Mom, I’m bored. Can we go back to school yet? Please?

If you are the parent of K-12 kids in this time of coronavirus sheltering-in-place, you have my sympathies and respect.  You are playing so many roles:  teacher, teacher’s assistant, gym instructor, recess supervisor, mental health counselor, mediator, and of course, parent.  Oh, right, and you may also be trying to keep up with your own work from home.

Your approach to helping your kids spend their time at home productively may range from distributing and supervising homework provided by a land-based school, home-schooling (where you choose the topics) or unschooling (where the students choose the topics). 

Below are some free online resources to help you keep the kids engaged during those many hours of the day:

·      Early learning boost emails for 3-4-year olds (literacy, math, science)

·      Khan Academy:  Ages 2-18 remote learning resources

·      Other Goose:  Ages 2-7 lesson plans (20 min. lessons, available free for three weeks)

·      Childrens books’ authors read stories aloud online

·      Read Works:  K-12 reading comprehension instruction

·      Discovery K12:  online homeschool

·      Mystery Science lessons

·      Educational webinars from TEDEd

·      Lesson plans by grade level

·      Extensive list of resources available for free K-12 home schooling (English, math, science, physical education, languages, geography, music, art/design, drama, history, information technology (IT))

·      Mom creates periodic table battleship game to teach her kids chemistry

·      Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley students give free tutoring to K-12 students

·      Minecraft video game offers free educational content

·      Daily online PE (physical education) classes for kids

And for high school and university students, or even the parents themselves!

·      Broadway shows:  digital tool kits for integrating the theater arts into standards-based curriculum, featuring student activities, suggested lessons, historical backgrounds and more

·      Harvard University online courses:  140 Harvard classes are publicly available online; this link provides a list of the 31 most interesting free courses (computer science, public health, politics, history, poetry, science of cooking, etc.)

·      Coursera courses:  100 free online courses available through May 31, including reading material, graded homework, projects, and a certificate of completion (public health, coding, mindfulness, updating a resume, learning to play guitar, etc.)

·      10 university art classes you can take for free online

·      Babbel makes its language learning app free for students in various countries