Now more than ever parents need options to engage their children at home. How do we promote learning while kids are stay-at-home? We found 25 free educational resources for your family.
- Lakeshore has a large variety of free resources you can print for kids of all ages. Lakeshore is known for its educational games and toys. Their printables hold up to the quality lakeshore is known for. They have over 1,000 free resources.
- Scholastic Learn at Home. Scholastic’s new learning site gives free daily courses broken up by grade level. Each lesson includes grade-appropriate writing, reading, and activities. They even offer some virtual trips.
- Khan Academy offers a multitude of free educational resources. Parents will love the detailed daily schedules for kids. Their platform includes interactive exercises, videos, and articles for a number of subjects. There’s also a free app you can get to go along with it.
- Boddle is a math platform for 1st-6th grade. This platform is designed to make learning individualized and fun. Teachers and parents are able to track their student’s progress to quickly identify potential learning issues. This game platform is available free of charge to those dealing with Covid-19 school closures.
5. Breakout EDU is another website that uses online games. They bring the fun of escape games to learning. They’ve put together a list of free online games that kids can use at home. The games are broken up by grade level.
6. Elementari turns writing into something that comes alive. They use illustrations, animations, and even special sound effects to further enhance stories. You can even write your own choose-your-own-adventure style story! Schools affected by COVID-19 closures can get free access through May 2020 or until schools reopen. Contact them here.
7. Prodigy lives up to its name with game-based math learning for kids. They have games for grade levels first to eighth grade. This site offers plenty of how-to articles to make your home-based learning effective and enjoyable. The basic Prodigy site is free of charge.
8. HippoCampus has 7,000 videos in 13 subjects for students to use. Teachers can even customize a watch playlist for their students. This site is free to use.
9. Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature is a collection created by the University of Florida. Their Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature has digitized close to 6,000 books. They’re free to read entirely online. You can also find similar collections by The Library of Congress and UCLA.
10. Project Gutenberg is the grandfather of all ebook sites. It hosts an impressive 40,000 free ebooks. In addition to the large collection, they also make it accessible for your Kindle, Android phone, iPad, or iPhone.
11. MIT-K12– The Michigan Institute for Technology is now producing short videos that teach basic concepts that involve science and engineering specifically for K-12 students. The videos are typically created by students at MIT. The videos can be sorted by subject and grade level.
12. NeoK12 provides educational videos, quizzes, lessons and games for K-12 grade students. This site presents subject areas like science, math, English, social studies, and more. All videos are safe for kids and have been reviewed by actual K-12 grade teachers.
13. Metkidsprovides a way for your kids to experience New York City’s famous Metropolitan Museum of Art. Check out their time machine which will let them go back to 8000 B.C. You can also check out videos and fun quizzes.
14. ABCmouse.com is offering a free 30-day trial of its extensive early learning program for children ages 2-8. Their program includes games and educational activities that were developed by actual teachers.
15. CK-12 is a non-profit that gives open textbooks for K through 12th-grade students. They offer high-quality content in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects for free. 16.
16. PhysicsCentral has a series of physics comic books. These comics are created by The American Physical Society and are designed to get kids engaged with physics. Go check out their comics like Nikola Tesla and the Electric Fair for free. You didn’t even know that physics was a superpower.
17. Learn how to write your name in Hieroglyphs. This guide from the Royal Ontario Museum teaches children in grades 3 to 12 how they can write their names in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
18. STEM From The Start is a series of education videos designed for PreK-2nd grade learners. This site uses the educational videos to help lay the groundwork for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects. This helps engage early learners in a fun and innovative way. These videos are produced by the New Hampshire PBS & Learniverse Educational Media.
19. Bugscope is a site managed by the University of Illinois. This site Lets K through 12th students view insects under a powerful electron microscope. The images are then stored and shared online for other students to view.
20. Chemistry Activities for Kids provides chemistry demos, craft activities, and projects that are created for kids. Some of these do require supervision by an Adult. There are slime activities, water magic tricks, and lots more.
21. NASA for Students is a site developed by NASA to provide educational media for different age groups. The grades are broken up by Grades K-4, Grades 5-8, and Grades 9-12. You have activities like a storybook titled “the Astro-not yets explore sound.”
22. HooplaKidz is a youtube channel dedicated to nursery rhymes and stories. These animated videos are designed to entertain and teach children between the ages of 2 and 8.
23. AAA Math is a site providing a set of interactive math lessons. This site provides unlimited arithmetic practice on each topic which really provides a path to mastery of these concepts. These lessons can be sorted by grade level from K through 8th.
24. IXI is a website providing thousands of activities and exercises created to help young students (K-8) get practice with math. Some of their features include practice questions, explanations, certificates, learner progress reports, and more.
25. Dictionary.com Learning at Home Center gives English lessons for students in grades pre-K through 12th. Teachers either approved or created the materials directly for this site. Activities include grammar, spelling, and even word challenges. This site also provides writing prompts to help improve your child’s writing abilities.