While most of you have a little school hiatus during this virus outbreak, I wanted to share our favorite educational things to do at home with kids. From typing to reading to math, these are great programs for all your kids.
If you’re at home all day with your kids, here are a few things you can do
Yesterday on stories I shared a bunch of my favorite resources for things to do at home with kids while we’re all quarantined for a few weeks.
I definitely don’t think full blown homeschool will work for everyone, but there are a few things you can do at home each day that will give your life a little bit of structure and keep your kids minds busy during those hours they’d normally be at school.
These are our favorite educational things to do at home with kids
MATH:
- Revolution Math: It’s a once a week online class for grades 2-5. You can try your first month for only $1 right here!
- K5 Learning: They have great FREE worksheets you can download for grades K-6. They also provide answers sheets so you don’t have to remember how to do 5th grade math 😉
- Khan Academy: They have FREE online classes for Pre-K through high school!
- Brain Quest Workbooks: This is actually a workbook for all subjects, and Brain Quest makes them for grades Pre-K through 6th grade. You can also usually find them at Costco, but they’re right here on Amazon if Costco is a little too crazy for your liking right now.
TYPING:
- TypingClub.com. We’ve been using this program for years and it’s fantastic. Just create a FREE account so you can track your progress. My kids each have an account and they have become fantastic typists with just 15 minutes a day!
- Write letters to friends and grandparents! I’m not sure if germs could be carried through the mail, but to be safe, have your kids practice their typing by sending an email to a friend or to their grandparents! Snap a picture of the artwork they’ve been doing at home and send that as well.
CODING:
- Studio.Code.Org. This is a really amazing FREE program to help kids learn to code. My oldest son, now age 9, went through the whole first program and loved it. We definitely recommend. It gets those little brains thinking in a new way, and coding is the future!
ART:
- Art for Kids Hub YouTube Channel. We’ve been using this art channel for several years and it’s a fantastic way to keep your kiddos busy as an alternative to a tv show. It’s a step by step drawing tutorial, and they have hundreds of videos with characters, animals, food, and more. This is fun for all ages!
- Color Happy. A $5/month coloring page subscription with tons of fantastic coloring pages for you and your kids. If you need something to calm you down at the end of the day, a coloring page is the perfect way to do it and Tara’s coloring pages are so fun to do.
- Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems. Several people told me about this — Mo Willems, the author of “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” is doing a daily drawing during his lunch time. If your children are fans of this author, definitely check these out.
- Art projects on Pinterest. My babysitter checked Pinterest and found an Aurora Borealis art project with oil pastels on black construction paper. My boys did it with her yesterday and they loved it! There are tons more ideas on Pinterest with q-tip art, finger painting, and so much more.
- Coloring pages on Google Images. We often use Google Images and search “knight coloring pages” or “ninjago coloring pages” or “Pokemon coloring pages” to find pages to print for my boys. Google images is full of them and they’re all free!
QUIET TIME:
- Quiet time. While your kids are home for the next few weeks, definitely enforce quiet time. This is mandatory in our home during the summer months, and has become very mandatory now that we’re quarantined. It’s a solid hour of time by themselves in separate rooms with no screens. It’s a great time to be creative, be quiet, be bored, and recharge. I shared all the details about how to do it right here.
- Great, easy ideas for your kids to do during quiet time:
- LEGOs (here’s the 30 day LEGO challenge I mentioned on Instagram yesterday)
- Coloring
- Drawing
- Puzzles
- Playing with pipe cleaners
- Dolls
- Building blocks
ACTIVITY BOOKS:
- Paint by Sticker. These are really fun sticker books that create beautiful pictures. They’re better for slightly older kids (still too hard for my 4 year old), and my kids could spend an hour doing one of these!
- I Spy Books. You can get these at the library, or if your library is closed you can find them for pretty cheap on Amazon. These were my favorite books as kids and they have so many fun ones now.
BAKING and COOKING:
- Learning to cook and bake is a great skill that all kids should learn. Take this extra time at home to bring your kids in the kitchen with you more often. You could also assign each of them a night where they’re “in charge” of dinner.
- This is a good list of easy recipes you can make with your kids
KITS:
- Kiwi Co. These are amazing kits that are based on the STEAM model (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) and come monthly. They have them for ages 0-99 so there is literally something for everyone. You can get your first box for FREE, just pay $4.95 shipping. Just click right here!
- Doughsie Dough. I’m not a big fan of play dough, but I love these boxes. Each box has a theme and comes with three colors of play dough and a bunch of accessories (like vehicles, jewels, rocks, etc) to make fun creative scenes out of play dough. They’re super creative and my kids spend hours with them.
PODCASTS:
- Circle Round. This is my 4 year old’s favorite podcast right now. It’s quick 20-25 minute folktale stories. They all have a good message and have very fun narrators.
- Wow in the World. All three of my kids love this podcast. They’re educational, but simultaneously really zany and fun. Your kids will laugh their heads off in basically every episode.
AUDIOBOOKS:
- Our favorite audiobooks and how to start. I compiled a whole list of great audiobooks for kids. This is a great thing to do during quiet time or car rides! We use CDs borrowed from the library or purchased on Amazon, or digital audiobooks rented through Overdrive or Libby through our local library.
- This is the CD player we have.
READING:
- Our favorite read aloud books and series. I read aloud to my kids every night before bed, but since they’re home during the day right now we’re reading in the morning as well. This is a great resource that can help you get started with reading aloud, and get some good book ideas.
- Epic! is a resource I hadn’t heard of, but someone recommended it and it’s currently FREE if you get access from your school teacher. It’s a library of free books for kids 12 and under, plus quizzes and learning videos. We’ll definitely be checking this out.
LITTLE KID EDUCATIONAL APPS:
- ABC Mouse. This is an app we’ve been using for a few months and San loves it. It’s fun and educational, and teaches lots of different subjects. You can get a FREE 30 day trial right here!
- Homer. We just recently started using this app for San and it’s a great Learn to Read program! Try it for FREE for 30 days right here.
- Endless Wordplay. Sanny plays on this app every once in a while, and it’s a great, fun way to learn the sounds of each letter. It’s also FREE!
SEWING:
- Modern Girl’s Guide to Sewing. If you want to take advantage of this time off to learn a new skill, try my online sewing course! We have a beginner course, an intermediate course, or a bundle of the two. It’s all 40% off right now with the code STAYATHOME!
GET OUTSIDE
- Leaf Rubbing. Remember leaf rubbing when you were a kid? Collect a few leaves outside, place them underneath a plain sheet of paper, and rub a crayon on its side over the paper. You’ll see the leaf come through!
- Nature walk scavenger hunt. Hop on Pinterest and search “nature walk scavenger hunt.” There are so many! Print it off and take your kids on a walk. See how many you can find.
- Go on a walk. Don’t overcomplicate things. Just walk out the door and wander the neighborhood.
- Take your kids on a bike ride.
- Go for a hike.
FAMILY GAMES
- 13 of our favorite family games. Don’t forget to have fun as a family! These are some of our favorite family games, both board games and card games!
OTHER GOOD RESOURCES:
- Scholastic Classroom. Scholastic is offering free online classes while kids are out of school – I haven’t personally tried these classes, but it’s an amazing FREE resource for grades Pre-K through 12th grade!
I shared on my instagram stories yesterday about how we’re fitting some of these things in each day, and how we’re structuring our day while we’re on lockdown with the virus.
I made a chart you can see below, and you can download a printable blank version right here.
DOWNLOAD A BLANK SPREADSHEET RIGHT HERE
If you know of other great resources for educational things to do at home with kids, leave a comment here or over on my Instagram, and I’ll add things in as they’re shared!
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This is a good selection of useful things, books and games for children. Thank you, as usual, I wrote down a lot of useful things for myself. I think that it is very important to engage with children from an early age and teach them to create or read. Now I am reading an article about teaching your child how to read, which gives a lot of tips on how to start this difficult process. I think that it is very important to attract the child so that useful things become interesting
Thank you for the resources. Can tou rec any coding programs for kids? My 10 yr old keeps asking about them but i have nonclue wHere to start.
Thanknyou
As for me, at this age, children are best placed in the maximum environment for their development, and acquaintance with the outside world, communication with other children. You can sign your kids up at a nearby childcare centre, and be sure that competent caregivers will take care of your child and their development. He will be interested not only in such games in a new place for him, but also in meeting and communicating with other children, this will significantly contribute to his socialization
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I think internet home education is quite common. All children should know how to cook and bake, because it’s a valuable skill. During your time off, be sure to encourage your children to cook alongside you in the kitchen. You might assign them an evening each in which they would be in charge of making dinner. https://customessayorder.com/write-essays-for-money/write-nursing-essays-for-money
A PYTHON course https://midnightcoding.org/online-python-course-for-kids/ is a great way to learn the language and develop your skills. You will spend most of your time in front of your computer learning the language. The lessons are broken down into weekly exercises and interactive lectures that focus on developing your programming skills and applying them to various analytical problems. Each exercise consists of a short introduction and computer-based tasks that you will have to complete. In addition, you will be asked to submit your own codes, output figures, and answers. Although the instructors will encourage you to collaborate with other students, you will need to submit your own work to get the highest grade possible.
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