Experience with Outschool? iD Tech Camps?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have experience with either of these? They are constantly popping up on my FB feed. Outschools seems to have a huge library of classes. I’m on a very limited budget and don’t want to sign up for some BS. I’m afraid to even click on Outschools for fear I’ll get even more marketing ads.

DS, 11 struggles with independent reading and socializing, loves Roblox. Starting middle school next year and I’m really afraid with him creating friend groups. Outschools has several programs that seem to help.

iD Tech is extremely expensive but sounds really fun.

Right now we aren’t doing anything this summer, so I’m trying to pull something out of a hat these last few weeks.

I appreciate any recommendations. We are in Ashburn area.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

My kid did a few Outschool things several years ago (Minecraft, I think rather than Roblox, and maybe some other coding-type stuff).

They were fine, he enjoyed them. Nothing sketchy and the "instructors" were decent with kids. They were offered at random times, but it seemed to be most fun when he joined on a consistent schedule (say, Wednesdays at 4p) so he'd be playing with the same kids.

[Anonymous]

The IDTech camp was terrible according to my son who took it a few years back.

Outschool classes were ok, and at least didn't cost that much if they were not great.

[Anonymous]

Outschool is reasonable priced and you can read through the reviews. We have had good to great experiences, but never “bad”. We did a ton during Covid

[Anonymous]

My son really enjoyed D&D classes through outschool during covid. The more academic classes were disappointing.

[Anonymous]

We've had really good luck with Outschool classes - read the reviews to find a good one. Also they have so many different formats now that it can be very confusing, so just read those carefully.

[Anonymous]

My NT kid did ID tech. It was fine. Not as interesting as he would have hoped. If money was tight I would not recommend it.

It seemed to me that some of the staff were on the spectrum which led me to believe they were likely a welcoming program.

[Anonymous]

We have done Outschool. I agree with the PP who said "good to great but never bad.". Just read the reviews, don't pre buy a bunch of classes, it's pretty inexpensive just to try a single class.

For the socialization, does your library have any free programs? Sometimes libraries have supervised games or activities. Also check out game or hobby shops for their programs.

[Anonymous]

My kids have done academic classes thru Outschool and they were really good! I picked the ones with good reviews, so that helps!

My neurodiverse son has been doing a social Warhammer class weekly for a year. He loves it, it’s just for fun since he loves Warhammer.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all! I’m going to give Outschools a try.

[Anonymous]

We do a lot of Outschool. Mostly great, occasionally a dud. The nice part is if it doesn’t work after 1 session you cancel. It’s between $15-25/per class.

A lot of ND kids are on it. It’s a safe space to explore special interests.

[Anonymous]

My kid did not like ID Tech. Food on AU campus was terrible, gained weight, which was not his norm. Had kids of all ages in one room, although it was clear they had other rooms the staff was going in and out of and used for themselves.