Posted on April 9, 2020
Parents, having a hard time with this distance learning or forced homeschooling during the pandemic? Trying to replicate the school setting at home? Well you don't have too. What a relief! Parents have a unique role that can help facilitate learning for kids without having to take on the role of "teacher". Below are some helpful resources to help kids compliment their school work and simply to have fun while learning.
Not all the resources listed are free, but many provide free trials and some are providing free services while school is out due to the COVID-19.
RESOURCES
ABC Mouse- great for younger children. (Free trail for 30 days.)
Adventure Academy - for ages thirteen and younger; works on reading, math, social studies, science (free trail for 30 days.)
AWE learning- free printable worksheet for ages two to twelve
Bedtime Math- Provides activities to help kids love numbers so they can handle the math in real life. Check out their “cabin fever” math activities for kids to enjoy at home
**Brain Pop- Help curious learners stay informed and on-track with free resources and videos
Breakout EDU- games to download to play; k-5
Character Tree- Free home access to the Character Tree videos and supplemental/printable activities, through June 30, 2020. The subscription includes 32 character education videos, 32 sets of printable activities, and teacher’s guides.
Creosity Space- Provides lessons from Contagion Crushers, Water Watchers, and Conscientious Chemists units at no cost to help support teachers, parents, and guardians to keep all kids engaged in science.
Arizona State University- Created fun sites including Ask an Anthropologist, Ask a Biologist, and Virtual Field Trips.
Railroad- provides virtual story telling and activities to go along
Curriculum Associates- Provides resources for educators and parents tailored to your state core curriculum standards including downloadable packets for K-5 (Math and Reading).
DK- provides printable worksheet for students to complete.
ED helper- provides a daily free worksheet
**Elementari- Promotes arts, literacy, educational computational thinking and ultimates helps kids improve writing.
**Fabulingua- This platform allows students to learn Spanish.
Freckle- Adaptive math and ELA courses are always available for free for teachers and students.
Hand2 Mind- Free daily content including streaming video lessons, taught by teachers, directed towards kids in grades K-5, for both math and literacy. Also find downloadable activities and STEM resources.
Head Sprout- An online K–5 reading program that adapts to the needs of the individual student. It is self-paced, which makes it ideal for at-home practice.
Holiday House- Online resources complete with educator guides, lesson plans, and activity sheets.
Homer- App to help 2-8 kids learn to read
Kid Discover- They offer a K-2 literacy program, with a strong focus on phonics and comprehension.
Kahn Academy- They offer free resources to keep everyone learning while schools are closed; daily schedules for students ages 2-18 to keep them learning.
Lalilo- They offer a K-2 literacy program, with a strong focus on phonics and comprehension.
Lego- For families at home they have entertainment and learning content, including daily build challenges and fun LEGO lessons.
Literably- K-8 reading
Metal Up- MentalUP is a UK-based award-winning scientific-educational application containing cognitive learning games for K-8 learners.
Mystery Science Science offers digital video mini-lessons for science subjects K-5.
Pebble- PebbleGo offers safe, interactive online research resources on topics selected by their teachers for students K-3.
Pitsco - Hands-on, minds-on learning can happen anywhere and everywhere. If you’re looking for STEMspiration because of an unexpected homeschooling need, you’re in the midst of an uncommon education experience, or you just want to have some STEM fun, we’ve got ideas.
Prodigy- Math games for first through eighth grade.
Reading IQ- ReadingIQ is a comprehensive digital library offering books, magazines, comics, and more for kids from ages 2-12. It’s a smart replacement for library time right now and makes it possible for teachers to monitor what and how much their students are reading.
Reading Plus- Free printable skill-building packages help develop reading comprehension in essential comprehension skills, which include close reading, main idea and themes, interaction of ideas, use of language, structure, point of view, imaging scaffolds, reasoning and rhetoric, and comparative reading.
Scholastic Scholastic- Scholastic Learn at Home website to provides students with approximately 20 days worth of learning journeys that span various content areas. Students get approximately three hours of learning opportunities per day, including projects based on articles and stories, virtual field trips, reading and geography challenges, and more.
Seussville - The area dedicated to the parents of small ones includes full of activities, crafts, and printables. The Educator section includes resources for supplemental activities in Art, Science, Math, Social Studies, and Language Arts.
Simple Solution - Includes quick short activities in reading, science, social studies, study skills, and problem solving.
Stars Fall- An interactive program for ages 2 to 5 that is engaging but does not over stimulate children. Developed by preschool teachers, it is primarily geared towards teaching children the foundations of reading.
Sum Dog - An online learning tool which provides personalized math and spelling practice. It adapts questions to each student, using engaging games and rewards for effort and achievement to build their confidence, and is proven to accelerate progress.
Summer Math Challenge- Super Star Online, by Help Me 2 Learn, is a supplemental reading, phonics and, math program featuring a wide variety of songs, interactive activities, and games in an engaging and easy-to-use format. Features our Super Star Motivational and Data Tracking System.
Tinkergarden- Provides educational activities designed for learning at various ages and requiring only basic household items.
Typsey- This platform provides lessons to help kids learn to type.
*Virtual Field Trips- Here you can explore the world without right from your home.
Write Readers- WriteReader increases students’ digital writing skills significantly in only 6 weeks. Teachers can also remotely provide feedback to students and have them engaged with meaningful writing activities.
Zearn- Top-rated math content available online or paper-based materials that can be used without a device. Also find extensive distance learning resources created to support educators and parents/caregivers in getting started quickly and are offering webinars, video tutorials, and step-by-step guides on their Distance Learning Center.
Fighting Boredom?
Check out these ideas shared with us to help keep everyone entertained while in isolation.
NY Times recommendation on What to Watch, Read and Listen To During Your Coronavirus Self-Quarantine.
Family-friendly movies
IMDB has a list of top 100 movies to watch with your family.
Movies for us parents on Netflix!
Concerts
Here are some ‘quaranTuning’ updates.
Take a virtual museum tour
An extensive list of museums, zoos and theme parks offering virtual tours. Some links include:
The Louvre, Paris, France
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
The Vatican Museum, Vatican City, Rome, Italy
The British Museum, London, England
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY
Explore some National Parks
These 5 national parks offer virtual tours.
Spend a night at the opera
The Metropolitan Opera will be streaming a new show every night.
Tune into The Chamber music Society of Lincoln Center for videos of classical music and performances.
Children’s activities (for kids of all ages)
Scavenger Hunt around the neighborhood: You can get your neighbors/ friends involved. Everyone picks items to find and sends pictures – first to send the pictures wins.
Write Letters to grandparents, friends, family who are lonely in quarantine.
Write Letters to local nursing homes.
Cooking something as easy as sharing with your child different ways to cook an egg can be highly entertaining.
Workout This is good for your health and one of the most important factors for a strong immune system!
YouTube’s options are endless. Many gyms are offering ‘free trials’ for their virtual training – for example:
Peloton app is offering 90-day free subscription
OrangeTheory is offering a daily ‘At-Home workout’ on their app.
