Kids home for the duration? “Too Cool for School” may help you cope
Yikes. Six weeks with the kids at home.
The Peninsula School District has made it clear it will not be offering online classes. It’s every mom — and dad —for themselves.
What to do?
Two Gig Harbor moms have an idea — a “virtual day camp” on Facebook, with games, videos, links to educational web sites and a daily schedule of things to do.
Within two days of starting their Too Cool for School group on Facebook, Carri Anne Eckberg and Jenna Brasch had 2,200 members, mostly parents staring at six weeks of home schooling.
“Everybody at this point is struggling with the idea that their kids are going to be home for six weeks,” said Brasch, a former Montessori teacher. “We wanted to put something out there that parents can use as a resource so they don’t end up killing their kids by the sixth week.”
Eckberg, a clinical psychologist who also does event organizing, says she’s using both skills to put together a program “to keep everyone sane in this situation.”
“We’ve reached out to local small businesses, who are supplying things like virtual painting lessons and virtual cooking classes,” she said. “Harbor Wildwatch wants to come on board with virtual wildlife tours and science experiments kids can do.”
Both women have school-age children, as well as small businesses, so they know the drill.
The group’s news feed features a weekly schedule, with times blocked out for outdoor activities, craft time, creative play, kids yoga, and a video career talk. There’s a weekly challenge — this week’s a Lego building contest — and all sorts of suggested activities.
New members are adding suggestions and links to things they’ve found on the internet, like a weekly video “home safari” streamed by the Cincinnati Zoo, or video yoga classes for kids.
An algebra teacher offered to post algebra and computer science lessons. The owner of a Gig Harbor craft shop offered to put together quilt kits for kids who want to stitch. A middle school English teacher offered to create a writing workshop.
A kindergarten teacher shared a colorful poster of “kindergarten goals,” including “I can write my name,” “I know all my letters,” and “I can count to 100 by 1s and 10s.”
Another member posted a list of 150 educational shows to stream on Netflix. A grandmother offered to read aloud via livestream.
By last weekend, the number of members had climbed to 8,450 — nearly the number of kids enrolled in the Peninsula School district.
“It just blew up,” said Brasch. “It’s growing literally by the hour.”
The group is free, non-commercial and non-profit, the founders stressed.
“We’re not selling any services, and we’re not allowing promotions or advertising,” said Brasch. “We want this to be a totally free community endeavor.”
The Facebook group is free, and anyone can join. Click on“Groups” on the left side of the home page and use the search field to find “Too Cool for School.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 12:00 AM.