“Best of” — Kid-Centered Resources for Parents & Educators at Home
Let’s be clear: COVID-19 is not the time to worry about whether or not your children (or you!) are achieving at the highest possible levels in a typical academic sense. It’s a time for surviving, for connecting, for curiosity, and for practicing patience, self-compassion, grace, and hopefully laughter.
There is an extreme diversity of experience with the shelter-in-place rules. And, there are tons of resources being thrown at parents and educators — coming through my own inbox at a rate of 5–10 per day.
Here’s a curated list of a few to check out if you haven’t already found your favorites.
For Everyone
Talking with Children about COVID
- Covibook
- National Association of School Psychologists Tips
- ChildTrends resources for supporting children’s emotional well-being
Communities of Care — Fostering Relationships
Stress & Resilience
- Asset Education — videos & tools created BY STUDENTS for SEL/Stress reduction.
K-12 Resource Lists
Many other people have compiled lists…which are the best?
- **YAK Learning — What if we thought about learning at home being mostly about thinking — not about learning standardized, grade-level content, but about practicing the kinds of thinking that contribute to a life well lived?
- **Wide Open School — Common Sense, XQ Institute, Scholastic, Khan Academy and many other big name partners brought together resources for everything from planning your day to academics to play and emotional learning for both families and educators.
Additional:
- Transcend: Pop-Up Homeschool
- Education Reimagined: Distance Learning Resource Center
- Search Institute Student Motivation Resources
- Digital Promise — Online Learning Resources
Pre-K Resources
- Zero to Three — Resources for 12–24months
- Sesame Workshop Caring for Each Other — resources on how to talk with children about COVID-19, making a routine “for the now normal”, a virtual hug from Elmo, etc.
- Montessori activities here for toddlers and preschoolers — most of the materials families may already have at home.
- Tinkergarten at home — outside and at-home activities.
For Fun & Exploration
PLAY
- Camp Galileo Anywhere — Spark Imagination Activities
- PlayWorks — Virtual Recess & Play
ART
- Art in Action — Free Art Lessons
- ProjectArt — Free At-Home Art Projects
- Mo Willems daily “lunch doodle” videos
VIRTUAL MUSEUM & ZOO TOURS
- Cantor Museum @ Stanford — Virtual Tour
- Taronga Zoo, Australia — Virtual Tours (watch the lions, tigers, bears :) )
- List of many different tours
READING TIME
- Tandem Bay Area is doing daily readings
- Erin Jones reading children’s books each morning in different languages — Monday and Wednesday in English, Tuesday and Thursday in Spanish, and Friday in either Danish, French, Spanish, or English!
- Many different authors reading their books aloud — list here.
MATH
- Math for Love — math games
- YouCubed — #youcubedathome activities
SCIENCE
- National Geographic Kids — videos, games, & more.
- Mystery Science — popular science activities for kids of all ages
- Steve Spangler — 50 science experiments in 50 days. The videos are on Facebook and Instagram: @SpanglerScience
- KidsQuest — HomeQuest — art, science, engineering activities led by educators
OUTDOORS
- Outdoor Families Magazine — 130+ Outdoor Learning Activities
EXERCISE
- YMCA free classes
- Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube
- GoNoodle good energy at home activities
For Educators & School Leaders
- EdSpace — Connect & discuss with other educators
- World Savvy — Free Digital Learning for Educators
- Community of Care — Build connection, community, & healthy relationships — Search Institute Developmental Relationships Ideas
- Modern Learners — “School in Flux” weekly forum
- Learning Revolution Conference
- Speculative Education Colloquium
- Ready 4 K — virtual family engagement and parenting curriculum provider Free through June
