By Jan Pierce APRIL 2020
Learning from Home During Self-Quarantine
With COVID-19 causing widespread school closures, children need alternate resources—some online—to study at home while waiting it out. Below is a list of excellent digital programs that you can depend on. Yes, we remember the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation of two hours or less of screen time for children ages 5 to 17. However, if ever there was a time for some leeway in this rule, it would be now for the sake of sanity in child and parent. While students need to keep up with assignments on the computer, they will also need screen time for entertainment. Still, don’t forget that research clearly shows that too much screen time can interfere with sleep, healthy eating, and negative social interaction. That said, parents can take steps to mitigate the screens’ impact on children’s rapidly developing brains as well as their risk of digital addiction by making sure media is interspersed with family time, chores, free play, and exercise. Through it all, these fun and educational programs can see you through this difficult time. More than just color pages, these sites will have interactive games, downloadables, and will relate to real learning. Take a look.
Great Kids’ Websites
A great website for children will offer quality content and lots of interactive choices. More than just color pages, these sites will have interactive games, downloadables, and will relate to real learning. Take a look.
sesamestreet.org
Pre-schoolers love Sesame Street and always will. The online site continues with early learning fun and games.
pbskids.org
PBS is already anticipating the need for new and fun games and videos for kids. They have an additional daily activity for kids during the break in regular classroom learning.
scholastic.com
Scholastic is providing a free daily learning curriculum for pre-school through sixth graders. This free resource will keep your kids thinking and learning about the world around them. A real gift.
khanacademy.org
This remarkable free resource has special lessons and activities for continued learning while kids are out of school. Just go to the site, sign in as a parent and create an account for each of your children. You’ll find tons of learning opportunities and easy to follow lessons there.
howstuffworks.com
This is a wonderful science, technology, and culture site for older kids. Each article explains how something works with words, videos and illustrations.
projectgutenberg.org
This site features a library of over 60,000 free e-books. This is the world’s greatest literature available for free at your fingertips.
kids.nationalgeographic.com
The usual wonderful content about animals, culture, science, and more with videos, games, and lots of fun as they learn.
Reading Websites
Reading websites abound. Check out some of these and challenge your children to listen and engage with wonderful kids’ literature.
storylineonline.net
Your child can listen to wonderful children’s literature read aloud by celebrated actors.
readtomely.com
Mrs. Read for Fun has some reading surprises in store for young readers.
oxfordowl.co.uk
This wonderful educational site from Oxford University Press will fill hours with learning and fun.
abcya.com
It offers lots and lots of online games designed to support learning in reading and math for kids in Pre-K through sixth grade.
storynory.com
Sports free audio stories for all ages.
Author Websites
Many authors maintain websites to help kids interact with their stories and characters. Check out the ones below and have some educational fun.
mowillems.com
You gotta love Mo with his pigeon stories and all. He currently has a fun activity for kids called Daily Doodles.
kevinhenkes.com
You’ll find lots of fun activities, videos and games. Choose your favorite Kevin Henkes book and play the games with those characters.
janbrett.com
Everyone loves Jan Brett’s beautifully illustrated stories for kids. Check out her latest and don’t forget the old favorite stories as well.
ericcarle.com
Choose downloads and activities under resources and away you go.
rosemarywells.com
Want to make some cupcake toppers or play Pin the Tail on Max? You’ll find the downloads here.
Why not ask your kids about their favorite authors or book titles? Chances are they will show up in an online search and take your kids deeper into the world of reading. #