Prenda

2020 is a very unusual year to start kindergarten. If Elliot were to take the public school option, he would have been entirely remote at first with an eventual move to a hybrid classroom where he would attend in person twice a week and remotely the other 3 days a week. The schools were forced to go remote at the end of last year, and everyone I know who experienced it said that it was absolutely awful. The thought of Elliot having zoom calls with 20+ other kindergarteners and wrestling over homework that would probably be boring for him was completely unappealing. 

For a while I was considering homeschooling. Claudia was set on homeschooling this year because they still had a ton of uncertainty of where they would end up when Stephen got a job, and I was excited about the idea of doing school together for a while. But then I heard about a new thing called Prenda that I got super excited about. 

Prenda is an Arizona charter school that has been around for 2 years. It operates as a collection of microschools in people's homes throughout the state. Microschools are classes of 5-10 kids led by a "guide." The guide receives training is paid through Prenda. A friend of mine in the ward who was previously a substitute teacher decided to open a microschool in her house. Elliot signed up with a total of 7 kids grade K-2. They meet Monday through Thursday from 8-12.  That's a 16 hour school week compared to the traditional 35 hours (our public school has full day kindergarten). 

The kids spend an hour a day working on self paced math and reading on the computer. I'm a fan of this method- the computer makes sure that concepts are mastered before they move onto the next topics. Every kid gets to move at their own pace. A friend of mine whose kid is at the public school says that her son's kindergarten class is making sure all the kids can count to 20, which Elliot could do 3 years ago. He would be tearing his hair out in boredom. Since he gets to work at his own pace, he worked his way through all of Kindergarten math in the first 3 months of school. He's slowing down now that he hit challenging material, which is also good for him- he doesn't naturally like being challenged. Prenda focuses a lot on growth mindset. 

Elliot loves Dreambox, the math program, but thinks the reading one (Lexia) is pretty boring. He can read well above his grade level, but the program is making him walk through each sound every letter combination makes. I concede that it is a bit tedious. I keep him flush with library books at home (a challenge because he tears through them) and don't worry too much about his Lexia progress. 

The rest of the day is spent doing group activities. They bake, do experiments, write stories together, invent, have poetry tea time, play games, learn about history and other countries, all sorts of stuff. 

This is probably unnecessary, but here's the outline of their daily schedule:

Coming in Activity (8-8:10) -blocks, books, math manipulatives, writing practice

Community Circle (8:10-8:25)- team building, story time, growth mindset, meditation, etc...

Conquer (8:30-9:30)- Math and Literacy

Recess/Free Play (9:30-9:45)

Collaborate (9:45-10:30)- Group activities (science, history, nature study, math challenges, poetry, etc)

Snack and Read Aloud (10:30-10:50)

Create (10:50-11:35)- Mostly individual art, writing, building, baking, STEM challenges

Cleanup (11:35-11:45)

Struggle and success (11:45-12)- wrap-up, plan for tomorrow 

Elliot has days where he puts up a stink about not wanting to go, but I think it is way less than it would have been if he was going to public school, and also a lot less fights that we would have if I was homeschooling him. 

One of the quirks of our specific microschool is that we all agreed to be extremely strict with social distancing due to Covid. The teacher is immunocompromised, and one of the kids has a dad who is going through chemotherapy right now. The idea was that if we were all super strict, our families could interact with each other safely inside and outside of school. We were pretty much hermits when we signed up over the summer, but now that things have loosened up a little bit, I have started to chaff against the restrictions a little bit. Whenever we travel or have family travel to visit us, we have to quarantine for 2 weeks before sending Elliot back to school in person. Luckily, we have it set up so that the kids can zoom in for the group project time and do the computer work at home. When he's doing school at home, I have to log that he had 4 hours of "educational value" time in the day. We are very flexible about what we count, and those days where I tried to do "mommy school" have actually been super fun. I like that I get a taste of homeschool without nearly as much pressure or long term time commitments. 

So far we are really liking Prenda. The question I get asked most often is if I'm worried about the eventual transition back to public school. Yes, it will be an adjustment, but it seems silly to not put a kid in the best school for him out of concern that he will have to go to a less good school in the future. Putting him in a mediocre school environment just so that he gets used to it? Nah. I want to stoke Elliot's curiosity and genuine love of learning. This model of school is working really well for our family, and I hope to keep him in it for at least a few years.