Trying to navigate the ins and outs of a pandemic is pretty daunting. Not to mention all the responsibilities on everyone’s plate while keeping cautious to keep yourself safe as well as those around you. It’s a lot to handle. Especially if you have children to worry about too. Thankfully there’s a bit of a saving grace or a silver lining for parents who need to work in the fall and need childcare.
As school districts all around the country try to decide on the right mix of online learning in the fall, parents are trying to figure out how to create the time to care for their children while still working their own jobs. Well, there’s some good news because the YMCA of Greater Houston will be offering a perfect solution.
Early on when the pandemic first hit, the YMCA started caring for the kids of essential workers, which is an extension of their regularly occurring after-school program. After some discussion organizers decided that something would need to change in order to supply families with the option of returning to their jobs. The conclusion was to extend the support for essential workers to parents who will be working during the new school year.
“Families are going to need someplace for their kids to go, if they’re doing virtual learning, because they can’t sit home, by themselves,” says YMCA of Greater Houston Senior Director of Youth Development Larry Taylor.
The YMCA’s program will offer online-learning with a space for elementary-age children to attend a virtual classroom. The program is like a normal school day running from 8 am to 3 pm. There will be space for students to log-in and complete assignments, counselors available, and a certified teacher onsite to help with any issues.
“If there’s any questions that they might have with any type of assignments that have been sent across, we’re going to try to help them to the best of our abilities… Since they won’t have that interaction with their teacher, as normal,” said Taylor.
Pricing has not been determined, but the YMCA says it will be affordable and if financial assistance is needed it will be provided to families. Organizers are currently working on gauging interest from the community. This will help to determine which learning facilities will offer the program.
Registration for the virtual learning program will be made available on the YMCA of Greater Houston website soon.
