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
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.
