During this period of COVID-19, you’ll be seeing your little ones a lot more than before the virus outbreak. As a mom, I understand that everyone needs to have some alone time to recharge, get some work or house chores done because momma, entertaining our children takes a lot of energy! So, here’s a list of 62 free resources to keep your little ones busy when you need that break from stir crazy kids.

Oh before that, here are two resources to educate your children on the COVID-19 virus:

• This page has the CDC’s guidance for talking with children about Coronavirus.
• This is a great PDF that helps explain Coronavirus to little kids.

For Toddlers and Preschoolers:

Creative Activities

1. The Busy Toddler website has about a billion colourful activity ideas to keep them occupied.
2. The Mama Notes and Days With Grey also have creative activities for little ones.
3. Nomsterchef has Illustrated recipes designed to help kids age 2-12 cook.
4. Little Bins for Little Hands has activities for your kids to do all year round as the seasons change.

Educational

5. Super Simple Songs on YouTube are cute and educational (and not totally annoying).
6. Cosmic Kids Yoga makes yoga, mindfulness, and relaxation fun for kids.
7. The Stay-at-Home Mom Survival Guide has lists of activities to encourage learning for your kids.
8. Songs for Teaching has a large selection of fun songs to help teach preschool students.
9. Kids Numbers for math lessons and activities.
10. ABC Education has many educational games, videos and resources for learning.

For school-aged kids:

Virtual trips

11. Google Arts & Culture has virtual tours of more than 2,500 museums and galleries around the world such as Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum.
12. For free online virtual visit to 17 museums in Europe, check out this page.
13. The world’s largest art museum and a historical monument in Paris, Louvre, is also offering a free online virtual tour.
14. The British Museum in London also allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone as well as Egyptian mummies.
15. Let your child explore the surface of Mars on the Curiosity Rover.
16. Take a virtual field trip with sights from this list.
17. Watch animals with San Diego Zoo and Melbourne Zoo that have live webcams for their animals.

Learning resources

18. We Are Teachers has put together a list of educational apps and programs, and many of them are offering free subscriptions right now.
19. Scholastic is offering day-by-day projects to help kids keep thinking and growing while at home.
20. Smithsonian Learning Lab for millions of educational resources.
21. Learn a language with Duolingo.
22. Play instruments like the piano and drums online with Chrome Music Lab or Virtual Musical Instruments.
23. Outschool has all sorts of online classes for kids.
24. Breakout EDU is an immersive learning games platform with educational games for K-12.
25. Learn about the Electoral System of Australia here.
26. Wonderopolis provides short videos and texts that answer various burning questions for children. Vocabulary challenges and comprehension questions to improve their language are available as well.
27. Work on the 8 parts of speech and Grammar with Grammaropolis or boost writing confidence with Storybird.
28. Kodable teaches coding for 4 to10-year-olds. Alternatively, learn to code with Codecademy or Scratch.
29. Google Earth has all sorts of incredible learning.
30. Let your child discover Geography with this NASA initiative or with National Geographic.
31. Tests your kids’ geography skills by with GeoGuessr using images from Google’s Street View. Let them figure out where they are from images from Google’s Street View.
32. Besides Geography, kids can learn History by simply typing in any city, state, or country here to view an archive of historical photographs and content. Online History classes are available for all ages (preteen through adults) too.
33. With 35,000 pages of online content, your child can easily learn more about the different cultures and countries of the world.
34. Cambridge Publishing, UK, offers 700 online reading editions of their textbooks until the end of May.
35. For budding Marine Biologists – take a deep dive into ocean life here.
36. Incorporate some Math as a fun part of your daily family routine with Bedtime Math or play Math games on GridClub.
37. For Math assessments and worksheets, check out Maths Frame.
38. Numberphile features short videos about numbers that help kids explore complex math topics and make math more fun.
39. Lots of science experiments that your family can do at home with Bill Nye or Steve Spangler Science.
40. To satisfy some curious minds, check out the videos at The Kid Should See This.
41. Metmuseum is a website to get your kid engaged in the world of Art.
42. Help children learn to appreciate the arts by providing them with the opportunity to play games, conduct investigations, and explore different forms of art at Artsology.
43. Think Design explores careers in many design fields from fashion design and graphic design to environmental design.
44. Use Prezi to make your own presentations.
45. Get full access to the Twinkl catalogue of worksheets, eBooks, educational games, activity packs and more using a one month ‘Ultimate’ membership, entirely free of charge. Enter the code CVDTWINKLHELPS along with an email and password to set up.

Move the body

46. Live PE lessons at 9am Monday to Friday on this YouTube channel for children of all ages.
47. A wide range of Kid-friendly workouts are available here to improve physique or you can choose to create your own custom kid workout.
48. Lady Gaga’s former backup dancer, Mark Kanemura, is hosting virtual dance sessions on his Instagram page.
49. Practice movement and mindfulness videos created by child development experts.
50. A YouTube channel for Yoga and mindfulness for kids.
51. Thecreativeclassroom practice mindfulness using an app, sitting quietly, or with a few worksheets.

Bring out their inner artists

52. Create animated videos with Go Animate or interactive avatars to showcase children’s learning with Voki.
53. All Kids Network and Highlights Kids have lots of fun crafts and activities and even recipes.
54. Red Tent Art provides step-by-step instructions on art projects including origami, 3D cards, clay pots, and more.
55. Mo Willems, the author of ‘Don’t let the Pigeon Stay up Late’ uploads daily drawing lessons on his YouTube channel.
56. Carson Ellis, an author and illustrator will be posting art assignments on her Instagram page every weekday morning. She also provides individual hashtags for each exercise so everyone can see each other’s artwork.
57. Play, explore and interact with new multimedia and hands-on activities, including interactive games, art-inspired storytelling video sessions, as well as artist masterclasses and art tutorials every week with National Gallery Singapore on Gallery Kids!. 
58. Sew one of these DIY face masks with your kids. They are a quick project that takes very little time to make and only takes a few materials that you probably already have on hand.

Audio stories

59. Storyline Online features famous people to read children’s books.
60. Young Explorers is a magazine designed specifically for young children. Children can listen to the magazine being read to them as they follow along with the highlighted text.
61. Listen to astronauts read stories from space or stories told by pirates.
62. Listen to Science podcasts with your kids.
63. Audible Stories is available for children who are temporarily unable to go to school around the world.  Listen to all audiobooks for free, with content ranging from preschool to classic literature.

Others

64. Go to BroadwayHD to watch Broadway musicals and plays free online for a limited period of 7 days.
65. And don’t forget about flying a kite with your active ones as a fun family outdoor activity!

Also, please let go of any guilt that you’re feeling about your kids getting more screen time than usual. There is no shame in using all the resources that you have to make things more peaceful for you during this weird time. 

I’m not telling you to sit them in front of Disney+ to binge watch movies for 2 weeks. It’s about balance. If you’re able to send them outside to play, that’s great. If some extra art supplies will occupy them for an afternoon, go for it. But it’s also okay to send them to play video games or on the iPad when you need to get some things done (or just get a quiet moment!). Make a choice not to feel badly about it. You’re doing a great job and I see you!

P.S. Bookmark this blogpost as we will be adding more and more resources to the list! If you know any kids-friendly resources which aren’t listed here, please let me know in the comments below.

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