Well, if you can, enjoy the fresh air, read stories together, play games, make art, bake, invent, make music, scooter/bike, stack stones and sticks, set off volcanoes, etc.
However, as many of you know, there are some amazing online resources out there for, yes, engaging and distracting kids on their own as well as for finding things to do together. I can’t begin to find or list them all, but I want to share a few before I get back to work.
Something new I just found: OLogy, a whole bunch of fun science explorations, games, activities, etc., from the American Museum of Natural History
Here you go:
Happen, Inc. Blueprints to make stuff!
Wizards of Wright DIY Make more stuff!
NASA Science Space Place So many fun games and things to explore!
NASA Expeditionary Skills for Life Great videos on surviving with a small isolated group of people! Hmm …
Virtual Museum Tours A whole list of places to explore from home!
Speaking of, do you like pirates? The New England Pirate Museum
Google Earth This can keep someone busy exploring for a loooooong time.
You can also play Carmen Sandiego on Google Earth!
Little Inventors Did I mention making stuff?
PBS Kids and NOVA have lots of interesting stuff, including a virtual journey into the pyramids!
National Geographic Kids is another great resource with games, science lab, explorer academy, and more
Learn-at-home activities for different age groups from Scholastic
Tinker Lab Lots of great activities for different ages, including Stop Motion (Dev Petty just reminded me how fun this can be when she posted a video based on her book Claymates.)
The Who Was? Show, based on the series of Who Was/Is? books
The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, E-Learning, and Online Collections
COSI (Columbus’ Center of Science and Industry) Visit to watch daily video lessons and do hands-on science activities!
Moooore virtual explorations, this time of five national parks!
Whoa! And this links to 33 national park tours!
Oooh, and this virtual tour of Carlsbad Caverns
How about a virtual walk through Central Park in NYC?
Or the Great Wall of China?
Some fun DIY crafts here, plus making your own stained glass art here
Cartooning Club How to Draw Videos Lots of tutorials on drawing your favorite characters … Not too tough.
Live Opera anyone?
Follow Sue the T-Rex around the Field Museum on Twitter
Also, I believe Discovery Ed and a number of other education sites are offering free access for now. Here’s a list of Digital Word Games for kids from Scholastic.
Need physical activity?
Special Olympics exercises to do with the kids
Katie Bowman’s site dedicated to family movement
Got Star Wars? Marvel?
Aaand many children’s authors maintain cool websites. Look them up! Some might be mostly biographical, but others have fun read-alouds, games, activities and other things.
Check out these authors. I had them all linked but the post lost the links when I copied them over. I'll go back and add later but a quick search should pull up their websites:
Judy Blume
Sandra Boynton
Jan Brett
Eric Carle
Roald Dahl
Josh Funk
Cornelia Funke
Neil Gaiman’s Mouse Circus
Jess Keating
Grace Lin
Stacy McAnulty
Yuyi Morales
Mary Pope Osborne’s Magic Tree House
R.J. Palacio’s Wonder the Book
Miranda Paul
Dev Petty
Dav Pilkey
Jack Prelutsky
Peter Reynolds
Rick Riordan
Ahem, yes, J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World
Shel Silverstein
Geronimo Stilton
Lauren Tarshis’ I Survived
Mo Willems’ Pigeon Presents
and Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems!
Puffin Books has a You Tube channel dedicated to authors reading aloud their picture books, and they post fun activities there, too. You can also look up story read-alouds on You Tube, like Once Upon a Story and Brightly Storytime. Also, Charlesbridge Publishing has Remote Author Content available. Authors read stories, etc.
Kid-Lit TV has great read-out-loud videos and other activities!
Finally, check your library websites. They have SO MUCH. I promise there is stuff on your local library website that you didn’t know was there!
Wow! And I just saw this list, compiled by Publishers Weekly. It has a ton of great resources from the kid lit community (National Geo, DK, Resources for Rebel Girls, and various other publishers): How Kids’ Lit Is Responding to the Coronavirus.
(from March 14, 2020)
Yikes! This seems like a long time ago. I've stumbled on some new links and activities, tours, that sort of thing. I'll add a new post with those sometime soon. Oh, and this is not a personal challenge. We didn't do all this in a day, a week, or a month. We've spent lots of time being frustrated, relying on the television, and just trying to get by, too! We have yet to thoroughly explore all the links I listed. I just like to have them as an easy go-to!
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