Coronavirus (COVID-19) has seen many school closures and a lot of parents are scrambling to support their children in education. I wanted to round up all the great (and free!) online resources for parents of students. These resources are great for keeping kids interested, occupied and still learning!
How to Homeschool During the Coronavirus
These free educational websites will help support your homeschooling efforts during this crazy coronavirus crisis. Many resources are waiving their course fees to support parents who are homeschooling while schools are closed.
Related Post: How to Teach Kids to Entertain Themselves
Here are my favorites free online education resources to help you homeschool. If you have more, leave a comment and I’ll add it!
Check your school website first!
Check here first!
Many schools already have in-house online learning resources and many students may already be completing assignments online. This is a priority!
Many of the websites below are only offering free resources through the school websites. If you can’t access the educational content below, try accessing it through your school website instead.
General Education Websites Offering Free Resources
Below are all great resources on a variety of topics, grade level and age.
This is a great online learning tool for students K-12. Watch animated movies that are coupled with quizzes and other related material in science, social studies, math, arts and music, health and technology.
Khan Academy has a huge selection of topics, including different levels of math, science and engineering, arts and humanities, even test prep. You can also choose reading assignments by grade.
Age of Learning is home to Adventure Academy (learning games), ABC Mouse (educational activities) and ReadingIQ (digital library). While these resources aren’t 100% free, you can make use of the free trials.
If you’re a planner, Scholastic Learn at home is for you! You can select by grade level a lesson plan, and it gives you a daily lesson plan.
If your child enjoys the interaction with teachers, Outschool is perfect. This platform offers 10,000 small group video chat classes created by teachers.
If you want to spark some deep thinking in your child, check out Ted Ed. This website offers hundreds of videos on a variety of topics. After watching the video, there’s a short quiz, additional resources and the opportunity to discuss with others.
Movement/ PE Websites with Free Resources
All kids need to move and burn off some energy! Build some activity into their daily schedule with these great resources!
Sign up for a free two weeks to show your children how much fun yoga is! Check it on on YouTube or go to the website for even more resources like lesson plans.
GoNoodle is a very popular site for kids’ mini workouts. They are fun, lively and short enough to keep even the youngest student’s attention!
Websites with Free Art Lessons
Gotta have craft time! Get your budding little artists busy with these great resources.
Mo Willems is a fantastic author of children’s books. He’s pitching in with the homeschool efforts by having drawing lessons on YouTube!
For more sophisticated artists, color famous works of art. Libraries, museums and other cultural institutions around the world share free coloring content featuring images from their collections!
Bust out the acrylic paint and get art tutorials by checking out The Art Sherpa. Her step-by-step directions will give confidence to even the most novice painter!
Websites with Free Reading Resources
Reading, reading, reading! We all know how incredibly important it is for kids to read. But sometimes sitting still and reading a book just isn’t in the cards. That’s why these resources are fantastic for a little more activity but with the educational benefit!
Children’s Authors Online Reading
Children’s Authors Online reading is exactly how it sounds. Authors of children’s books reading children’s books! This is an awesome list, with links, of where you can find your favorite authors reading books outloud.
Here, kids are given the opportunity to search and love more than 3,500 leveled books. It’s a great way for kids to practice those reading skills!
Get audiobooks and e-books free through your library with Hoopla. Many public libraries have closed due to coronavirus, but now you can have the same access from home!
Related Post: Listen to Free Audiobooks
Websites with Free Writing Resources for Kids
With everything shifting online, kids still need to practice their writing skills! Get some help with these resources.
Writing Tips with Kate DiCamillo
Two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo offers writing tips in this YouTube video. This is great for older kids and adults!
Sign up for a free trial to help your kids with writing based on writing level. You can even make assignments!
This completely free website gives elementary, middle and high school students writing and grammar activities.
History Education Websites with Free Resources
History for Kids is a free online platform where kids can find games, videos and worksheets on a huge variety of historical topics.
Has activities and free worksheets for K-8 in social studies!
Science Websites with Free Homeschooling Resources
As a former science teacher, all of this makes me so happy. Science can be done online!
NASA is providing a lot of K-12 online learning sources. You can also download apps, podcasts and e-books!
Mystery Science is currently offering free memberships, but move quickly because it’s only a select amount. Or you can check out this starter list of K-5 science lessons to do at home!
Learn about space, physics, health, the planet, animals and more with interesting articles on Live Science.
Interesting topics are covered through interaction at NovaLabs at PBS. There’s even an educator guide to help you facilitate the learning process.
Download free PDF files for a book based science adventure all about space.
Kids can play games while learning coding in the process!
For advanced learners (kids 8-16) this is a website where kids become little programmers through activity packs!
Check out this great NPR podcast for kids. It can be found on NPR One, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts and Spotify.
Play games, watch videos and learn with National Geographic Kids! There are quizzes, crafts and so much more to explore!
Websites with Free Math Resources
Can’t forget about math! If you have little math grumblers at home, there are some great websites for making it fun!
Right now, Dreambox is offering a free 90-day trial so children can learn at home. This is for students K-8 that turns fun into learning!
Prodigy is an interactive game that works based on your child’s skill level and progresses in difficulty.
Free Online Resources for High Schoolers
If your high schooler is struggling with boredom and looking for interesting content to consume, these are some great options.
Ted talks are a fantastic way to gain a new perspective on the world! There are many different Ted Talk podcasts to explore.
Ken Burns history documentaries
Short documentaries on history can be found here! Many topics are covered and thanks to the shorter length of the videos, they’ll hopefully hold on to your teen’s attention longer!
Health, finance,, communications, design, economics and so much more can be found at Open Culture. Reading the list of topics is like perusing a college course catalog. Your teen will certainly keep busy on Open Culture!
Documentaries with Common Sense Media
Binge watching documentaries is a great way to learn and open teens’ minds up to some great topics! Check out this list of documentaries that can be streamed for free.
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