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101 Things To Do With Kids At Home

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There’s a lot of questions out there right now about what to do with your kids at home while school is out.  As parents, we may need to find new ways to entertain ours kids at home for longer periods of time.

Sometimes in the midst of chaos, creating a small oasis of normalcy and continuity is very important.  As a homeschool mom, there’s a lot of learning activities that I do with my kids at home that are ideal for this situation.

Check out this list of 101 things to do at home with kids during the Coronavirus including learning activities, online programs, crafts, games and more.

My first suggestion is to think beyond the usual textbook!  Right now is a great time to improvise and make use of what you already have.  For example, design a new board game out of an old one, look for new ways to use old sporting equipment, ask a friend or family member to teach your child a new skill via Skype.  The list of learning opportunities from home are endless!

101 Things To Do With Kids At Home

To get your creative juices flowing, I’ve made a list of 101 learning activities, crafts and games that you can do with your kids at home to help keep them occupied while school is out.  There’s a combination of educational programs, indoor and outdoor games, YouTube channels and more.  So read on for more ideas!

Boy doing activities at home

Fun Activities To Do With Kids At Home

Backyard Games & Activities For Kids

  • Paint with watercolors on the driveway or grass
  • Play with chalk
  • Play frisbee golf
  • Set up a tent in the backyard and go camping
  • Have an outdoor movie night
  • Play tic-tac-toe with sticks and rocks
  • Play hopscotch
  • Jump rope
  • Read a book outside under the stars with a flashlight
  • Make a ninja warrior course outdoors
  • Use chalk and set up and play a game of four square

How to keep kids busy at home during the CoronavirusArts & Crafts Activities For Kids

  • Make a collage out of old magazines and newspapers
  • Make necklaces out string and pasta
  • Make a life size self portrait of yourself out of butcher paper
  • Create a journal
  • Teach your kids to knit or crochet with Raverly.com
  • Terra Arts is hosting free online art classes starting on Monday, March 16
  • Art Kids Hub Here offers free art lessons for kids including how to draw and some paint projects
  • Learn origami
  • Studio DIY is hosting daily camps you can do at home.  She offers ideas for music camps, ice cream camps and more.
  • Make a kindness tree
  • Hello Kids offers free online drawing lessons with hundreds of drawings to choose from

Stem Activities For Kids

At Home STEAM Activities

Kids listening to audiobooks

Educational Podcasts For Kids

Learn in Color put together a great list of educational podcasts for kids.  This list is wonderful to have on hand in case you need a short parenting break.

AudioBooks For Kids

  • Audible by Amazon has millions of audiobooks in all genres available to download.
  • Audiobooks.net has over 40,000 bestsellers, new releases and classic audiobooks in every genre. You can stream or download audiobooks directly to your iPhone, iPad, Android smartphone or computer.
  • Audiobook Treasury has classics such as Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Alice in Wonderland and Adventures of Sherlock Holmes available to download for free.
  • Books Should Be Free has 7,000+ free audio books and ebooks downloads in all genres.
  • Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 format.
  • Libby, by Overdrive offers from audiobooks through local libraries.
  • Thought Audio has a free selection of classic literature and philosophy books.

Live Webcams & Virtual Field Trips For Kids

  • Aquarium of the Pacific is offering a variety of online programming so that the public may continue to engage with their exhibits and animals and learn about the ocean.
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium offers you the chance to learn about the ocean from anywhere.  Choose a live cam and be mesmerized by moon jellies or see how many seven gill sharks you can spot!  You can also watch their daily live feedings.
  • The National Parks Service has live webcams which allow you to get up close to wildlife without disturbing them.  Watch the famous brown bears of Brooks River, go on a live dive in Channel Islands, or take a peek in a Bald Eagle’s Nest.
  • Take a virtual field trip to one of these 500 museums and galleries around the world.

Free field trip guides for students

Best Learning Apps For Kids

Online Learning Programs, Games & Videos For Kids

  • ABCMouse is a carefully designed program of more than 850 lessons in ten levels. As your child completes each lesson, he or she is guided to the next one and is motivated to continue learning by ABCmouse.com’s Tickets and Rewards System.
  • Purple Mash contains thousands of opportunities for learning including math, spelling and grammar, story creation, game design, collaborative writing and art, to name a few.
  • Breakout EDU is for students K-12 and covers all subjects.  They have put together a collection of digital games that students can play at home.  Students can click on any game and start playing!
  • Century is offering students access to thousands of learning resources in English, math and science.  Your child’s learning will be supported by an AI engine that creates a personalized learning path for them, identifies gaps in knowledge and remedies misconception.
  • Curriki is for all ages and covers all subjects.  They have hundreds of on-demand lessons with free and open content that is accessible to all.
  • Cool School is a Youtube channel where daring superheroes, funny storytellers, kooky arts & crafts teachers, and mean-o villains unite to learn, laugh, and play. Whether you’re going on exciting adventures with Drew Pendous, watching stories come to life with Ms. Booksy, or making exciting crafts with Crafty Carol, it’s never a boring day at Cool School!
  • Curiosity Stream is a video-on-demand streaming service that delivers nonfiction documentaries and series about science, nature, history, technology, society and lifestyle.
  • Discovery Education is a digital curriculum resources for K–12 students.  They are offer award-winning digital textbooks, multimedia content, videos and more for all subjects.
  • Ducksters has print and video resources and online games for all subjects.
  • Fiveable offers free resources for AP students including live reviews, live trivia, and study guides.
  • Flocabulary has hip-hop videos and creativity tools that gives teachers new ways to captivate students while engaging them in academically rigorous content.  Free 30 day trial.
  • Freckle covers all subjects and has set up a free level access where students in K-8 can access Freckle for free.
  • Fun Brain has online educational games for kids of all ages.  They teach math, grammar, science, spelling, history.
  • Gamilab is an online platform where you can find and create easy, fun and educational games.  Gamilab uses game elements to motivate and engage players to learn faster and better, and to be more involved in their learning.  By using elements like points, stars, highscores and badges they make learning feel like a game and motivate the player to learn while playing.
  • Good2Learn offers online math and English lessons at your own pace.  They offer a free 14 day trial.
  • HippoCampus has over 7,000 free videos in 13 subject areas.  You can create a free account and create customized playlists.
  • Izzit offers free, high-quality entertaining and educational videos with tons of additional resources including teachers guides, activities, quizzes, and much more.
  • KET’s PBS Learning Media offers free videos, games, lesson plans and supplemental materials that can be searched by grade level, subject area, keyword and standard. Content contributors include KET, PBS, PBS Kids, NASA, the National Archives, the Library of Congress and many more.
  • Khan Academy covers kindergarten through early college math, grammar, science, history, AP courses, SAT preparation, and more.  We use Khan Academy for math and love it!  They offer exercises, quizzes, and tests so students can practice and master skills, as well as instructional videos to help students learn or review material. 
  • Khan Academy Kids is a free app for kids ages two to seven.  In addition to building early literacy, reading, writing, language, and math skills, the app encourages creativity and builds social-emotional skills.  It is 100% free, with no ads and no in-app purchases.
  • Learning Games For Kids has online learning games and songs for kids that are fun, teach important skills for preschool and elementary school kids and they’re free.
  • Open Up Resources offers top-rated curricula in math and ELA for free.
  • Outschool.com is my favorite place for kids to take online classes! Outschool offers unique online classes from hundreds of independent teachers.  Each class meets via group video chat.  Right now Outschool is making $100,000 worth of classes available for free to affected families.
  • PebbleGo is a curricular content hub specifically designed for K-3 students. Packed with informational articles, ready-made activities, and literacy supports for students of all abilities, it boosts engagement and fosters independent learning in core subject areas.
  • Pixton allow kids to make fun comics for school assignments.
  • Scholastic Learn at Home provides 20 days’ worth of active learning journeys designed to reinforce and sustain educational opportunities for students in K-9 who are unable to attend school.
  • Spelling City has online learning and printables to help with spelling.
  • TED-Ed is TED’s youth and education initiative.  TED-Ed’s mission is to spark and celebrate the ideas of teachers and students around the world with online videos and presentations about all sorts of topics.

Best online reading programs for kids

Online Reading Programs and Games For Kids

  • CommonLit offers over 2,000 high-quality free reading passages for grades 3-12.
  • Epic! is the leading digital library for lids 12 and under.  Get instant access to 35,000 of the best books, learning videos, quizzes & more.
  • Hommer offers complete guided lessons on ABCs, phonics, and sight words.  Your child can tracing letters, build fine-motor skills, and improve working memory and story-telling skills.
  • Main Lesson offers free children’s classics to read online.
  • Newsela’s entire product line of ELA, Social Studies and Science articles are available to read online for free for the remainder of the 2019/2020 school year.
  • Reading Eggs makes learning to read interesting and engaging for kids, with great online reading games and activities.  I have used Reading Eggs with both of my children and it helped them learn their letters, sounds and beginning sight words.  My kids love the games, songs, golden eggs and other rewards which motivated them to keep exploring and learning.  Reading Eggs offers a free trial!
  • Storyline Online is offering free use of their children’s literacy resource featuring the world’s best storytellers reading books aloud.  Each video includes an activity guide with lessons for K-5 students to do at home.
  • Vooks brings children’s books to life with animated illustrations, read-a-long text and narrated story.  The ad-free platform features a variety of titles that have been engaging students all across the world.   Currently, they are offer a 1 year free trial membership for teachers and homeschool educators and a 1 free month for parents.

Little girl being homeschooled

Online Writing Programs For Kids

  • Mozi is a research-supported platform that creates writing prompts in all subjects with a matching interface for students to construct their essays.  When students use Mozi, they create focused, organized, evidence-based writing in any course.
  • No Red Ink builds stronger writers through interest-based curriculum, adaptive exercises, and actionable data.
  • Read Write Think has engaging reading and writing activities for K-12.
  • StoriumEdu is an online multi-player game that turns kids into motivated, skillful writers. Virtual story cards and fun game mechanics inspire writing, while student creativity and collaboration drive the heart of the story.

Printable Worksheets For All Ages

  • Order a workbook at your child’s grade level at Lakeshore, Walmart, or Amazon.
  • 1+1+1=1 is one of my absolutely favorite websites for learning activities for younger kids.  I have been following Carisa for years and have used several of her printable by themes with my own kids.
  • Education.com is where I get a lot of my grammar and math worksheets for my daughter.  The site has over 30,000 worksheets, games, and more for PreK-5.  You can download a limited number of worksheets for free.
  • Teachers Pay Teachers offers a wide variety of worksheets for all PreK-12 subjects.  I use this site often to find resources for my daughter.
  • The Teacher’s Guide offers free worksheets for all subjects and grade levels.
  • Worksheets Works has hundreds of worksheets with millions of combinations.  It’s easy to make your own worksheets for each child.

Best online math programs for kids

At Home Math Activities For Kids

Now is a great time to have your children work on their math facts and math fluency.  The good news is that Amazon still open for business!  And with Amazon Prime you can get learning supplies in as little as 1 to 2 days!

To work on math with your child, you can use good-old-fashioned flashcards, a math workbook or play a math board game.  You can also use math beads to teach your child math skills–like addition and subtraction–and pattern-making or memorization skills.

Online Math Programs and Games For Kids

  • Aplus Math has free math worksheets, math games, math flashcards, and more.
  • A Maths Dictionary For Kids is an animated, interactive online math dictionary for students which explains over 630 common mathematical terms and math words in simple language with definitions, examples, activities, practice and calculators.
  • CheckMath supports various topics including basic arithmetic, fractions, equations and many more. Suitable for ages 10 to 16.
  • Delta Math is a free website for students covering a wide range of math content from middle school through AP Calculus.
  • Homeschool Math has customizable worksheets, by grade level and topic.
  • Hot Math provides step-by-step answers to math homework problems from school textbooks (algebra, geometry, and calculus)
  • Prodigy is a curriculum-aligned math game loved by over 50 million children in Grades 1‑8.  My daughter plays this app almost everyday to supplement her current homeschool math curriculum.  She loves it!
  • Math.com has practice problems, calculators and tools, games, and worksheets.
  • Math Antics has basic math videos and worksheets.
  • Math Game Time offers free math games, worksheets, homework help and videos for PreK – 7th grade.
  • MathGames.com offers online games and printable worksheets to make learning math fun.
  • Mathseeds.com teaches kids aged 3-9 the core math and problem solving skills needed to be successful at school with fun, highly interactive and rewarding lessons.   They offer a free trial.
  • Math Planet offers free high school math courses in Pre-algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Geometry and SAT and ACT practice tests.
  • Math Playground has free online math games for problem solving, logic games and number puzzles kids love to play.
  • Math Play has a variety of online fun games that are suitable for elementary and middles school students.  They are organized by grade level, content, and game type.
  • Math Vids has tutorial videos created by teachers and organized by course and topic.
  • Multiplication.com has online multiplication math facts games.
  • Splash Learn is a complete K-5 online math learning program.
  • Zearn Math is top-rated K-5 curriculum. that builds deep understanding and a love of learning math for all students.  It is free.

Best online science programs for kids

Online Science Programs, Games and Videos For Kids

  • Alchemie makes chemistry learning resources and is are offering Mechanisms (software for modeling organic chemistry reaction mechanisms) and ModelAR (a virtual molecular modeling program) for free.
  • Amazing Space is a space telescope education program.  From learning about the solar system to black holes, they have videos and information about all sorts of space topics.
  • The American Chemistry Society has ChemMatters magazines, targeted for high schoolers, available online.  In addition to chemistry, there are article that are biographies of chemists, and historical articles.
  • Crash Course Kids is a bi-weekly show on YouTube that is all about grade school science.  They look at Earth, Habitats, Space, Chemical Reactions, Engineering, and much much more with host Sabrina Cruz.
  • Discovery Mindblow offers exciting hands-on science experiences through the Mindblown app.
  • How Stuff Works is an award-winning source of unbiased, reliable, easy-to-understand answers and explanations of how the world actually works.
  • Magic School Bus on Netflix stars Frizzle and her students as they travel to outer space, under the sea, through an anthill and even inside the human body.
  • Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics — all in one minute!
  • Mystery Science is the creator of the most popular science lessons for K-5 students.  They put together a list of the easiest science lessons to do at home and put them all up for free on a page to make it easy.  No signup required, no student login needed.
  • NASA Kids’ Club is a place to play games and learn about NASA.
  • National Geographic Kids has amazing facts about animals, science, history and geography, along with fun competitions, games and more.
  • Physics Girl is a YouTube channel created by Dianna Cowern that adventures into the physical sciences with experiments, demonstrations, and cool new discoveries. Physics Girl has videos for every atom and eve.
  • ScienceWerkz provides Middle School science units for self-paced study in chemistry, earth science, general science, life science, and physical science.  Right now they are offering 5 free ScienceWerkz downloadable texts.
  • The Brain Scoop is a Youtube channel hosted by Emily, the Chief Curiosity Correspondent of The Field Museum in Chicago. She features all sorts of cool science projects, interesting facts and interviews with experts in the field on her channel.

Online Social Studies Programs and Videos For Kids

  • American Girl historical movies are about courageous, noble girls growing up in different time periods.  They are packed filled with great lessons: both life and historical.
  • Ben’s Guide to US Government is designed to inform students, parents, and educators about the Federal Government.
  • EDSITEment has a wide range of history videos and podcasts to digitized primary sources and interactive activities and games.
  • History Net has history lessons, articles, crossword puzzles for all ages.
  • Liberty’s Kids is an animated series designed for teaching young children early American history, mostly the American Revolutionary War.  There are 40 videos in all.
  • Library of Congress offers teacher-created, classroom-tested lesson plans using primary sources from the Library of Congress.
  • The National Archives has online history lessons, videos and resources.
  • Seterra is the ultimate map quiz site.  You can use Seterra from any web browser to explore the world and learn about its countries, capitals, cities, rivers, lakes and more!
  • Smithsonian For Kids allows kids to explore more than a million resources, create personal collections and educational experiences, and share their work online.  They also have fun games and apps for learning about science.
  • Time For Kids engages elementary students with authentic journalism, inspiring them to join the national discourse on current topics, 
  • Who Was? Adventure App is a popular trivia game based on the best selling book series for kids.

How to exercise during the Coronavirus

Online Exercise Classes For Kids

  • Cosmic Kids Yoga offers free classes on Youtube that teach self-regulation, focus and empathy.  Plus the videos are so fun!
  • The Down Dog app and Yoga for Beginners is currently free due to download.
  • Firestorm Freerunning & Acrobatics has free parkour and acrobatic training videos on YouTube.
  • GoNoodle offers free online movement and mindfulness videos created by child development experts.
  • PBS Kids in Motion has free exercise videos and fitness challengs for kids.
  • Peloton offers 30 days of free exercise videos when you sign up for a trial account.  Their exercises are great to do with kids at a moderate pace.
  • Martial Arts Training.tv offers free martial arts beginners videos on YouTube.
  • Miss Melodee has a YouTube channel with free online dance lessons for kids ages 2-7.  Helps to keep kids active, moving, and learning.

Online Performing Arts Programs For Kids

  • Classics For Kids brings classical music’s great composers to life through music and stories.  They have a podcast, online listening programs and classical music games for kids.
  • Music To Your Home offers online music lessons for all ages and all types of instruments.
  • PBS Dance Appreciation encourages and explores the participation, analysis, appreciation, and history of dance.  Students can create diagrams to compare different styles of dance, from clogging to stomping to ballet.
  • Red Yarn Productions is streaming live children’s music concerts on Facebook several times a week.
  • Sight Reading Factory offers unlimited music exercises for sight reading and sight singing practice.  They offer free membership through June.
  • Soundfly offers online music courses for 3rd-12 graders.

Online Foreign Language Classes For Kids

  • Conjugemos offers a “use without account” option has vocabulary, grammar, listening activities and games in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Korean, and Latin.
  • Duolingo is where you can learn 30+ languages online with bite-size lessons based on science.
  • Kids’ Club Spanish School is an online immersion school that has certified teachers that make learning Spanish fun.
  • PandaTree offers online Chinese and Spanish classes for kids and makes learning fun.
  • PBS World Languages brings world languages and cultures into your home with resources on Spanish, French, and more.

How to help children learn at home during the Coronavirus

Online Technology Classes For Kids

  • Code Academy teaches anyone how to code for free.
  • ICompute offers free online computer and animation programs for students.  Designed for independent work, pupils can work through activities and exercises online at home.
  • Minecraft: Education Edition is a free game-based learning platform that promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in an immersive digital environment.
  • Tynker Coding for Kids offers over 3,700 fun modules in block coding, Python, Web Dev, and more!  Right now they are offering 30% off new subscriptions.  If your school or district is planning a closure for preventative health-related reasons, please complete this form to get full access to the entire Tynker curriculum and platform at no cost
  • TypingClub is a free online typing program for all ages.
  • Vidcode is an online coding program for teens.  Vidcode offers the #1 research-backed standards-aligned computer science courses, focused on open-ended projects.

I hope this list 101 Things To Do With Kids At Home During The Coronavirus will help keep y0ur kids occupied and learning during this time change and transition.  If you know of any more fun activities or online programs that are great for kids, please let me know in the comment section below.   The more we share, the more we can support each other during this time.

Stay safe my fiends!  My prayers are with you!

Jilleen

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