School’s out. Here are links to some fun things to do with your kids. (Links were gathered beginning in March 2020 for the coronavirus quarantine.) Remember to always monitor your child’s internet activities.
Something Helpful
Make cards or write letters to people in nursing homes
Learn household skills like laundry or cooking
Learn basic home first aid or how to use a fire extinguisher
Virtual Summer Camps
Varsity Tutors offers virtual summer camps for most ages and subjects. Some say they are free.
Virtual summer camps in science as well as tons of at home science experiments through the Mad Science program
Coronovirus Social Stories
Autism Little Learners, social stories on masks and school staying closed
Visual Home Schedule for School Closings – Free at this time
Sesame Street and Autism, talking to your child about COVID-19
Links to General Home Activities for Children
Animal Walks for Gross Motor development
Parents as Teachers, resources for parents
Little Gym at Home, parent child videos
Giant List of Ideas for Being Home with Kids
How to Occupy Kids During a Quarantine
Don’t Panic About Being Home with Kids Blog post
Making the Most of Covid-19 School Closures, Neuropsychology & Education Services for Children & Adolescents
Just for Fun
How to make a bubble snake at One Little Project.
Create your own city, learn about building tension, and other architecture projects at Foster + Partners, Archictecture from Home
How to build balloon powered Lego cars
Make spiral paper plates, inexpesensive, fun, and cute to hang
Create your own board games by PBS Kids
Houston Astros kids activities
Hasbro, free downloadable activity books featuring some of their characters
Get the wiggles out with GoNoodle
Mindfulness with Dojo
Sample Schedules for Learning at Home
Covid-19 Daily Schedule Neuropsychology & Education Services for Children & Adolescents:
Virtual Field Trips About Animals
San Diego Zoo – animal information, video cams, readalongs
Georgia Aquarium – webcams
Houston Zoo – webcams
Monterey Bay Aquarium – webcams
Cornell Lab Bird cams
Big Sur web cams of many kinds
Africa Animals web cams
National Park Service wildlife web cams
Endangered Wolf Center webcams
St. Louis Zoo connects to webcams around the country
Smithsonian National Zoo webcams
Reid Park Zoo, animal tabs and webcam link at top
Seattle Aquarium: webcams, virtual tours, kids pages
National Aquarium, webcams and kids activities
Reading Websites
Storyline online – Read aloud books
Mims House Children’s Books – e books and audio books free, spring 2020. Just add to cart to get free.
Readworks comprehension instruction, free
Explore, Imagine, Create: British Library (This whole site is interesting to view for older students.)
Math Websites
https://www.khanacademy.org/Kahn Academy – Math, Science, History – free
Math Playground free games
Science and Social Studies Websites
Solar power oven smores for kids at Desert Chica
Hovercraft science experiment at Living Life and Learning
Fireworks in a jar at Growing a Jeweled Rose.
Missouri Department of Conservation, Nature School student activities, books, posters (preschool on up.)
Searching for Spring Scavenger Hunt
National Geographic Kids – Interesting facts and photos about many topics.
Yellowstone National Park virtual tour
Virtual Field Trips, Adventures in Familyhood
Science for K – 5 – MysteryScience.com
NASA image and video library
Smithsonian for Kids activities
Heritage Daily virtual tours – This is not a kid’s site, so parents should monitor
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History virtual tour
Smithsonian Magazine article with links to online resources
Colonial Williamsburg virtual field trip
Ellis Island, virtual field trip
Ben’s Guide to U.S. Government
The Library of Congress has many interesting resources for teens and adults. Spend some time exploring. The Everyday Mysteries section attracted my attention. There are old maps, videos, audio recordings, and documents to view online. For kids try America’s Story from America’s Library.
Art
St. Louis Art Museum – Read, Watch, Listen – audio tours of museum work
Free Online Daily Art Activities – Supply lists are provided to order supplies from Amazon.
Children’s author, Mo Willems, Livestream doodles every weekday
General Learning Sites
Mr. Nussbaum has a little of everything
Scholastic Learn at Home Website – 20 days of 4 free lessons by grade level.
Brainpop – Look for the link at the top to access site free during school closures.
Starfall – some free, some membership K – 3 Reading and Math activities
abcya.com – word, math, strategy games K – 6
ABC Mouse for children aged 2 – 8, Free membership code AOFLUNICEF during school closures
Time for Kids digital magazine – free for balance of 2020 school year
Fluency and Fitness, 3 free weeks during school closures
Miscellaneous Links at Kids Activities Blog
British Library, exhibit Harry Potter: a History of Magic (during COVID-19)
Harry Potter at Home, by J. K. Rowling
For Teens
The Library of Congress has many interesting resources for teens and adults. Spend some time exploring. The Everyday Mysteries section attracted my attention. Their are old maps, videos, audio recordings, and documents to view online. For kids try America’s Story from America’s Library.
Family Activities
Andrew Lloyd Weber free livestream of a different musical every Friday night for 48 hours at The Shows Must Go On
