In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, everyone is now facing unprecedented school closures as a precautionary measure to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. Parents scramble to find ways to transition kids from school learning into remote learning smoothly. They now have a tough job figuring out the things to do with kids at home using online resources as households undergo community quarantine and social distancing.
With school closures due to the COVID-19 outbreak, most parents are worried about how to make up for the lost time. It only takes a matter of weeks before students fall disastrously behind schedule. It is unclear how long school cancellations will last. Weeks? Months? The scenario is going to create a huge issue for parents, leaving them with uncertainties.
Thankfully, plenty of online resources is readily available. These can help assist parents in remote learning as well as managing things to do with kids at home – in all grade levels, subjects, and interests.
Education Week estimates at least 114,000 public and private schools in the United States are scheduled to close, or were closed and later reopened, affecting at least 52.6 million school students. There are at least 98,00 public schools and at least 34,000 private schools in the U.S., according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Those schools educate almost 50.8 million public school students and 5.8 million private school students.
Updated as of as of March 20, 2020.
To keep your kids mentally engaged and happy for however many weeks they’re home, take the initiative to create a new routine for them to have something to look forward to every day. With schools temporarily closed, remote learning is your best option. Help your kids continue learning at home with our list of free and open online resources that can be very useful during this pandemic crisis. It will surely help you keep up with things to do with kids at home during school closures.
Interruptions in learning due to unanticipated events can create a significant negative impact on children. Particularly, on their academic growth and development, as well as on their need for stability and consistency. Moreso, parents, are looking for productive ways to look for things to do with kids at home.
Age of Learning provides schools canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak with free home access. Affected families can make use of its leading digital education programs such as ABCmouse, Adventure Academy, and ReadingIQ.
ABCmouse is a comprehensive, research-validated curriculum for preschool through second grade, available on all major digital platforms. Tens of millions of children use the platform to date.
Adventure Academy is the first-of-its-kind educational massive multiplayer online game (MMO). They serve elementary and middle-school-aged children with thousands of learning activities in a fun and safe virtual world.
ReadingIQ is a digital library and literacy platform for children 12 and under. Designed by reading experts to improve literacy skills, with many thousands of expert-curated books from leading publishers.
With growing concerns over the COVID-19 outbreak, TCI wants to make sure you have everything you need. So to keep the learning going and for parents to find productive things to do with kids at home. They are committed to supporting you with the technological online resources you need to implement virtual teaching and remote learning.
TCI is happy to do its part to promote remote learning. They are offering free access to its online platform for K12 SS and K8 Science through June. TCI online platform is now available to all qualified schools or districts, whether or not you are a current customer. Email their support team with a valid school or district email to get free access.
Amid the closing of schools due to the COVID-19 outbreak, STEMscopes enable existing users to continue instructions through their web-based curriculum. STEMscopes Online Learning is designed for both teachers and students to have easy access from any device at any time. Teachers can assign tasks and students can complete assignments. All online resources are printable for students who do not have internet access at home.
If you are new to their online assignment feature, they’ve included several helpful links to get you started. Additionally, these instructions are available in the Help section of the curriculum. You can find it in the blue bar menu at the top of your screen. You can also register for one of its Distance Learning webinars. They will show you how to support your students remotely.
This revolutionary app for iPad and Mac makes learning Swift interactive and fun. It requires no coding knowledge, so it’s perfect for students just starting. Solve puzzles to master the basics using Swift! It is a powerful programming language created by Apple and used by the pros to build today’s most popular apps.
Learning to code with Swift Playgrounds is incredibly engaging. The app comes with a complete set of Apple-designed lessons. Play your way through the basics in “Fundamentals of Swift” using real code. This will guide a character through a 3D world. Then move on to more advanced concepts.
Even when schools closed and parents are looking for things to do with kids at home, you can keep the learning going. Every day includes four separate learning experiences, each built around a thrilling, meaningful story or video. Kids can do them on their own, with their families, or with their teachers. Just find your grade level and let the learning begin!
Scholastic has a corporate mission supported through all of its divisions of helping children around the world to read and learn. They recognize that literacy is the cornerstone of a child’s intellectual, personal, and cultural growth. They have created quality products and services that educate, entertain, and motivate children and help enlarge their understanding of the world around them.
If you’re looking to zoom in on reading comprehension, Readworks is going to be an excellent fit for you, providing content from kindergarten through 12th grade. ReadWorks Online Learning is here to support educators and families facing the unprecedented challenge of remote learning due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
They are committed to solving America’s reading comprehension crisis and the student achievement gap. Driven by cognitive science research, they create world-class content, teacher guidance, and integrated tools that improve teacher effectiveness and student achievement. ReadWorks does this by bridging the gap between research and practice in reading comprehension instruction.
This award-winning learning object repository (LOR) & curriculum management platform empowers educators to discover, design & deliver innovative, personalized curriculum curated from a massive library of top open educational resources. Their Online Learning Days platform helps students and parents understand what a remote learning day looks like.
Learning Explorer is giving six months of free access to its online curriculum management solution to schools and districts impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. They’ve put together online resources to help you plan and prepare for school closures. These resources consist of strategies, collections, and articles to help you ready for remote learning.
They offer schools FREE use of the One2One Manager during the COVID-19 outbreak. Learn21 sees schools dismantle their carts and hand out devices to students. They realize that some schools experience challenges in managing the handout, management, and collection of tools. They’ve even created a unique tag inside One2One Manager for COVID-19 devices.
One2One Manager delivers schools with a single integrated tool to track assets, student assignments, and device breakage. But One2One Manager goes beyond merely tracking devices by providing districts with reporting, student behavior.
Remote learning can be isolating and disengaging for students. Sitting in front of a screen for hours watching videos may compel a student to fast forward or even skip a lesson altogether. To keep them engaged, Google Classroom has advanced Hangouts Meet features available for free to anyone who uses G Suite around the world. It means you’ll be able to put up to 250 people on a Hangouts Meet call—an entire class or group of classes can join a lesson simultaneously.
In a lesson exploring the water cycle, challenge students to pause the video, and join a discussion in Google Classroom (using the Stream) about the last time they experienced a thunderstorm. You can also use comments in Google Docs and Classroom to have a two-way discussion with students as you give feedback on their work—another great strategy to engage when you can’t see them in person.
In light of the impact of COVID-19 outbreak with substantial disruption to learning, Firefly Online Learning will be granting free access to its platform for affected schools until the end of the upcoming term. Their LMS will enable schools and teachers to deliver engaging lessons remotely (from setting tasks to sharing online resources) as well as manage parent communication efficiently.
Parents can keep abreast of the latest updates, manage their child’s day, and minimize the disruption to their child’s learning. Firefly designs its platform to support prep and primary schools, from its features and design to its cloud-hosted infrastructure, which makes it the easiest to use teaching and learning tool for younger learners.
They actively support schools from over 30 countries around the world, disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak. Due to the ongoing changing landscape, EP is providing free and unlimited access to all schools until 1st May. They offer students a wealth of curriculum-aligned content, as well as a dynamic set of learning tools at the comfort of your own home.
Seeing a dramatic increase in support calls from impacted schools using the platform across the globe, EP launched a task force to help aid schools in need. EP is also looking at ways to assist schools currently not using the platform during this uncertain time.
Creative Learning Systems Online Resource develops engaging STEM and digital media programs for elementary, middle, and high schools. They call them SmartLabs®. Since creating the first technology lab in a U.S. school in 1987, Creative Learning Systems has pioneered STEM and digital media arts programs in K-12 education.
At Creative Learning Systems, they’re committed to engaging students in project-based learning— even when students are attending school from home. To support parents and students during this unprecedented time, they’re opening access to their robust, standards-aligned, STEM-focused curriculum.
When schools close for an extended period as a result of recent events, they put together a collection of digital games that students can play at home. Breakout EDU is the immersive learning games platform that brings the escape room from your classroom to your home. Students can click on any game and start playing!
If you are a parent, you can learn how to share these or any digital game on the platform by clicking here.
As schools across the United States implement and prepare for school closures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in their communities, Britannica is ensuring free, emergency support, and online resources to every school.
Get free access to Britannica LaunchPacks, for social studies and science, being leveraged by schools across the world who are grappling with shutdowns, conducting virtual lessons, and working to minimize the impact on students, families, and staff. LaunchPacks supports virtual learning, independent study, and remote assessments across topics covered in the K-12 science and social studies curricula.
As we all continue taking precautions during the spread of COVID-19, BrainPOP is here to help you and your curious learners stay informed and on track. They’re offering free access for schools and families impacted by school closures.
BrainPOP Online Learning is accessible through any screen device and is a perfect solution for your distance learning plans. They know these times can be challenging for teachers, parents, and school administrators alike—but they’re here to make your planning easier with curated online resources, tips, ideas, and more!
They have hundreds of kids’ craft ideas, kid’s worksheets, printable activities for kids, coloring pages, dot to dot, and more. All Kids Network Online Resource dedicates itself to providing fun and educational activities for parents looking for things to do with kids at home. They usually add a couple of new crafts and a set of worksheets or a new activity each week.
Various activities are available for children of all ages.
To support your efforts to keep students moving and learning while at home due to school closures related to the COVID-19 outbreak, ActivEd has decided to make the Walkabouts platform temporarily available at no cost to those implementing remote learning. They have created general login credentials for those who do not already have access to Walkabouts.
Walkabouts are more than brain breaks! Their web-based lessons activate Pre-K through 2nd-grade curriculum that integrates movement with language arts, math, and reading content and correlate to your state’s standards. This research-based online tool makes it easy for parents to create lessons that bring key concepts to life through physical activity. It even correlates to the state standards teachers already use to develop and manage their lesson planning.
Are you a parent looking for things to do with kids at home during school closures? 3P Learning Online Resource provides parents with a package of online resources designed for schools and families, covering mathematics, spelling, literacy, science. Children between ages 5 and 14 can find supportive learning activities, including structured lessons and fun games.
Don’t lose the chance to deliver quality education during community quarantine. The range of software allows you to find activities for students from anywhere. So as long as you have a device and an internet connection. Tailor learning experiences to kids at home to ensure their education remains meaningful while you’re apart.
They support distance learning by providing schools and educational institutions with relevant contemporary content and game-like software that make learning engaging and fun. They achieve this by applying modern technology and new forms of learning.
3D Bear’s augmented reality app offers various possibilities used in home learning during school cancellation. Start remote learning with AR by downloading the 3DBear app and discover inspiring learning content for your students!
We know that schools always strive to stay open. But there are sometimes circumstances that would lead to school closures, and parents are in the dilemma of finding things to do with kids at home. It doesn’t mean the learning needs to stop. Purple Mash gives schools access to both school and home learning. 2Simple’s Purple Mash contains thousands of opportunities for learning. Here children can engage with publishing, story creation, game design, concept mapping, collaborative writing, and art, to name a few.
It is a great resource to set a list of work for the young learners from classic subjects like art, math, spelling, and grammar to fresh creative stuff like coding, publishing, and animation. This site has a vast resource of e-books paired with the appropriate activities. With Purple Mash’s free home access and easy homework system, it can seamlessly integrate learning at school and home.
Whether you’re concerned about the coronavirus pandemic, or about the idea of having your kids stay home from school indefinitely, it is imperative to keep your composure and stay calm. With the impacts of the emerging COVID-19 outbreak, parents need to take full charge and start acting on what to do next during this difficult time.
Education may be disrupted, but that doesn’t mean your children have to lose out. As kids adapt to this massive change, remote learning can preserve and continue their educational mission. Create a new routine for things to do with kids at home during school closures and help them continue learning through these online resources.
4Kids.com offers a wide variety of opportunities for kids to enjoy and have fun all year round! Check out our list of resources for kids. Are you looking for more resources for kids around your area? Browse through our places to go section. If you’re even more curious and seeking to learn more information about kids’ topics, tips, and guides, check out our things to do and education blog post.
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