The reflex worry is "screens are bad for young children," and for passive screen time, scrolling, binge-watching, that's fair. But there's a real difference between a child slumped in front of a video and a child in a live session where they're talking, building, presenting, and looking away from the screen every few minutes at their actual project. The second isn't the thing the screen-time headlines are about. (Eye strain, for what it's worth, comes mostly from staring at a fixed close distance, which constant looking-away actually reduces.)
The real question isn't "online or not." It's "what kind of online."
A few things to check before you trust an online school with a young child:
Class size matters more here than at any other age
Little children need to be seen, drawn in by name, noticed when they're lost, kept involved. That's possible in a group of eight and close to impossible in a group of thirty. Ask for the hard cap, not the average.
Whether the day is active or passive is the next test
Young children cannot sit and absorb a lecture for hours, on a screen or off it. Look for short bursts of work with breaks, hands-on projects, cameras on, and every child with something to do rather than just watch.
And whether there's real human relationship
A young child needs to trust the adult in the room. One coach who stays with them and knows them beats a rotating cast of strangers every time.
Done well, the upside is real
Far more individual attention than a large classroom, a calmer environment for a sensitive child, no exhausting commute, and learning that connects to things they actually find interesting. Done badly, a big, passive, lecture-on-a-screen class, it's worse than an ordinary classroom.
If you're weighing it for your own child, the honest move is to look closely at how a given school runs its day rather than at the word "online" in the abstract. If you'd like to see what a small, active, project-based primary day looks like, we're happy to walk you through ours.