Parent Organized Discovery Sites (PODS)

However, many families across the country have come together to form groups (we call them PODS) to eliminate this problem and also eliminate the cost of daycare. Essentially groups of 7 to 14 families form PODS with the understanding that each family will invite all of the children of the group to come to their home 1 day out of each week (or every other week if there are 14 families) on one of their days off of work. On that day the host parent will be responsible to care for all of the children, feed them at lunch time and be available to help them find answers to their questions, if they can.

It should be understood that it will not be the host parents responsibility to “teach” anything. Children “teach” themselves. They simply need to be inspired and have access to resources, including lunch and snacks, that they should bring with them. If a parent has a particular knowledge in a subject that they would like to offer on a tutoring basis then that is great but it cannot interfere with the primary function of the host parent which is to make sure that the children are all safe, happy and have access to what they need to further their exploration and discovery of the world.

Some children may read, write stories or reports, do physical or mental exercises of one kind or another, watch videos, make things, do experiments, work on computers, sit and talk with the others, play games or anything else that is not disruptive to the other children. The important thing is that they are allowed to do things that are of interest and are meaningful to them. In this way they feel empowered to learn at their own pace, have no discipline problems because they do not feel imprisoned and can socialize with children of various ages rather than only children their own age.

Field trips should be coordinated in such a way that there will be plenty of adults to supervise the children and safe transportation can be provided for all. All parents must agree to the proposed field trip in advance to avoid any uncomfortable confrontations.

All members of the group must also understand that any family is free to leave the group at any time for any reason but, as a courtesy to the others, advance notice will obviously be appreciated.