I’ve always known with 100% certainty that homeschooling was not for me — but suddenly it is. School closures due to the coronavirus pandemic have brought along a lot of uncertainty, anxiety, and the need for sudden, new routines for a lot of us, but the good news is that we have so many tools at our disposal to help keep our kids engaged with education at home.
While our goal right now should be simply to make it through and not try to replace our kids’ classrooms, we can help keep our kids on track (and maybe help our sanity in the process) with some helpful homeschooling resources for those of who never, ever had plans of homeschooling.
Free internet
First off, if you don’t have internet access at your home, some internet companies, like Spectrum, are offering free internet for 60 days for families affected by COVID-19.
Reading and language arts
ABC Mouse
ABC Mouse offers 850 personalized lessons across 10 different subjects — reading included. This site is best for ages 2 to 8, and you can get a 30-day free trial. Many schools are also offering codes for parents to use at home, so check with your local school.
Storyline
This super cool site features various celebrities reading aloud children’s books. You can set up a storytime session each day with your kids and watch them be read to by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Chris Pine, Eva Longoria, Mark Duplass, and more! Each book also comes with a corresponding curriculum so parents can further learning.
Squiggle Play
For ages 3 through 8 and up, the games and activities help little ones with reading skill and comprehension.
ReadingIQ
For kids preschool-age to age 12, this site features reading assessments and read-aloud books, as well as the ability to monitor your child’s progress, and you can put up to 3 kids on one account.
Hoopla
Hoopla is a free app that uses your library card to let you rent digital books. It has many audio books and e-books for kids, so you can practice reading new books together — or have them read a book on a tablet for quiet time.
ABCya
ABCya uses Common Core standards in fun, easily accessible games to help kids improve their reading skills. Kids from Pre-K to 6th grade and beyond will have a blast with the colorful and engaging games.
Typing Club
Does anyone else remember Mavis Beacon back in the day? No? Just me? For this, you don’t even need to register for an account to do the programs, so that’s super helpful.
Typing.com
This site is also free, and many schools have log-ins for students, so check with your child if they are familiar with this site
Khan Academy
You can filter lessons by grade, and there’s also an accompanying app, if you have multiple kids and need two devices for lessons.
Lakeshore Learning
If printables and worksheets are your thing, this site has tons of free printable activities, games, quizzes, lesson plans, word searchers, flash cards, worksheets, and even awards you can give your kids — and it’s free.
Math
Adventure Academy
Your kids can create customized avatars and play immersive game experiences, so they will think they are basically playing a video game online. Use code “SCHOOL7771” for a free login.
Khan Academy
Provides all subjects for all ages. You can filter lessons by grade, subject, or specific category, like early math or algebra. They even have test prep if you have older kids who want to practice staying sharp for standardized testing.
Prodigy
For grades 1st through 8th, with teacher-designed games that support essential math skills. This is an excellent resource that a lot of teachers and homeschooling moms recommend.
Math Playground
Free math games for grades 1 to 6.
Online textbooks
If you have much older children, it may be helpful to follow along with the actualy textbook. Every textbook that your child uses should be available in an online format.
Science
Adventure Academy
Your kids can create customized avatars and play immersive game experiences, so they will think they are basically playing a video game online. Use code “SCHOOL7771” for a free login.
Khan Academy
Provides all subjects for all ages. You can filter lessons by grade, subject, or specific category.
Mystery Doug
A starter list of science lessons for grades K through 5 is now free during closures. The site also offers lots of fun, short informational videos that answer questions kids may have, like, “Why do we get goosebumps?”
National Geographic for Kids
Find science experiments, videos, quizzes, and more.
Science Fridays
This site teaches science concepts through engaging stories and podcasts. There are lessons for little kids, all the way up to high schoolers.
History
History for Kids
This awesome site is totally free and has fun games, videos, worksheets, and quizzes to teach kids history.
Big History Project
According to the site, Big History Project offers “a free, online social studies course that emphasizes skill development as students draw mind-blowing connections between past, present, and future.”
Arts and culture
Smart Music
If your child has been learning a musical instrument and you want them to keep up with it during the closures, there’s a way to do it without ever leaving your home. Smart Music provides tests, lessons, tools to build sight-reading competence, and a grade chart for parents to be able to track their child’s progress. The site is offering free access to their site through June 30, 2020, to families impacted by school closures.
Virtual museum tours
While we may not be able to take our kids to expose them to culture and art, we can bring it inside the home. Many museums, including the Louvre and MoMA, are offering free virtual tours for families.
Virtual tours of national parks and zoos
We may not be going anywhere for spring break this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t experience the great outdoors. Places like Yellowstone National Park, the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Cincinnati Zoo are now offering virtual tours as well.
Drawing with Mo Willems
The beloved writer and illustrator of all the Gerald and Piggy books is making educational drawing videos available online for all his little fans stuck at home. New episodes of “Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems” will be released every weekday at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Note that it’s only available on YouTube Kids, not regular YouTube.
Live art lessons with an art teacher
This colorful teacher, as featured on Good Morning America, brings live art lessons right to your living room.
Jerry’s Artarama
The art supply store is offering can access over 2,000 hours of free art instructions for kids.
Doodle Academy
A great YouTube channel for step-by-step drawing projects for all ages.
Most of all, if you can, try not to stress about keeping your child perfectly on task, as if they were at school. This is an unprecented time in history and it remains to be seen how schools will decide how to handle the progression of testing that education standards are based on.
So, until we know more, do your best to have fun with the process in the meantime. There are important life lessons to be learned in simply living through this experience, so don’t discount how much your kids are learning just going through all of this together with you.
