How to Build Homeschool Community When Covid Gets in the Way

Building homeschool community in the age of COVID-19 requires creativity and flexibility — but you can do it. Here’s how.

“I keep telling new homeschoolers: This isn’t what homeschooling is like. Everybody is having a hard time feeling connected right now,” says Rachel*, who has been homeschooling her now-in-middle-school son since 4th grade. 

Homeschoolers spend a lot of time explaining that no, they’re not worried about socialization because their kids have plenty of opportunities to build social relationships with all kinds of people. In fact, we sometimes feel — fairly, if a little smugly — that our kids get more socialization than in-school kids who spend all day with their same-age, same-class peers. We may have to think creatively and carpool aggressively to make it happen, but homeschoolers like Rachel usually succeed in building a homeschool community. Of course, this is when things are normal — and nothing has been normal for anyone during the social distancing required by the coronavirus pandemic. Now all parents find ourselves in a similar position: How can we keep those important social connections alive for our kids in this challenging time?

The answer is by working to find new ways to keep our community alive and active. We talked to homeschoolers who have had great success reinventing their social networks, social distance style, and discovered several ways homeschoolers are building community — even in these strange times.

Take clubs online. There’s nothing like hanging out in person, but many clubs work just fine online: Book clubs, anime clubs, art clubs, movie clubs, Minecraft clubs, chess clubs — you name it, some version of it can exist online. “We set up a free Slack group for our co-op’s Animal Crossing fans, and the kids have loved it,” says Marti, who runs a busier-than-ever homeschool co-op in California. The club also meets on Zoom every other Monday night, and kids schedule meet-ups on each other’s islands so they can game together in between meetings.

Keep playing together — separately. “My son’s college dorm is hosting a campus Olympics, social-distancing style,” says Lisa, whose homeschooled son attends college on the East Coast. Students enlist time keepers to record their best efforts on the school track, and results are posted on the school intranet. Dorms also compete against each other in ongoing step counts, ping pong iPhone games, and even Boggle tournaments — all ideas that homeschool groups could easily incorporate. 

Host outdoor get-togethers. If the weather cooperates, many social events can be reinvented as outdoor activities. If you have enough room for families to stake out space at least six feet apart, you can host outdoor movie nights, dances, talent shows, poetry slams, and other activities. Adrienne’s homeschool group used this year’s dues to buy several outdoor canopies that can be easily set up and taken down. “We can’t hug and high-five, and we’re all wearing masks, but it sure is nice to actually see each other in 3-D,” she says.

Embrace the photo challenge. Kristina spontaneously suggested her homeschool field trip crew send pictures of their pets enjoying having their family home all day with them, and snapping the funniest pet picture each week has become a new tradition. Families share in a What’s App group, and kids compete to come up with the funniest picture and the best caption. “It’s silly, but it’s something we look forward to doing every week — and who doesn’t like to look at other people’s cute pets?”

Do good. Carmen’s family has been spending a lot more time at their community parks during the pandemic, and they aren’t the only ones. Carmen’s 12-year-old and 9-year-old kids noticed that their parks were dirtier than usual, so they put out the call to their homeschool friends and started a park clean-up club. Now the kids take pride in using pick-up sticks and trash bags to pick up trash on their favorite walking trails, sharing before and after photos in their group chat.

*HSL removes last names and other identifying information for online publication.

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