By Korin Miller

It’s no secret that the 2020-21 school year is going to look a lot different for most children across the country. Schools in many major metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and Washington, D.C., will start school with a fully remote plan, while New York City schools will attempt a hybrid model that mixes remote and in-person learning.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to ameliorate the isolation that is sure to come, parents have taken to geography-based social networking app NextDoor, filling it with posts about wanting to create so-called learning “pods,” or small groups of students who are brought together to learn a common curriculum. Many of these pods are made up of students who are learning remotely due to the pandemic and go to the same school, and while some will be taught by a teacher or tutor — paid for by the pod families — they can also be led by a babysitter or parent.

But experts caution that they take some time and careful thought to create.