Pandemic Learning: Trying Outschool

I wrote recently about how I wanted to fit in more science for Bug this semester, as we wrap up the school year.  Last semester, he took an engineering class, but it didn't make for the spring, and he took some homeschool classes at the zoo. 

We started the spring semester well, with him working through a chemistry kit, but then he needed more materials, not included with the kit, and that got put on pause.  It was too cold to go to the zoo for the homeschool classes at the beginning of the semester, and then the lockdown came. 

I made the suggestion to him that we do a "science camp" at the end of the semester, after his co-op classes end.  "With YOU?" he asked, horrified.  Considering that I don't actually want to create a week-long science camp for him, I decided that it's best to find an alternative.  I thought he might like learning about pandemics, something I am actually interested in.  No, not interested in pandemics.  Not interested in anatomy either.  I like plant science, but he doesn't.  He is not interested in anything I like, only in physics and chemistry.  

Today, I got him started back on his chemistry set, because I had acquired some of the missing materials.  I will encourage him to continue that over the next weeks, until he has worked in all the experiments.  I'd also like to find him a book to read that relates to physics or chemistry.  I'm looking at the Simon Bloom series for him to try.  

I have signed him up for 12 hours of classes in Outschool during the month of May on the themes of physics and chemistry.   These will be online videoconferencing classes.  I had seen ads for Outschool in the past, but Bug enjoys in-person classes so much that I didn't ever seriously consider signing up for one.  Enter Covid-19, and videoconferencing seems like a better idea.  

So, we'll see what happens with these, and if Outschool turns out to be something our family continues to use.