Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Home schooling and keeping kids entertained
As we all expected, the schools are closed and suddenly many of us have kids had home who need to be supported in their learning but also finding ways to make this extended family time fun for all members of the family.
Some useful advice is floating around the internet from home schooling parents and most kids are being set work by schools but I'd say (as a former teacher) give your kids space as well to pursue their own interests and projects.
If like me, you have kids who have just had their exams cancelled then I think it's important to not let them give up but keep up some study in their chosen A levels or Uni subjects as they'll find it pretty hard to make the transition in 6 months if they don't keep their brains chugging over.
With all this in mind, I've opened this thread to share ideas, free resources and tips on how to help kids through this.
I now do outdoor education so I'll start with a couple of my favourite sites.
- Life Sciences: Ecosystems and Energy CRASH COURSE KIDS playlist I love these videos, short, easy to follow, colourful with young presenters. All the Crash Course videos are great if you want to delve deeper. The regular crash course are suitable for older kids and you!
- Woodland Trust (tree tools for schools) have their popular ID sheets and suggestions for outdoor activities if you can get into a garden, but if you don't have a garden there are still lots of things that can be done online. Click here
- Not nature as such but my kids used to spend hour making stop motion animation with lego and an app "brick films". There's lots of tutorials on YouTube but this blog from the Creativity Museum is a good intro.
- Don't forget Pinterest which has stacks and stacks of ideas for arts and crafts, 100 things to do with toilet roll holders, nature activities, writing prompts. Here's our Railway Fields Education Officers board for example
- Haven't tried this one but there's a free online PE lesson for kids with The Body Coach. Details here
Please add more ideas below and good luck!
Tags for Forum Posts: coronavirus, coronavirus things to do, homeschooling
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Chalico on
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Thanks for this Liz, really helpful. I have received below messages from friends:
A colleague has just shared this with me: Hi All, hope you're keeping well. In light of the latest news from the government on schools closing from Friday, I wanted to share some resources on homeschooling. I know a lot of us will be juggling this so maybe a separate channel might be suitable to share ideas and tips? Let me know if you're interested. Please feel free to share with anyone whom you think may benefit from this...we got this! :heart:
Online resources:
- BrainPop
- Curiosity Stream
- Tynker
- Outschool
- Udemy
- iReady
- Beast Academy (Math)
- Khan Academy
- Creative Bug
- Discovery EducationYouTube Channels:
- Crash Course Kids
- Science Channel
- SciShow Kids
- National Geographic Kids
- Free School
- Geography Focus
- TheBrainScoop
- SciShow
- Kids Learning Tube
- Geeek Gurl Diaries
- Mike Likes Science
- Science Max
- SoulPancakeLots of board games, library books (and Kindle), tinkering/upcycling with household junk, etc.
Some resources to help with kids at home:*Scholastic has created a free learn-from-home site with 20+ days of learning and activities.
https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html
*Pretend to travel the world..Go on a virtual tour of these 12 famous museums.
https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/muse...
*This is the awesome free curriculum that we use. Everything from preschool activities to 12th grade is here!
https://allinonehomeschool.com/
*List of thinking games by grade: https://allinonehomeschool.com/thinking/
*More awesome free learning websites that we like to use*
https://www.storylineonline.net/
https://www.highlightskids.com/
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/
https://www.coolmath4kids.com/
https://www.uniteforliteracy.com/
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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I totally agree with this. Negotiate with kids what they would like to do, encourage them to create and make or explore anything that interests them. Have quiet time to just read or draw. Don't sweat about the screen time and (with older kids more) let them chat/text with their friends. Abandon something if it's not working out.
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That sounds great. But what starts to annoy me is that people automatically think people have all time in the world now. We don't. My husband is self employed and redirecting his work. I am working from home and my work nearly tripled. I am trying to not send the kids to school, but am absolutely exhausted by the end of the day.
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That's amazing, Chalico, thank you.
(Have to say I'm a fan of Khan Academy which came to our rescue when our eldest couldnt get her head around quadratic equations).
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And Khan Academy Kids. I'm pretty sure my little one is unaware she is learning things and loves it. Great if you need a block of time to get on with something.
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For A level students left high and dry, parents might want to show them Future Learn which are short courses offered by top universities on all subjects. I've used it and it's very user friendly.
Also Open Learn which has loads of courses and articles.
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Permalink Reply by Martin Malcolm on
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Kids are probably going to be off school for a while, so they're going to need stuff to keep their minds and bodies active. So all these resources are great to have. And I agree with the posts that say it's not about making kids do stuff, but giving them opportunities to explore and find things they find absorbing and that they'd like to do.
There are lots of great free materials on BBC Bitesize that do just that...
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Thanks Liz. Secondary schools and 6th forms have set up online learning resources for their students - it's the Year 11 and Year 13 cohort I feel particularly sorry for.
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Does anyone know of good sites which allow kids to play together virtually, ideally with video chat, but with very strong controls to ensure that only the specific children are in the game and seeing each other?
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Free kids audiobooks up to teenager - might listen to some of these myself, never mind the kids.
https://stories.audible.com/start-listen
Free e-books with lots of non-fiction to read together
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Permalink Reply by JulieB on
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Great thread, thank you Liz!
My son is year 11, he has learning difficulties and we have some resources but I'm obviously not trained like his specialised teachers. I need to calm his anxiety about not knowing what will happen next but still keep his learning with Maths and English. It's going to be a challenge, but we're all safe and well so we're treating today (first day of closure) as an extended weekend while we all get used to the new normal.
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