How many families are in pods?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a work at home parent with a husband who is increasingly going back to work on site. We considered a pod because last Spring’s school at home was pretty untenable. But now that we have been back at it for 2 days in APS, I don’t see how a pod could be helpful except for parent who can’t work from home. If the kids aren’t in the same class, you’ll have 4 kidsbon headphones having completely separate experiences and talking over one another while the tutor hangs back and only participates when there are problems. Where is the benefit in that except for parents who are completely absent? (I’m not saying that sarcastically, but rather in a “please explain” kind of way.)

Ding. Ding. Ding. Not everyone can tele-loaf.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay I’ll play. I podded up for 3rd grade. We have four kids total in pod and we hired someone to teach them every day from 8.30-1pm. The cost is split evenly among the parents.

For me it came down to the following:

- I suspect my 3rd grader may be ADD; or at very least she gets a tremendous joy by not listening to me . In all seriousness, she’s high energy and does poorly sitting in front of a screen all day, often declaring “I’m bored” ten minutes into school.
- Getting any work done during those hours is next to impossible because she requires essentially constant attention and redirection.
- I do think she’s learning her social skills from the likes of YouTube, roblox, Minecraft, or whatever - which isn’t great to say the least. Lots of 15 year old kids typing all sorta of stuff on there. The screen time is rotting the brain but I’m sympathetic to the fact that all her friends are on these games (so she sees it as the only kind of socializing she can have). It seemed like a pod could provide some limited normalcy again.
- We sought out parents with similar risk profiles and we all took covid tests before day one.
- Mentally all the kids seem to really benefit from having a teacher and packing a lunch, etc. It’s a bit like why they say to get up and get dressed for work even if you are at home - helps shift the mindset.

I feel incredibly snobby having a pod, but my kid is doing so much better with this than they did with me trying to manage things at home on my own, juggling work, school, lunch, etc. It makes me happy to see my daughter happy. Obviously if she or I get covid and die, this will have been quite the mistake, but then the only real alternative is to stay in strict lockdown for another year or more.

May the hate start.

That was so incredibly helpful. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Can I ask a few follow-up questions? Did you pull your kids out of school or are you technically still enrolled and doing what is required for attendance purposes? Are you willing to share the cost for the teaching resource? Can you share anything about how you went about finding the teacher? Thanks for any additional info you are willing to share.

We stayed in school. It’s more like a tutor / supervisor with some extra help on top. The cost is $1200 a family. We got super lucky on finding someone. I happen to be friends with a retired DCPS teacher who knew someone who didn’t want to go back this year due to covid. We basically guaranteed the job for the year to make it work financially (understandably our teacher wasn’t okay not going back to DCPS for what might be a 1 or 2 month job).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a work at home parent with a husband who is increasingly going back to work on site. We considered a pod because last Spring’s school at home was pretty untenable. But now that we have been back at it for 2 days in APS, I don’t see how a pod could be helpful except for parent who can’t work from home. If the kids aren’t in the same class, you’ll have 4 kidsbon headphones having completely separate experiences and talking over one another while the tutor hangs back and only participates when there are problems. Where is the benefit in that except for parents who are completely absent? (I’m not saying that sarcastically, but rather in a “please explain” kind of way.)

I imagine you pod with students in your kid’s classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay I’ll play. I podded up for 3rd grade. We have four kids total in pod and we hired someone to teach them every day from 8.30-1pm. The cost is split evenly among the parents.

For me it came down to the following:

- I suspect my 3rd grader may be ADD; or at very least she gets a tremendous joy by not listening to me . In all seriousness, she’s high energy and does poorly sitting in front of a screen all day, often declaring “I’m bored” ten minutes into school.
- Getting any work done during those hours is next to impossible because she requires essentially constant attention and redirection.
- I do think she’s learning her social skills from the likes of YouTube, roblox, Minecraft, or whatever - which isn’t great to say the least. Lots of 15 year old kids typing all sorta of stuff on there. The screen time is rotting the brain but I’m sympathetic to the fact that all her friends are on these games (so she sees it as the only kind of socializing she can have). It seemed like a pod could provide some limited normalcy again.
- We sought out parents with similar risk profiles and we all took covid tests before day one.
- Mentally all the kids seem to really benefit from having a teacher and packing a lunch, etc. It’s a bit like why they say to get up and get dressed for work even if you are at home - helps shift the mindset.

I feel incredibly snobby having a pod, but my kid is doing so much better with this than they did with me trying to manage things at home on my own, juggling work, school, lunch, etc. It makes me happy to see my daughter happy. Obviously if she or I get covid and die, this will have been quite the mistake, but then the only real alternative is to stay in strict lockdown for another year or more.

May the hate start.

That was so incredibly helpful. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Can I ask a few follow-up questions? Did you pull your kids out of school or are you technically still enrolled and doing what is required for attendance purposes? Are you willing to share the cost for the teaching resource? Can you share anything about how you went about finding the teacher? Thanks for any additional info you are willing to share.

We stayed in school. It’s more like a tutor / supervisor with some extra help on top. The cost is $1200 a family. We got super lucky on finding someone. I happen to be friends with a retired DCPS teacher who knew someone who didn’t want to go back this year due to covid. We basically guaranteed the job for the year to make it work financially (understandably our teacher wasn’t okay not going back to DCPS for what might be a 1 or 2 month job).

Is it $1,200/week or /month? What are you going to do if your kids go back to school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay I’ll play. I podded up for 3rd grade. We have four kids total in pod and we hired someone to teach them every day from 8.30-1pm. The cost is split evenly among the parents.

For me it came down to the following:

- I suspect my 3rd grader may be ADD; or at very least she gets a tremendous joy by not listening to me . In all seriousness, she’s high energy and does poorly sitting in front of a screen all day, often declaring “I’m bored” ten minutes into school.
- Getting any work done during those hours is next to impossible because she requires essentially constant attention and redirection.
- I do think she’s learning her social skills from the likes of YouTube, roblox, Minecraft, or whatever - which isn’t great to say the least. Lots of 15 year old kids typing all sorta of stuff on there. The screen time is rotting the brain but I’m sympathetic to the fact that all her friends are on these games (so she sees it as the only kind of socializing she can have). It seemed like a pod could provide some limited normalcy again.
- We sought out parents with similar risk profiles and we all took covid tests before day one.
- Mentally all the kids seem to really benefit from having a teacher and packing a lunch, etc. It’s a bit like why they say to get up and get dressed for work even if you are at home - helps shift the mindset.

I feel incredibly snobby having a pod, but my kid is doing so much better with this than they did with me trying to manage things at home on my own, juggling work, school, lunch, etc. It makes me happy to see my daughter happy. Obviously if she or I get covid and die, this will have been quite the mistake, but then the only real alternative is to stay in strict lockdown for another year or more.

May the hate start.

That was so incredibly helpful. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Can I ask a few follow-up questions? Did you pull your kids out of school or are you technically still enrolled and doing what is required for attendance purposes? Are you willing to share the cost for the teaching resource? Can you share anything about how you went about finding the teacher? Thanks for any additional info you are willing to share.

We stayed in school. It’s more like a tutor / supervisor with some extra help on top. The cost is $1200 a family. We got super lucky on finding someone. I happen to be friends with a retired DCPS teacher who knew someone who didn’t want to go back this year due to covid. We basically guaranteed the job for the year to make it work financially (understandably our teacher wasn’t okay not going back to DCPS for what might be a 1 or 2 month job).

Is it $1,200/week or /month? What are you going to do if your kids go back to school?

Month.

I’m not so worried about kids going back to school before January. It seems really unlikely, and frankly, even if they did, we’d probably push to opt out. Going back right as Thanksgiving and Christmas break occur during basically peak flu season, it just seems not so good of an idea. And having this setup gives us the privilege of choice.

Post January, I think it’s possible to go back. If that happens I suppose this person becomes an overpaid after school tutor or homework supervisor. It’s a risk I got comfortable accepting. Id day it’s equally likely we open and then close again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay I’ll play. I podded up for 3rd grade. We have four kids total in pod and we hired someone to teach them every day from 8.30-1pm. The cost is split evenly among the parents.

For me it came down to the following:

- I suspect my 3rd grader may be ADD; or at very least she gets a tremendous joy by not listening to me . In all seriousness, she’s high energy and does poorly sitting in front of a screen all day, often declaring “I’m bored” ten minutes into school.
- Getting any work done during those hours is next to impossible because she requires essentially constant attention and redirection.
- I do think she’s learning her social skills from the likes of YouTube, roblox, Minecraft, or whatever - which isn’t great to say the least. Lots of 15 year old kids typing all sorta of stuff on there. The screen time is rotting the brain but I’m sympathetic to the fact that all her friends are on these games (so she sees it as the only kind of socializing she can have). It seemed like a pod could provide some limited normalcy again.
- We sought out parents with similar risk profiles and we all took covid tests before day one.
- Mentally all the kids seem to really benefit from having a teacher and packing a lunch, etc. It’s a bit like why they say to get up and get dressed for work even if you are at home - helps shift the mindset.

I feel incredibly snobby having a pod, but my kid is doing so much better with this than they did with me trying to manage things at home on my own, juggling work, school, lunch, etc. It makes me happy to see my daughter happy. Obviously if she or I get covid and die, this will have been quite the mistake, but then the only real alternative is to stay in strict lockdown for another year or more.

May the hate start.

That was so incredibly helpful. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Can I ask a few follow-up questions? Did you pull your kids out of school or are you technically still enrolled and doing what is required for attendance purposes? Are you willing to share the cost for the teaching resource? Can you share anything about how you went about finding the teacher? Thanks for any additional info you are willing to share.

We stayed in school. It’s more like a tutor / supervisor with some extra help on top. The cost is $1200 a family. We got super lucky on finding someone. I happen to be friends with a retired DCPS teacher who knew someone who didn’t want to go back this year due to covid. We basically guaranteed the job for the year to make it work financially (understandably our teacher wasn’t okay not going back to DCPS for what might be a 1 or 2 month job).

Is it $1,200/week or /month? What are you going to do if your kids go back to school?

Month.

I’m not so worried about kids going back to school before January. It seems really unlikely, and frankly, even if they did, we’d probably push to opt out. Going back right as Thanksgiving and Christmas break occur during basically peak flu season, it just seems not so good of an idea. And having this setup gives us the privilege of choice.

Post January, I think it’s possible to go back. If that happens I suppose this person becomes an overpaid after school tutor or homework supervisor. It’s a risk I got comfortable accepting. Id day it’s equally likely we open and then close again.

Just wanted to chime in to say "thank you" again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay I’ll play. I podded up for 3rd grade. We have four kids total in pod and we hired someone to teach them every day from 8.30-1pm. The cost is split evenly among the parents.

For me it came down to the following:

- I suspect my 3rd grader may be ADD; or at very least she gets a tremendous joy by not listening to me . In all seriousness, she’s high energy and does poorly sitting in front of a screen all day, often declaring “I’m bored” ten minutes into school.
- Getting any work done during those hours is next to impossible because she requires essentially constant attention and redirection.
- I do think she’s learning her social skills from the likes of YouTube, roblox, Minecraft, or whatever - which isn’t great to say the least. Lots of 15 year old kids typing all sorta of stuff on there. The screen time is rotting the brain but I’m sympathetic to the fact that all her friends are on these games (so she sees it as the only kind of socializing she can have). It seemed like a pod could provide some limited normalcy again.
- We sought out parents with similar risk profiles and we all took covid tests before day one.
- Mentally all the kids seem to really benefit from having a teacher and packing a lunch, etc. It’s a bit like why they say to get up and get dressed for work even if you are at home - helps shift the mindset.

I feel incredibly snobby having a pod, but my kid is doing so much better with this than they did with me trying to manage things at home on my own, juggling work, school, lunch, etc. It makes me happy to see my daughter happy. Obviously if she or I get covid and die, this will have been quite the mistake, but then the only real alternative is to stay in strict lockdown for another year or more.

May the hate start.

That was so incredibly helpful. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Can I ask a few follow-up questions? Did you pull your kids out of school or are you technically still enrolled and doing what is required for attendance purposes? Are you willing to share the cost for the teaching resource? Can you share anything about how you went about finding the teacher? Thanks for any additional info you are willing to share.

We stayed in school. It’s more like a tutor / supervisor with some extra help on top. The cost is $1200 a family. We got super lucky on finding someone. I happen to be friends with a retired DCPS teacher who knew someone who didn’t want to go back this year due to covid. We basically guaranteed the job for the year to make it work financially (understandably our teacher wasn’t okay not going back to DCPS for what might be a 1 or 2 month job).

Is it $1,200/week or /month? What are you going to do if your kids go back to school?

Month.

I’m not so worried about kids going back to school before January. It seems really unlikely, and frankly, even if they did, we’d probably push to opt out. Going back right as Thanksgiving and Christmas break occur during basically peak flu season, it just seems not so good of an idea. And having this setup gives us the privilege of choice.

Post January, I think it’s possible to go back. If that happens I suppose this person becomes an overpaid after school tutor or homework supervisor. It’s a risk I got comfortable accepting. Id day it’s equally likely we open and then close again.

Thanks for answering my question. It's not a bad deal. $12,000 for the school year to keep your job that I'm sure pays much more. Plus your kid gets some in person socialization. Given the lack of actual preparations to reopen, I think that unfortunately our chances of going back this year don't look very good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a work at home parent with a husband who is increasingly going back to work on site. We considered a pod because last Spring’s school at home was pretty untenable. But now that we have been back at it for 2 days in APS, I don’t see how a pod could be helpful except for parent who can’t work from home. If the kids aren’t in the same class, you’ll have 4 kidsbon headphones having completely separate experiences and talking over one another while the tutor hangs back and only participates when there are problems. Where is the benefit in that except for parents who are completely absent? (I’m not saying that sarcastically, but rather in a “please explain” kind of way.)

I imagine you pod with students in your kid’s classroom.

Okay, but no kids are in the same class with one another all day long. I have this image of five kids with headphones on sitting around a table in different classes conducting wholly different conversations, kind of like a kid-run telemarketing firm. I understand the benefit of having an adult around and certainly of being around other kids, but not of doing this and staying in your school and attending “class” separately around 4 other kids. I think that would be really confusing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a work at home parent with a husband who is increasingly going back to work on site. We considered a pod because last Spring’s school at home was pretty untenable. But now that we have been back at it for 2 days in APS, I don’t see how a pod could be helpful except for parent who can’t work from home. If the kids aren’t in the same class, you’ll have 4 kidsbon headphones having completely separate experiences and talking over one another while the tutor hangs back and only participates when there are problems. Where is the benefit in that except for parents who are completely absent? (I’m not saying that sarcastically, but rather in a “please explain” kind of way.)

I imagine you pod with students in your kid’s classroom.

Okay, but no kids are in the same class with one another all day long. I have this image of five kids with headphones on sitting around a table in different classes conducting wholly different conversations, kind of like a kid-run telemarketing firm. I understand the benefit of having an adult around and certainly of being around other kids, but not of doing this and staying in your school and attending “class” separately around 4 other kids. I think that would be really confusing.

That made me chuckle. Thanks, I needed that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a work at home parent with a husband who is increasingly going back to work on site. We considered a pod because last Spring’s school at home was pretty untenable. But now that we have been back at it for 2 days in APS, I don’t see how a pod could be helpful except for parent who can’t work from home. If the kids aren’t in the same class, you’ll have 4 kidsbon headphones having completely separate experiences and talking over one another while the tutor hangs back and only participates when there are problems. Where is the benefit in that except for parents who are completely absent? (I’m not saying that sarcastically, but rather in a “please explain” kind of way.)

I imagine you pod with students in your kid’s classroom.

Okay, but no kids are in the same class with one another all day long. I have this image of five kids with headphones on sitting around a table in different classes conducting wholly different conversations, kind of like a kid-run telemarketing firm. I understand the benefit of having an adult around and certainly of being around other kids, but not of doing this and staying in your school and attending “class” separately around 4 other kids. I think that would be really confusing.

My friend that has a pod of 3 have kids all in the same class at school. The tutor/sitter helps them all get online, encourages them to participate in class discussions, helps them during asynchronous time, takes them outdoors for biking and activities during asynchronous time and on Wednesdays, and make sure all of their homework is done and turned in on time. So far, its been a great two weeks. They pay the person about $30/hour collectively. It’s a college student that is doing their coursework online. Seems like a win-win all around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a work at home parent with a husband who is increasingly going back to work on site. We considered a pod because last Spring’s school at home was pretty untenable. But now that we have been back at it for 2 days in APS, I don’t see how a pod could be helpful except for parent who can’t work from home. If the kids aren’t in the same class, you’ll have 4 kidsbon headphones having completely separate experiences and talking over one another while the tutor hangs back and only participates when there are problems. Where is the benefit in that except for parents who are completely absent? (I’m not saying that sarcastically, but rather in a “please explain” kind of way.)

I imagine you pod with students in your kid’s classroom.

Okay, but no kids are in the same class with one another all day long. I have this image of five kids with headphones on sitting around a table in different classes conducting wholly different conversations, kind of like a kid-run telemarketing firm. I understand the benefit of having an adult around and certainly of being around other kids, but not of doing this and staying in your school and attending “class” separately around 4 other kids. I think that would be really confusing.

That made me chuckle. Thanks, I needed that.

We have 3 first graders doing this together. They are online at the same time but with different teachers and because they are in the same grade and schools, they have the same recorded content and lessons. So, they can do offline work together. Ideal? No. Did it allow the six adults with full time jobs to keep them? Yes.

[Anonymous]

Good for you. Same deal with 3 5th graders and a 3rd grader at our house. We pay a recent college grad to spend the day helping them and keeping them on task. Big relief.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a work at home parent with a husband who is increasingly going back to work on site. We considered a pod because last Spring’s school at home was pretty untenable. But now that we have been back at it for 2 days in APS, I don’t see how a pod could be helpful except for parent who can’t work from home. If the kids aren’t in the same class, you’ll have 4 kidsbon headphones having completely separate experiences and talking over one another while the tutor hangs back and only participates when there are problems. Where is the benefit in that except for parents who are completely absent? (I’m not saying that sarcastically, but rather in a “please explain” kind of way.)

I imagine you pod with students in your kid’s classroom.

Okay, but no kids are in the same class with one another all day long. I have this image of five kids with headphones on sitting around a table in different classes conducting wholly different conversations, kind of like a kid-run telemarketing firm. I understand the benefit of having an adult around and certainly of being around other kids, but not of doing this and staying in your school and attending “class” separately around 4 other kids. I think that would be really confusing.

My friend that has a pod of 3 have kids all in the same class at school. The tutor/sitter helps them all get online, encourages them to participate in class discussions, helps them during asynchronous time, takes them outdoors for biking and activities during asynchronous time and on Wednesdays, and make sure all of their homework is done and turned in on time. So far, its been a great two weeks. They pay the person about $30/hour collectively. It’s a college student that is doing their coursework online. Seems like a win-win all around.

We live on Capitol Hill where many families are making this sort of arrangement. Most of us seem to have given up keeping it under wraps. The kids know who's paired up from class Zoom meetings. No biggie.

[Anonymous]

Also on Cap Hill and a lot of families we know aren’t podding, but just kind of socializing, sharing child care and play dates with whoever, kind of like pre-Covid. We’re more risk adverse and my kids are jealous of friends they know are having regular play dates, etc. We miss it, too, but I’m just not comfortable with that more relaxed approach. Finding a family with our risk tolerance was hard. Trying to work something out now to lighten the load.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a work at home parent with a husband who is increasingly going back to work on site. We considered a pod because last Spring’s school at home was pretty untenable. But now that we have been back at it for 2 days in APS, I don’t see how a pod could be helpful except for parent who can’t work from home. If the kids aren’t in the same class, you’ll have 4 kidsbon headphones having completely separate experiences and talking over one another while the tutor hangs back and only participates when there are problems. Where is the benefit in that except for parents who are completely absent? (I’m not saying that sarcastically, but rather in a “please explain” kind of way.)

I imagine you pod with students in your kid’s classroom.

Okay, but no kids are in the same class with one another all day long. I have this image of five kids with headphones on sitting around a table in different classes conducting wholly different conversations, kind of like a kid-run telemarketing firm. I understand the benefit of having an adult around and certainly of being around other kids, but not of doing this and staying in your school and attending “class” separately around 4 other kids. I think that would be really confusing.

My friend that has a pod of 3 have kids all in the same class at school. The tutor/sitter helps them all get online, encourages them to participate in class discussions, helps them during asynchronous time, takes them outdoors for biking and activities during asynchronous time and on Wednesdays, and make sure all of their homework is done and turned in on time. So far, its been a great two weeks. They pay the person about $30/hour collectively. It’s a college student that is doing their coursework online. Seems like a win-win all around.

This is very similar to our "pod", which is just my 4th grader and another 4th grader. They are in the same homeroom, and so far the small group work hasn't been an issue. They each do the bulk of their live instruction at their respective homes in the morning, and then the pod up in the afternoon and on the asynchronous day for their small group work, independent work, specials and an afternoon break. It gives my kid, who has been sad and bordering on depressed for months, the socialization kids need, and exposure to another grownup who he actually wants to listen to. I can say that after two weeks, my kid is thriving in a way I haven't seen in months, and is so much nicer and happier.