Each morning when I check the news, I see places like Disney Land closing for the next few weeks, churches closing, and more and more schools being closed. With the continual spread of Covid-19, I think it is so important to continue to care for ourselves, our families and our communities. I know that a lot of schools are sending projects and worksheets to be worked on at home, in case of a mandatory quarantine, but as a homeschooling mom, I thought I would share some resources that we either use ourselves, or resources that we know of.
One way that we are keeping busy with education is learning about seeds! If you think your area may be under quarantine soon, I highly recommend getting this awesome glass pot planter, some dirt and a few seeds! YouTube is full of super fun videos on how seeds grow, people reading books about seeds and season changes which will help educate your kids as well! Have your child create a journal to draw pictures of the plant as it grows. Every time they see a change, or if the plant is now 1/4" taller, have them document it in their little book with a drawing of the plant, the date and the current height of the plant!
There are many options for educating children from home, and currently, many resources are offering their services for free to help keep children occupied and educated during this time. If you have other resources that you love and you don't see them here, drop them in a comment! In this case, sharing is caring! <3
We LOVE this resource! Education is run by teachers and is full of online guided lessons as well as printable worksheets for PreK-5th grade. We opted for the lifetime subscription, but there are a variety of plans to choose from, and you can add as many students as you need to! All 3 of my children use this daily to augment their math and language arts lessons.
This incredible app (available on Apple products only) is so fun! We used this program to teach our boys how to read and write! This app takes children on an adventure through an art museum where children learn letters, songs, reading and writing.
Apply for free access:
Purple Mash contains thousands of opportunities for learning. You’ll find these in the forms of publishing, story creation, game design, concept mapping, collaborative writing and art, to name a few. Purple Mash covers spelling and grammar, math, and cross-curricular activities.
Albert - Geared towards middle school and beyond, Albert is a learning companion built on a simple idea: Students learn best by doing. They have a 30 day free option, but if your school was shut down, they can you can apply to get extended access!
Alchemie has chemistry learning resources. They are offering Mechanisms (software for modeling organic chemistry reaction mechanisms) and ModelAR (a virtual molecular modeling program) for free.
FREE RESOURCES:
EdSitement - National Endowment for the Humanities. This resource is FREE and has arranged by grade and language!
Curriki - Curriki has been around for over ten years, and during that time they have created amazing content for grades PreK through High school and beyond and it's all free! "We offer educator-vetted, openly licensed, online educational materials for use, reuse, adaptation, and sharing." Covering subjects: art, language arts, math, science, social studies, and more!
BreakoutEDU - BreakoutEDU has put together a collection of free resources and games for your student to continue learning in a fun way from home!
CK-12 - Covering many different subjects, CK-12 has created a program where each lesson has a reading passage, videos, optional review questions, and self-graded practice questions.
CMU-CS - Is your child interested in computer sciences? Be sure to get them signed up here! As they put it, "A novel, world-class, online, interactive high school computer science curriculum that is entirely free."
Fiveable - Fiveable offers free resources for AP students including live reviews, live trivia, and study guides! In one year, Fiveable had 40k students using this platform!
Free Math - Free Math allows students to work on math by creating their assignments directly from problems in their existing materials, no setup required.
Kahn Academy - Kahn Academy offers exercises, quizzes, and tests in 40 languages so students can practice and master skills, as well as instructional videos to help students learn or review material.
Mystery Science - "To help educators during this time of coronavirus, we have pulled our most popular science lessons and are offering them for anyone to use for free. No account or login is needed."
ShareMyLesson - Free lesson plans for all ages that cover subjects like art, language arts, foreign languages, math, science, and more! You do need to set up an account!
PenPal Schools - Learn with people from around the world! "At PenPal Schools we are offering free access to our programming to all teachers and schools affected by the virus."
HippoCampus - Explore over 7,000 free videos in 13 subject areas for grades middle school-college.
Folger - Who doesn't love Shakespeare?!? The Folger Shakespear Library offers free videos, podcasts, texts, and teaching resources about William Shakespeare and his works!
TEDEd - TED offers a fun and creative way to learn through videos presentations! Your child can learn about where words come from, philosophy, physics, history, how blood transfusions work and so much more!
Hillsdale College - Hillsdale College offers free online lectures that cover many topics including politics, history, literature and more!
KET's PBS Learning Media - KIXE and PBS have curated FREE, standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans, and more
Extra Credits - This team has created shows that educate as they entertain, and encourage people both to explore new subjects and think critically about topics they care about.
Bob Ross - What better way to stay busy and do something happy than painting? Bob Ross has fascinated people for many years with his art videos! So stock up on paper, paint and brushes!
History Matters - 10 minute history videos that are engaging and super interesting!
Conjugemos- If your child is learning a second language, or if they want to start while they are not in the classroom, you can access this fun program for free by clicking here!
DuoLingo - This free and well known program is another great resource for keeping up on foreign language learning!