I received free access to Recess in order to write this review and was compensated for my time and energy in writing it. All thoughts and opinions are my own and reflect our experience.
Have you ever heard a kid say that recess is their favorite part of school? Recess is often the time where kids get to explore on their own steam and engage in interest-led play and activities, so no wonder it’s many kids favorite time of day. And Recess seeks to bring that joy and energy to homeschooled kids with community and interest-led learning as well!
Recess is a place where kids can both hang out and take amazing interest-led classes all from anywhere in the world!
Get Started with Recess with Ease
When we first started with Recess, I have to admit, I was a little bit overwhelmed with the on boarding process. But after having gone through the onboarding process, I understand why they do it.
Your child starts Recess with an orientation. During that orientation, a guide will show them around Recess and make sure they understand how it works and what they can do. My kids both had the same guide even though they did orientation at separate times. Their guide was wonderful – and my thirteen year old especially remarked how welcome the orientation made him feel.
At the end of the orientation, there’s also time for parents to hop on and ask any questions, which I super appreciated as well. A feature that I like about orientation is that because all kids have to go through orientation before they can start doing anything on the platform, I have the assurance that they’ve all been verified as real actual kids.
Part of Recess is a Community Hour – which is a daily event that is open to all users on Recess where kids can hang out, play games, or engage in clubs like chess. After your child’s orientation, their next step is to attend a new kids Community Hour – where they will be shown around all about how Community Hour works and how to participate.
Plus, both the orientation and the new kids Community Hour ensure that your kids knows how to find the answer to any questions they have. Even though I felt a bit overwhelmed, by the end, I understand how all of these steps worked together to make it not overwhelming for my kids.
Classes for Fun but with Lots of Learning Potential as well
Recess is primarily an interest driven platform, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of learning as well.
The classes in Recess really focus around things that kids would be interested in. You’ll find classes like Level Design: Minecraft Java, Dungeons & Dragons for Beginners, and Current Events in Space Tech & Rockets.
My oldest chose to try out Create Your Own Pokemon Region. This is a creative focused class where kids work on using their imaginations to draw and write about what Pokemon region they would create. The expert guide was kind and thoughtful and had good feedback for the kids. She worked hard to balance that all kids would have an opportunity to share and kept the class going at a good flow. He was really enthused to keep working on it even after class ended!
My youngest chose to try out a class called Scratch ‘n Hack: Code Your Cool Creation. While he really liked the expert guide (and has had nothing but positive things to say about all the expert guides), he discovered that he likes to work on Scratch projects by himself better. The great thing about Recess is that you aren’t locked into doing the class for a set period of time. Trying something is very low risk because they can take the class week by week. So if a class isn’t the right fit for your child or their interests change and they’re ready to move onto something else, it’s very easy to do that.
Classes are easy to drop into and aren’t graded but they aren’t totally freeform either. They provide just the right amount of structure to help kids pursue what they want without feeling any pressure that they are falling behind or need to create in a certain way. You can see the learning and critical thinking happening.
Recess Helps Kids Explore What They are Interested In
Recess is an especially great fit for interest driven homeschool families. The platform is designed for a lot of choice – while also keeping you as the parent a part of the process too. There are many high interest, high value classes available. These feature real learning for your kids paired with topics they are super interested in.
Kids have access to the course catalog and they can request to take classes. When they request to take a class, it has them write in why they want to take the class. Then that request gets sent to you the parent to check out full details like the time of day and day of the week, the cost, all the details about the class. You’ll also then have the opportunity to message the instructor and ask any questions you wish to ask. This ensures you are picking something your kids are interested in, but also that it’s a good fit for you too. The one thing I do wish is that I could set a budget and it wouldn’t show my kids classes over that amount. That would be a handy feature. But as it is, since you have to approve the classes, your kids won’t be signing up for any classes that don’t work for you.
Recess Provides Tools for Socializing Safely
I actually have to admit I wondered how much we would benefit from the social part of Recess. We are very fortunate to live in an area with a ton of people and we belong to a huge co-op, so I feel we had lots of social connections. We also even have a safe way for the kids in the co-op to connect online. However, my kids really enjoyed being able to connect with other kids on Recess. Whenever I listened on on classes or community hour, it seemed like every kid was having a genuinely good time. Especially if you live more rural or have a kid with special interests who is struggling to find other kids who love something as much as they do, Recess could be a really good fit.
I do want to add that depending on how your family feels about social media, Recess does have some social media features. They have a feed and the ability to message people. I do feel there are some safety features though. I have seen are the moderation of the team – this isn’t like some anonymous moderators that always deny that anything is wrong – this is a group that really cares about making it a safe space. And I also easily have the ability to see anything my kid has done within Recess.
Like I said, every kid has to go through orientation, so you know that every kid on there is actually a kid. This experience left me feeling like safety isn’t an afterthought to Recess, it’s the point.
The Guides
Every single adult guide and moderator we interacted with on Recess was excellent. They all treated the kids with respect and kindness. My kids felt very welcomed into the Recess community from their very first interactions. Recess handpicks all their guides and their effort to do this really shows.
Also, the entire team is super responsive. They sent me email updates to let me know how my kids were doing in class. They were also quick to answer any questions I had. They won’t leave you hanging if you get stuck! They are really committed to making sure you have a good experience.
Get Started for Free
I also want to admit that the pricing was a bit confusing to me when I got started, so I want to break it down for you.
The Base Membership is $9.99 a month per kid. This is a great deal considering that base membership includes access to Community Hour, a daily social hang out time 5 days a week where the kids play games and explore interests. If you take a class and it is more than that $9.99 a month, then your base membership fee is waived. Classes vary in price, so what you will spend is up to you depending on what your kids are interested in.
One part of Recess is empowering kids to make their own class decisions, so your kids can browse the course catalog and request classes, which starts a process where you as the parent can find out what the class is about, chat with the expert guide, and approve or deny the request. You can filter these courses by time of day or day of the week, which is very convenient. Like I mentioned before, I do, however, wish there was a way to filter classes by price. I think it would be helpful to be able to say to Recess, this is my budget and only show my kids classes in that range, but ultimately because you as the parent are approving or denying the request, you can deny any classes that are over your budget.
Want to give Recess a try? I’ve got a great deal for you to check it out! Use my link or code pockethomeschool to get $100 in credits to try out Recess for yourself! You’ll go through the same process I’ve highlighted here – orientation, Community Hour, and trying your first classes. This is a no risk offer and a great way to find out if it is right for you! This offer is only good for the next thirty days, so give it a try soon!
Would you try Recess? Let me know your thoughts below!
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