As with most trends, I discover (mind you, I’m a decidedly lame parent in her late 30s), I noticed this one first on my local Facebook group. I went something like this: ISO loving pod leader for a group of five three-year-olds this fall. Must be open about virus risk factors and willing to teach outdoors.
Then, I saw one such pod in action. As I jogged around my neighborhood, I peeked into a yard, and spotted a small group of masked two- and three-year-olds, huddled around a sand table as an energetic caregiver tried to prevent a few boys from grabbing the same shovel. She might have been a parent, but based on her age and patience level, I’m guessing she was a professional. And as for the kids, they looked calm, happy and like they were ready to get in plenty of socially distanced play before naptime.
It was clear. They were here. They were…poddlers.
Much has been made of the pod craze for school-age children, whereby kids in either the same grade or class team up, and parents hire a tutor (often to the tune of $125/hour) to either homeschool or supplement online school instruction. The benefits (safety, social interaction, individualized attention) and problems (economic inequity, an exclusion of children with special needs, an exodus from the public school system) have been debated ad nauseum. But I’d yet to see this applied to such a young preschool demographic.