Might be time up pandemic pod how to#

In Pasadena, Calif., Marina Jurica, a commentator and storyteller at NASA’s Jet-Propulsion Laboratory, took some proactive steps to form her family’s pod with two coworkers’ families - who also happen to have third-graders in her son’s private school. It’s lucky that the boys were already living near each other and eager to hang out, but they wouldn’t have reached this more unified pod status if their parents hadn’t proactively communicated with each other about what to do next. “Our kids are kind of growing up together through this.

“We’ve become good friends as a part of this experience, and we’ve all hung out social-distancing-style and had barbecues and things like that,” Travis said. Rather than hire anyone to help them with their work, they’ll help each other out.ĭash Travis (second from right) and his friends play socially distanced D&D. It seemed natural that they would stick together for the fall, with the addition of a couple of Dash’s cousins. Gradually, Travis said the three families have become closer and decided to allow their kids at each other’s houses, and the masks have come down. They also signed up for Outschool classes in subjects like improv and horror writing together, so they could interact online in classes. When stay-at-home orders first began in the spring, Dash and his friends would play socially distanced Dungeons & Dragons in their driveway, wearing masks. “Once the school notified us that they were going to do the fully remote model, we decided we’d get the kids together to do group learning in different houses during the week.” “We’ve got his small little clan of friends that went to his same school last year that he’s been playing with all summer,” Juliet Travis, a marketing and PR exec, told SheKnows of her 12-year-old son Dash and two neighborhood friends, who live in Hillsboro, Ore.

Might be time up pandemic pod how to#

We spoke to two podding parents, a teacher, and the CEO of a micro-school platform to gather a few key tips for how to join forces with other families in a way that can benefit children while keeping everyone safe and happy. There even are some ways to make them absolutely free. Pods probably won’t solve all our pandemic childcare woes, nor do they have to destroy the fabric of our society. Pods are what rich, white elitists do to tear down the public school system and make the wealth gap permanent! Then, as is the way of trendy things, came a swift backlash. How will our kids even survive without one?

“Podding” and “micro-schools” became the buzziest of buzzwords, and we began to think we were behind if we hadn’t formed our own yet. Fast-forward to mid-July, when school districts began to send parents into a panic, either because they’re opening schools or because they’re not.