What are some options for children, during the pandemic, other than in-school or remote learning?

Skip these periods of online learning altogether (they last no more than a week or two to six, I guess), and let them play and learn on their own (with guidance and support, if needed).
I feel their brains are still so absorbant that they’ll pick it up once the offline schools are back at it again.
Plus, (outside) playing, at least where I live/what I (don’t) witness, wouldn’t hurt anyway.
Children can use some extra play time, is my opinion.
Not to mention (team-) sports/fitness/gymnastics

It’s basically forcing people to home school, and some people are horrible at that. I had a girlfriend who home schooled her kids at a time when I was working towards my degree in education. Her idea of “teaching” was to stick a workbook in front of the girls then talk on the phone.

I agree with @rebbel but I’d prefer some structure. Take them to the fire station, a museum…anything that’s outside of their every day life.

Home-schooling and home-schooling networks.

Since school shootings have become so common in the last few decades, homeschooling has become a viable, organized, alternative. There are countless groups out there that can offer advice and support. In a non-pandemic world, the options are, obviously, greatly enhanced, but it’s still a reasonable option. There are really wonderful curricula out there that can guide just about any parent through the process successfully.

I did it only for one grade, but friends took their kids completely through secondary school, and they went on to graduate with college degrees.

But homeschooling presents the same issues as remote learning for working parents. It pre-supposes that a parent is around to teach.

I do understand that there are plenty of good reasons why parents do choose to home school although it was never an option that I wanted for my kids.

It does present issues, but it is an alternative. I kind of feel that the child care issue is a whole nother th8ng that needs t9 be addressed.

I wish my DIL took me up on my offer to teach the kids.

Early on, I heard of families joining a “pod” together and sharing the cost of hiring a teacher.

^^^^ That’s a good idea.

Homeschooling. I have a few friends who homeschooled they’re kids before covid. Some of them their kids eventually switched to in-school. Actually, two people I know the kids started in either public or private school and switched to homeschooling. Again, way before covid.

One friend of mine I know she homeschooled her kids, but still gave her kids tests to check what level they were at or something like that. She works from home part-time.

As mentioned by other jellies above parents can form homeschooling pods, or for some classes go to another mom or someone who tutors. Like maybe one parent helps with math, another with Spanish.

Older kids, if they are self motivated can do a lot on their own with online classes.

Some states regulate homeschooling more than others.

Some classes you need a classroom. Science labs would be an example.

I’ll send this Q to yarnlady.

The problem with home schooling is most parents can’t separate their teacher role from their parent roll. The kids know where their buttons are, too.

^^^ Not necessarily so. I found that the majority of parents had worked out those issues very carefully so that the kids would have the best possible outcome. In Colorado, at the time, we had to give the kids monitored tests periodically.

The only person I’ve ever known homeschooled for religious reasons. She didn’t interact with them much at all.

Most people I know who homeschooled their kids had college degrees, some masters degrees, and some were religious and some weren’t. None of them were extremely religious trying to completely shelter their children, but some did worry about the bad influences in school. Pretty much all of them were ok with letting their children choose to go to school, although one took her son out of private school in the 11th grade, because the dean was terrible to the kid, and she had a bad preconception of public schools. She now regrets not letting her son go to public school.

One thing about the religious people is they already had a network and information about homeschooling a long time ago before there was so much on the internet. A couple of my girlfriends were doing it 25 years ago. That made the possibility of homeschooling easier for people who were connected through religion, even if they were not uber religious themselves. Now, lots of people homeschool from the very religious to atheists and the information on how to go about doing it is much more available.

One of my friends who homeschooled two of her three kids all the way from K-12 said that parents that have to do a lot of homework with their kids are homeschooling their children. She said her school day with the kids is much shorter than a typical school day and she doesn’t have the fights after school to get the children to do homework. She wasn’t saying her kids are always perfectly cooperative, but I think she was saying both situations have some trying times, but at least the kids are not doing 10 hours of school and if they do better starting the day at 10:00am instead of 8:00am, it’s no problem. Plus, you can vacation any time of year that is good for the parents.

I think I would have struggled in homeschool, and I know my mom could not have done it, but regular school had some big negatives for me. My sister wishes she had had the option.

I have a lot of experience homeschooling, from my son, 20 years ago, to my older set of grandkids, 15 years ago to my current two grandkids. We did it all on our own back then, but now there are many excellent online programs.
The great thing about online schools is you can “go to school” anytime, day or night, making it perfect for working parents.
The student can take classes anytime they want. They can also retake any lessons they didn’t understand.
We have been using Horizon Charter School, a public school, and they have agreements with Edgenuity, Acellus, and Kahn academy. We have used each one over the years, and are very pleased.
If the parents contact the company directly, they have to pay tuition (except Kahn Academy),but through the charter school, they are paid using public school funds.
The charter school has several different choices to meet the needs of students, including in person classes, online classes, or a mix. If you are interested, contact me.

It might depend on age. I heard that little kids don’t learn as well online. They seemed to need interaction with the teacher and their friends to do well.

My daughters were older during the original shut down. The older one finished her second year of college online well enough, although professors had various ways to compensate for possible cheating (harder tests or requiring laptop cameras to be trained on students’ hands during tests). The younger one finished the senior year of her high school fairly well. But Prom was canceled and graduation was a drive-thru event.