Boys and Girls Club offers alternate way to teach kids online with learning assistance program

Sending your kids to school or keeping them home for virtual learning? Parents now have another choice.

Take it straight from the Zoom generation — virtual learning isn’t as easy as “hitting restart.”

“Sometimes the Internet doesn’t work,” said seventh-grader Aliza Fernandez.

“I can’t see because sometimes when my teacher shows me stuff I can’t see,” said first-grader Miranda Mitchell.

The Boys and Girls Club of Lee County says it has a solution that keeps your kids online and learning safely. For starters, students stay here in small groups.

“In groups of 10, so the staff to member ratio is one to nine. We try not to co-mingle our groups so the kids are with the same kids over and over,” said Denise Gergley, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Lee County. “We can control it a little more and it just makes it a lot easier.”

A bubble of sorts.

Kids learn from their teachers online with guidance from an adult assistant in person to monitor mask-wearing and troubleshoot technology.

“Today she did because I don’t know my password,” Mitchell said.

“When we’re having trouble in class with the Google Classroom running really slow, she would tell us to download the app. It works better,” Fernandez explained.

She believes being here is better than being home. It’s easier gathered around other students at a social distance so her mom and dad and other moms and dads can work too.

“It’s actually 10 times easier,” she said. “It’s actually really nice because I have a quiet place to work at. When I’m at home it’s so loud because we’re all gathered around.”

The Boys and Girls Club has this virtual learning assistance program at a number of their locations. The cost is just $40 a month and there are still spots available.

For more information on the program, click here.