With schools closing across the country because of the COVID-19 virus, parents will, if they have not already, find it difficult to keep their students occupied during the day.
Below is a list of websites that offer online lessons, fun games, printables and videos to keep children from getting bored during the time schools remain closed. Also included are a few sites that offer parents tips on structuring their children’s day.
Structuring:
Daily schedules for students ages 4-18 from Khan Academy:
Khan Academy offers schedules and classwork for students from ages 4 to 18.
Visual schedules: Click here for a set of printables to use to create a schedule for your child. They include graphics for time and activities.
Activities:
123 Homeschool4me: Get printable worksheets and other resources for homeschooling.
All Kids Network: Get worksheets, craft ideas, printable dot to dot, hidden pictures and more.
Animals are amazing: Learn all about animals.
Arcademics: Games are aimed at students from kindergarten to eighth grade.
Ascend Math: Ascend Math offers math instruction for kindergarten to 12th-grade students. The platform will be free until the end of April.
Bedtime Math: See math as part of your child’s daily routine.
BeeLine Reader: BeeLine Reader helps students of all ages and skill levels improve their reading skills.
Belouga: Get a free account for K-12th grade students for resources such as math problems and social science videos.
Big History Project: Get free access to a social studies course. It is focused on high school students but works for most of the rest of us.
BlocksCAD: Build math and computer science skills by using specialized 3D CAD (computer-aided drafting) software.
BrainPOP: Want to make a movie? BrainPOP lets students make movies out of images, build maps and develop their block-based coding skills. BrainPOP focuses on K-12th grade children.
Classroom cereal: Work on your grammar by learning to proofread short stories.
Club Oasis: A free STEM club offers DYI STEM labs, live classes, coding lessons and lives pop-ups.
Crash Course: Courses in sociology, computer science, film history and mythology are offered for starters.
Desmos: Students can use online tools to visualize math problems, create interactive tutorials and play math games with kids from all over the world.
Discovery K-12: Pre-K to 12th-grade lessons and activities in these areas: language arts, reading, math, science, history/social studies, performing arts and physical education.
Dr. Seuss to the rescue: Who doesn’t want to read and play games with Dr. Seuss?
DuckDuckMoose: An app for tablets for preschool to kindergarten students.
Duolingo: Learn a new language while you are stuck at home.
Fun Brain: Activities, games, reading and more are available for grades pre-K through eighth grade.
Games, videos and math: ABCya offers activities for students grades pre-K through sixth grade.
Giant list of Ideas for being home with kids: It is a pretty giant list of all kinds of ideas for kids to do from art projects to making ice cream to gardening.
Go to the museum, virtually: Get a virtual tour of 12 museums.
Going for the record: The folks at Guinness World Records have some ideas for kids who want to be record setters. How many balloons can you burst by sitting in 30 seconds?
GoNoodle: GoNoodle has games to get your child moving.
Into the Book: Elementary school students can practice reading comprehension.
Into the Map: For the world traveler, a way to create maps and explore the world’s geography.
It’s Epic: The Epic! reading app is free to parents for the rest of the school year if you can get a digital invitation from a teacher or school librarian. They can sign up free to provide access to their students.
KiwiCo: KiwiCo “helps kids think big and act like creators and producers instead of just consumers” Great activities and DYI science projects.
Little Twisters Yoga & Emotional Wellness: Don’t forget your child’s emotional health. What about yoga?
Mathcelebrity.com: Check your math with Mathcelebrity.com.
Minecraft Education Edition: If you like coding, math and problem-solving try Minecraft way.
Mystery Science: Video lessons science lessons that will inspire kids to explore our world.
NaNoWriMo: If your child is looking to write the Great American Novel, here’s a website for you.
National Geographic for Kids: Look for games, videos, lessons and “cool stuff.”
New American History: Learn from history materials aimed at grades 4 and up.
PBS KIDS daily newsletter: Sign up for a free daily newsletter from PBS KIDS.
ProjectGutenberg: A free library where kids can download or read online more than 60,000 free eBooks.
Readworks.org: Reading comprehension is the goal of Readworks.
Scholastic Learn at Home: Scholastic Magazine is offering four learning experiences each day.
Science Friday: Elementary to high school students can get lessons in physics, chemistry, earth science and biology.
Star Fall: Math, reading, art and music is available for students in kindergarten through third grade.
The Activity Mom: Get the printables kids love to work on.
The FAB Lab: Watch STEM videos with Crazy Aunt Lindsey.
Toy Theater: A fun website with math, art and reading games.
Vizzle: If you have a child on the autism spectrum you can get specialize lessons from Vizzle.
Wonderopolois.com: Learn about 2,000-plus wonders of the world.
You can draw: Jarrett Lerner is posting activity pages on his website which you can print out and enjoy. Lerner is the author of “EngiNerds and “Revenge of the EngiNerds,” as well as the forthcoming “Geeger the Robot” early chapter book series and the author-illustrator of the “Hunger Heroes” graphic novel series.
