“Have a routine,” they said,
“It will be easier,” they said.
The first month of shelter-at-home came and went, and here we are, still in it.
In the middle of a 2-month (or more) “Shelter in Place” order to stay home here in the Mitten state, and many states nationwide…
Running out of indoor activities, missing my Target runs, or playtimes with our friends, watching all the things on NETFLIX and Disney+, trying to explain to little ones what on earth is going on, without instilling fear in them, all while trying to work from home, staying safe, and keeping others safe, while struggling to find a continual normal- because social distancing ISN’T MEANT TO BE NORMAL FOR ANY OF US!
Not for you,
Not for me,
and definitely not for those who can’t even wipe their own bottoms, let alone feed themselves ONE meal, or ONE of the 876 snacks they’ve come to demand every day.
Are you with us? If you are, we’ve been racking our brains, looking through resources for YOU to bring to YOUR home to help you in any way we can. Aside from our amazing Boredom Busters for Couples, Families, and Kids with 40+ pages filled with pre-made activities, and dates, which – you can and should totalllllly still snag up today while they’re still, “pay what you can”!
But what about those times where you need a mental break? Where you need to be able to sit down, work, or completely veg out for a second while your kids are occupied by something NEW, that they aren’t bored with, and you don’t feel *as* guilty about (mama, LET THAT GO! Embrace screen time and virtual/interactive play!)
Or, when YOU just want a mental break but don’t have the energy to sort through your closet to find a jigsaw puzzle or favorite book?
We’ve put together a list of 100 Educational/Virtual Activities To Survive Stay Home Order – something for every age! (seriously!) Tag us, share with your friends, neighbors, family, on social media, and HELP EACH OTHER OUT! We are in this together, and part of that is remembering to stay SAFE while maintaining sanity.
- Toddler and preschool age ideas: Preschool Inspirations – The world is their playground
- At home indoor activities for youngsters: The Busy Toddler
- Read, play games, and hang out with Dr. Seuss: https://www.seussville.com/
- 100 free online educational program ideas: https://savingdollarsandsense.com/free-educational-resources-for-kids
- Online jigsaw puzzles (you can set the pieces from 6-1000+): https://www.jigsawexplorer.com/
- Bible story resources (early childhood – 6th grade): https://www.life.church/kids/media/
- Bible Lessons, activities and printables for 2-5yrs: Trueway Kids – Free Printable Bible lessons for under 5s – Trueway Kids
- A quick-start resource to help families pull together a plan for surviving the next 1-2 months at home with their kids, but it can also be a time of slowing down and enjoying kids as they learn. Preschool through 8th grade https://abetterwaytohomeschool.com/learning-at-home-everything-you-need-in-one-place
- Cosmic Yoga- Kids themed yoga (frozen, Trolls, and more!): https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga
- Engineering challenges with things you have at home: https://thehomeschoolscientist.com/paper-structures-engineering-challenge
- Crafts, projects, and science, recipes for young children: https://www.funology.com/
- Tons and tons and tons of games some learning some just fun: https://www.crazygames.com/
- Alaskan Wildlife live feed: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=viewing.webcams
- Math and logic problems for ages 5 and up to adult: https://www.aplusclick.org/
- Algebra games for kids: https://www.dragonboxapp.com/
- The Smithsonian Museum takes a deep dive into ocean life: https://ocean.si.edu/
- A place to explore careers in fashion design, graphic design, interior design, book design, product design, film and theatre, and more: http://www.kidsthinkdesign.org/
- The fascinating world of weather from a weather man: http://www.weatherwizkids.com/
- The San Diego Zoo has a website just for kids with amazing videos, activities, and games, take a tour!: https://kids.sandiegozoo.org/
- Play games, learn fun facts, and find out how to turn coin collecting into a hobby!: https://www.usmint.gov/learn/kids
- Refit Revolution – Interactive workout/Dance – all Christian songs: ReFIT Revolution (YouTube)
- This NASA initiative covers a wide range of topics including weather, climate, atmosphere, water, energy, plants, and animals: https://climatekids.nasa.gov/
- Cool Kid Facts gives your child access to educational videos, pictures, quizzes, downloadable worksheets, and infographics. They can use these to learn about geography, history, science, animals, and even the human body: https://www.coolkidfacts.com/
- No need to travel to one of the Smithsonian’s zoos or museums — this website brings your child everything from live video of the National Zoo to the Smithsonian Learning Lab right to their screen: https://www.si.edu/kids
- Web-Coding for ages 4-10: https://www.kodable.com/
- A Digital World of Faith, Fun, and Games for Ages 6-12: https://www.lightgliders.com/
- Life skills curriculum for students in grades K-12 includes strategies for teaching social and emotional skills: https://www.overcomingobstacles.org/
- Resource section includes free flashcards, coloring pages, worksheets, and other resources for children, teachers, and parents. https://supersimple.com/
- A large selection of fun songs to help teach preschool and kindergarten students https://www.songsforteaching.com/preschoolkindergarten.htm
- Crafts, activities, bulletin board designs, and finger play for early education and parents to use with kids: http://www.preschoolexpress.com/
- Lets kids play instruments online! Instruments include the guitar, piano, pan flute, drums, and bongos: https://www.virtualmusicalinstruments.com/
- Short videos about numbers that help kids explore complex math topics and make math more fun: https://www.numberphile.com/
- An interactive way to learn history: https://www.mission-us.org/
- Just explore, have fun, and learn some science along the way: https://thehappyscientist.com/
- Tons of science experiments that you can do at home: https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/
- Perfect for story-time – randomly generates 356,300,262,144 story starters: https://thestorystarter.com/
- Space science for kiddos: https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html
- Math Games, Logic Puzzles and Brain Builders: https://www.mathplayground.com/
- Guide to gardening for kids: https://web.extension.illinois.edu/firstgarden/
- Learn all about earthquakes: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/kids/
- National Geographic Young Explorers is a magazine designed specifically for kindergarten and first-grade students. Children can listen to the magazine being read to them as they follow along with the highlighted text: https://ngexplorer.cengage.com/ngyoungexplorer/index.html
- Every course you could possibly want to homeschool for high school: https://allinonehighschool.com/
- Phonics worksheets for kids: https://www.funfonix.com/
- Free stories online ages 3-12: https://www.freechildrenstories.com/
- Miscellaneous games for all subjects k-8: https://www.funbrain.com/
- Phonics and learning to read: https://readingeggs.com/
- PreK – 5 games for all subjects: https://www.turtlediary.com/
- Online digital coloring pages: https://www.thecolor.com/
- Every course you could possibly want to homeschool preschool – 8th grade: https://allinonehomeschool.com/
- Spelling 1-4 grade: https://www.spellingtraining.com/
- Keyboarding practice: https://www.typingclub.com/ or https://www.typing.com/
- At home OT, PT, and ST resources designed to build skills in children through movement and play: https://www.theottoolbox.com/
- A collection of hundreds of free K-12 STEM resources, from standalone models and simulations to short activities and week-long sequences of curriculum materials: https://learn.concord.org/
- Course sets (Levels 1–5) that combine and thoroughly cover phonics, reading, writing, spelling, literature, grammar, punctuation, art, and geography—all in one easy-to-use, beautiful course: https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/
- Kid-friendly workouts — choose from Strength for Kids, Agility for Kids, Flexibility and Balance for Kids, Warm-Up for Kids, Cooldown for Kids, Stand Up and Move for Kids, OR create your own custom kid workout: https://app.sworkit.com/collections/kids-workouts
- Sight-reading and sight-singing practice exercises: https://www.sightreadingfactory.com/
- Music practice transformed: https://www.smartmusic.com/
- “Spellingcity” is free right now with code VSCFree90: https://www.spellingcity.com/
- Music Based Spanish Learning: https://rockalingua.com/
- Free videos from around the world from grade 3-12 https://www.projectexplorer.org/
- Prodigies is a colorful music curriculum for kids 1-12 that will teach your kids how to play their first instrument, how to sing in tune & how to understand the language of music!: https://prodigiesmusic.com/
- Quick & easy at-home projects curated for kids 2 and up: https://www.kiwico.com/kids-at-home
- Novel Effect makes storytime a little more fun for kids (and grown-ups too!) As you read out loud from print books (or ebooks!) music, sound effects, and character voices play at just the right moment, adjusting and responding to your voice: https://noveleffect.com/
- Where families craft, quest, and discover the Biblical story together: https://theaetherlight.com/parents
- Daily lessons and educational activities that kids can do on their own: https://www.superchargedschool.com/
- 80+ do at-home science activities: https://elementalscience.com/blogs/news/80-free-science-activities
- Illustrated recipes designed to help kids age 2-12 cook with their grown-ups. Recipes encourage culinary skills, literacy, math, and science: https://www.nomsterchef.com/nomster-recipe-library
- Free printables library with activities for children 0-6: https://www.littlesparkcompany.com/printables-library
- Free at-home kids yoga lessons: https://littletwistersyoga.com/online-store/
- Free Printables for PreK-2nd Grade: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Literacy-With-The-Littles/Price-Range/Free
- Entertaining & educational videos for all levels and subjects: https://www.izzit.org/index.php
- Movement and mindfulness videos created by child development experts: https://www.gonoodle.com/
- Interactive video earth science-based curriculum supplement: https://www.everyday-earth.com/
- Printable board games, activities, and more for phonics and reading all using evidence-based methods. Can be customized to any student’s needs including creating flashcards for other subjects: https://dogonalogbooks.com/printables/
- 3 Free Weeks of Maker Stations to keep your children creating at home! Each challenge includes simple instructions using materials around the house, QR code video resources, and a student recording sheet: bit.ly/freemakerstations
- Digital learning content for preschool through high school: https://www.curriki.org/
- Free printable K-8 Reading and Math activity packs (available in English and Spanish): https://www.curriculumassociates.com/supporting-students-away-from-school
- Daily free science or cooking experiment to do at home: http://www.clubscikidzmd.com/blog/
- Chinese learning activities: https://chalkacademy.com/
- Music is for everyone: https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Experiments
- Educational games K-12: https://www.breakoutedu.com/funathome
- Math as a fun part of your daily family routine: http://bedtimemath.org/
- Voice-based learning… learn through Alexa: https://bamboolearning.com/resources
- Fun games, recipes, crafts, activities: https://www.highlightskids.com/
- Fave kids books read by famous people: https://www.storylineonline.net/
- Crafts, activities, mazes, dot to dot, etc: https://www.allkidsnetwork.com/
- This iconic museum located in the heart of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies: https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/
- 300,000+ FREE printable worksheets from toddlers to teens: https://www.123homeschool4me.com/home-school-free-printables
- Geography and animals: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/
- Play games and learn all about animals: https://switchzoo.com/
- Play with fave show characters and learn too: https://pbskids.org/
- This Canadian site FarmFood 360 offers 11 Virtual Tours of farms from minks, pigs, and cows, to apples and eggs: https://www.farmfood360.ca/
- Tour Yellowstone National Park: https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/photosmultimedia/virtualtours.htm
- Cooking for Kids: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/2253-kitchen-classroom-week-1
- Create a book: http://bookcreator.com/2020/03/support-for-schools-affected-by-coronavirus/
- Virtual Disney Rides: https://www.popsugar.com/family/videos-virtual-disney-rides-47314693
- Virtual Field Trips – Marine Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGImD-h0eFQ
- Virtual Field Trips – Dinosaur Exhibit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qem_n7Z014
- Virtual Disneyland Lights (Toyoko): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ojFfwtMAjs
- Virtual Field Trip – Fire Department/Police Station: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0EoIkZzfqE