a) Choosing your existing school via 100% remote option keeps legal requirements and enrollment simple (more on this below)
OR
- b) you can choose a Homeschooling curriculum where you need to pull your kids out of existing school and take on legal responsibility for their learning, but have more flexibility in schedules and learning options.
3. Teachers, tutors and nannies, oh my! Finally, you need to decide who will be primarily supporting the Pod from a childcare/tech support/lesson delivery POV - the most cost effective is to rotate between Pod parents but other options include hiring a teacher/nanny to help deliver the public/private school assignments or the homeschooling curriculum (which then is considered a Microschool).
To give a bit more detail behind 3 of the concepts mentioned - Pods, Homeschooling, and Microschools - here are the basics and the considerations of each to further arm you .
đđ˝The Options
đ Pods
Truly a post-pandemic concept, the idea is to form a small âpodâ with 2-4 other families with similar risk tolerance, close proximity and age of kids and same school (or schooling philosophy). At the highest level, Pods create the ability to be each otherâs safety net and to share the load of the next year among many shoulders.
These pods can really be whatever you want/need them to be but prioritize having the same objective across the Pod (eg. optimizing for kidsâ schooling or childcare for working parents).
A key benefit is that, as mentioned, you can choose your current schoolâs curriculum under a 100% remote option and either take turns in leading the podsâ kids through it each day or hiring a tutor/nanny to deliver the content and possibly also supplement with other extracurricular programs. This preserves your enrollment at the school and doesnât require you to figure out the legal ramifications of the next year.
Key considerations:
Identify your primary reason for creating a pod and optimize around that (Eg. if itâs for schooling, consider creating a pod with friends from the same school class, especially if youâll be doing the remote option.)
Be very clear around the levels of risk youâre comfortable with or that your family can bear (eg. if are higher risk, consider a stricter pod with only one other family)
From a cost standpoint, it can be what you need it to be - from just the labor of different parents taking turns to splitting the cost of a nanny and extracurricular activities, which could run $1-2+K/month each.
How To Pod in 3 steps:
đđ˝Right Pod: Pod up with others of the a) same risk tolerance profile and b) same priorities as your family.
đPod Agreement: Create an agreement that clearly and transparently shares expectations around outside of pod interactions and in-pod responsibilities and norms.
đĽShared Dash: Create a shared document to manage schedules and responsibilities
âĄď¸If youâd like help in creating your pod, check out our How To Pod site that helps you with the Compatibility Quiz, Pod Pact builder and Shared Dash.
đĄ Homeschool
Parents take on the role and responsibilities to educate the kids at home instead of having public/private schools play that role. There are lots of flexibility benefits as there are a wide range of teaching philosophies and parents are able to construct a day that doesnât need to be tied to the 9am-3pm default. But itâs also a lot of responsibility to take on, especially if youâre expecting to be only doing it for the next school year.
Check out the homeschooling options in your state. Also check out Primer and Prisma - two bold new pushes into what homeschooling can be.
Key considerations:
Homeschooling means the parents are legally responsible to the state for the childâs learning (eg. youâre not able to hire a tutor/teacher to deliver the homeschool curriculum - that puts it into microschool territory)
Depending on your state, there are a variety of steps parents need to take to withdraw from school and meet the learning requirements.
Costs can range from very little if you rent/borrow curriculum and are frugal with materials to over $800/mo for some of the newer options like Prisma (this doesnât count the labor of the parent delivering the content)
What does it mean to be legally responsible? Read more here (it varies by state), but at a high level, it can mean a combination of: notifying your school district about your intent to homeschool, testing, and providing records of attendance, test results, work products etc.
đ¨âđ§âđŚ Microschools
Sort of a new take on the one-room schoolhouse where a "teacher guide" leads the learning for a group of 5-10 kids. They usually take place in a community location and the curriculum can be customized based on a variety of learning models. Benefits include getting the flexibility of homeschooling but more of the socialization of traditional school.
This is what a lot of parents are talking about right now (eg. hiring a teacher to deliver a homeschool curriculum) but beware of who is legally responsible for the educational outcomes - in many cases it will be the parents, as it is with Homeschooling, in a version of a âHomeschool Coopâ.
If youâd like to further explore this, some options that fit this type are Prenda, SchoolHouse and Learning Pods.
Key considerations:
If you're exploring this option, make sure to check the school is legal/registered with the state and meets the needs for your kids to hit the necessary schooling requirements. Â
If youâre the legally responsible party, be sure to periodically check in that the curriculum and learning outcomes match up to your kidsâ grade level expectations.
Many of the companies will help you find a pod and teacher and support you throughout the year so it can be a great turnkey solution.
For costs, while youâre sharing across 3-8 families, because youâre paying for the space and the teacher, options will be more expensive - from $1500/mo to over $4000/mo.
đ¤ Core Questions:
To figure out the best options for you and your family, think about:
What is best for overall health (considering physical, mental, and social/emotional health) of the whole family?
What are the work/childcare needs to make next year work for your family most sustainably?
Who are you most comfortable with having legal responsibility for your childâs learning: school, parent, teacher?
What is safest, considering COVID, but also considering unregulated spaces/homes?
What is the cost and can you afford it?
There are no easy answers but hopefully but arming you with the information you need can help you make the hard but right decisions for your family.