A couple weeks ago I shared a quick list at the end of this post of some free, easy to access ideas and resources for learning at home. There are so many varied, enriching things to do with kids, so I've been compiling this second list of ideas. Most of these we've used when taking a break between chunks of time spent on regular academics, or to supplement learning about a topic. While most of these are online things and kids don't need more screen time, in moderation I thought these were all worthwhile. (And plenty are videos telling how to do a real, hands-on thing.) It seems like every day right now I come across more and I'm excited to have them all in one place to go back to when we have a few extra minutes here and there. I hope some are new and useful for others!
Exercise
Cosmic Kids Yoga. Yoga videos for kids on YouTube. Jamie, who does the videos, has them on lots of themes: Harry Potter, Star Wars, Going on a Bear Hunt, Very Hungry Caterpillar. She tells the story of the book or movie while incorporating active yoga poses throughout. It's entertaining and a good stretch.
AmbyrFyt Training. Ambyr is a fitness instructor who is now at home with her two kids, so she is now doing half-hour + live FytKids sessions on Facebook Live. (Or you can watch them afterward through her page.) It was a real workout! Last week we did Cosmic Yoga four days and Ambyr's video one day and between the two I had sore muscles for days, but it was a great antidote to feeling cooped up.
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| "Donkey kicks." I sat that one out. |
GoNoodle dance videos. As their web site says, this is "active screen time." Like all these resources in this list, this is free. Tons of short, free videos. Some are for calm and mindfulness, while some are energizing movement.
Science
Montshire Museum of Science online resources. Staff of our local museum are putting short videos online of do-at-home activities, like this fun seed-starting activity I was reminded of when we watched. We're waiting for them to sprout. I've done this with first graders before and it is so exciting to see them germinate up close.
Northern Woodlands treasure hunt. We have an interesting book, The Outside Story, published locally and detailing things happening in nature month by month. This list of things to look for outside this time of year (at least around us) is from the same organization. Lots of detailed information on things to look for, such as pileated woodpecker feeding holes and skunk cabbage. Speaking of scavenger hunts...
Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS). This list of resources for parents includes a scavenger hunt directed at preschoolers. M and I did this the other day and she was super engaged. We found everything on the list in our own yard, but some of them took some close looking which was perfect. (I could have easily made my own scavenger hunt but this one was ready to go and I just printed it off!) Other good documents and ideas are here too, including links to the Facebook Live events they offer. We watched a live talk with a staff person holding a barred owl, and got to submit a question and even had it answered live-- very exciting!
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex has online science lessons and activities. We haven't done any of these yet but it's on our list to try!
Bioturbation with and without soil fauna. A quick time-lapse video showing the difference in soil with bugs and worms in it and soil without. Made me wonder if I should add worms to our compost.
Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium is a sort of eccentric science museum in Vermont that we've visited in person before. They now have some videos online, like one on how to identify trees in late winter, and live classes.
Music
Laurie Berkner Band music video. This particular one is a 42-minute video, so perhaps best to watch in portions, but it includes lots of cheerful preschool-friendly music videos including, "This is Me and My Energy" and "We Are the Dinosaurs."
Berliner Philharmoniker, German orchestra, has free digital access to concerts and films free right now with the code BERLINPHIL. We watched a Frozen song played by orchestra and the youngest member of our household was singing along.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is live streaming performances on YouTube while they are closed right now.
Barefoot Books. These are videos of preschool-friendly books on different themes, both read aloud and as sing alongs with words across the screen.
Duet by two kid violinists in lockdown in Italy playing "Viva la Vida." Their bouncy energy and cheerfulness was contagious.
Art
Dav Pilkey drawing videos and other fun links. We drew Dog Man and Big Jim the other day (then W went to get his actual Dog Man books and ended up drawing several other characters using the how-to-draw pages at the back as well).
Funny, short article with photos of people recreating famous art at home. The kids recently became familiar with a couple of these paintings so they could appreciate this, and our whole family was cracking up at some of the creative ways people who are staying home had "copied" famous works of art.
Stained glass sidewalk art. We actually got this idea and the next from a live Mystery Science mini lesson (Mystery Science is great, and free for the rest of this year with lots of things that are easy to do at home). Put tape down on a sidewalk to form a large rectangle (they used what looked like blue painter's tape). Then put more tape down within the rectangle, forming different smaller triangles and other shapes. Color each space in different colors of chalk, then peel off the tape for a pretty stained-glass look. I wish we had a sidewalk! But we may do some version of this anyway.
Aluminum foil sculptures. Take a sheet of aluminum foil and form it into a sculpture, simple or complex...snake, dragon, dog. My 9-year-old was very excited to try this right away.
Reading/Read Aloud
Grover reading The Monster at the End of this Book. A cute reading of the classic Golden Book by the Muppet himself.
Authors reading their books aloud. We've watched a few of these. It's neat to be at home with authors and realize they are quarantined now too, not to mention hearing an author read a book, period. We enjoyed a couple of Oliver Jeffers's quirky books and videos the other day.
Free books on Audible. Stream audiobooks for free while schools are closed! You can search what's available or browse by age.
Miscellaneous Enrichment
Virtual field trips links. This is a calendar of virtual field trips for families with a different place for each day. We've gone to this link a few times but haven't made it past San Diego Zoo which is listed first because they've got a great kids' web site with easy-to-digest information on lots of animals, live animal cams, and brief engaging informational videos. I'm looking forward to checking out some of the other destinations on here.
Schoolhouse Rock videos. Recently rediscovered this and my 4th grader learned about conjunctions and interjections. So catchy. There are also a lot of history-based ones which I didn't realize or had forgotten. Dated but fun.
Newsela--- free access for the rest of this school year! We have used this site all year mostly to read kid-friendly news stories (you can click to adjust the reading level of most articles) and to research topics on which we don't have enough books, but there is even more good stuff here.
Billings Farm and Museum is another local favorite of ours. Now, online, they have lots of crafts and activities, like quick-pickled carrots, how to make homemade toys, and coloring pages to print. Also there are very brief videos showing their animals and other Vermont farm activities like how to tap a maple tree.
Kid-Friendly TED Talks. A playlist of TED Talks to watch with kids. We watched one about the evolution of dance and one about the kids doing real science. Great conversation starters.
30 Days of Lego Play Calendar. W has not used the sequential aspect of this but loves it as a creative menu of things to do when he takes breaks during the day and he's made some neat things recently.
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| The fastest car |
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| War robot |
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| Roller coaster |
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