Social Distancing with Kids

Many of us have found ourselves working from home while educating our children because of school closures during the COVID-19 Pandemic, so without further ado, here is a list of some resources that may help us. These are almost all free ideas for providing school quality education for your kids while social distancing. Add ideas in the comments if you would and I’ll make sure to add links to this post so we all have just a big long running list!

I am eternally grateful to Isthmus Montessori Academy Public in Madison, Wisconsin, and to so many of my friends across the internet for providing an abundance of ideas and resources over the past week.

Homeschool Resources

Most of these are for school aged, but here is a great resource for parents of toddlers called Toddler Camp, sent to me by an Instagram friend.

Ages 2.5-5: DIY Montessori Materials for the Home and Montessori At Home: 8 Principles to Know. Here’s a Scavenger Hunt that would work well for little kids.

Here are a ton of free school worthy worksheets you can print off for your kids to do. We have actually been having the kids do these every day after school for a while now to help them with their math. Now we are focusing on letters and reading worksheets for my 5 year old.

PreK through 9th Grade: Scholastic Learn At Home: Day-by-Day Projects to Keep Kids Reading, Thinking, and Growing.

Teachers Pay Teachers is a fabulous resource for all things at-home education! Example: this scavenger hunt sheet.

Our friends are taking virtual classes through Outschool. They are offering free classes and deals for kids affected by school closures. They offer learning for kids aged 3-18.

Adventure Academy is another online learning option for kids 8-13.

Interactive Learning

My kids are participating in a 30 Day Lego Challenge. We printed off the challenge and taped it up, and they’re using a big container of mixed up legos to meet each challenge.

We got a ton of work ideas from the school. One example was to have the kids plan a new restaurant and design a menu for it. Hazel actually priced her items and practiced taking orders! Another idea was to organize toys, books, or clothes into some sort of order (rainbow, smallest to biggest, etc.). Draw an animal and label it’s parts, use a compass to draw your own geometric constructions, take responsibility for planning and helping prepare a meal, create your own dictionary by writing a word for every letter of the alphabet, draw a map of your house with a legend and compass rose, etc.

One activity my kids love is treasure hunts. Here is a great one I edited for us (we don’t have a dictionary or candle!).

Kid-Friendly & Educational Entertainment

How about free Stories? Audible is offering hundreds of free titles for kids during school closures. Visit Stories Audible to start listening on any smart device.

We are tuning into the Waunakee Public Library story time every Tuesday and Thursday morning for their Facebook Live story time. You must Like them on Facebook and you’ll see when they go on.

The Tennessee Aquarium sent out a newsletter full of links to live streams, activity sheets, games, and online programming.

We LOVE the podcast Science Vs and listen to it all the time. Wendy tackles all manner of topics in a bright and energetic way through interviews and facts.

Try out the Hogwarts Digital Escape Room!

Kid-Safe YouTube Channels for the Whole Family

We love the following YouTube Channels and watch them with our kids:

Science Themed

Mark Rober is a former NASA Engineer. His inquisitiveness and humor are infectious!

William Osman is a loveable, science-loving goofball. We love him, his failed robots, and all of his cat shirts!

Build Videos

April Wilkerson - it’s not hard to like April and her projects are very cool to watch.

Diresta makes sped up build videos with no talking, and its great entertainment! Do not watch his vlogs with kids unless you’re all cool with some swearing.

The Woodpecker, or Alain Vaillancourt, is a loveable sweetheart who explains his projects very well.

Random

Jake is a Treasure Hunter who records his dives and shows off his finds.

Thanks for reading and hang in there! Remember to add ideas or resources for education from home in the comments below.

-Tara