Free Activities to Keep Your Kids Busy and Engaged While Social Distancing
If we are lucky enough to be home social distancing, we have encountered a new problem – how do we create learning opportunities for our kids while also getting things done? Over the last few days, I have noticed some really creative ideas and an outpouring of people willing to share content and opportunities. If you have an extra computer or phone and internet, there are a lot of fun, engaging programming for kids.
But if you are anything like me, it is a bit overwhelming. And, I can’t keep track of it all. For now, we are picking one or two ideas to check out and as the weeks go on we will look into others. Yesterday, we watched Mo Williams Doodles and the Cincinnati Zoo talk about hippos. The kids really enjoyed it and it is giving them something to look forward to.
I’m trying to put together an aggregate list of resources including a list of times, if applicable. I mean, who can remember all of this? Eventually, I’ll try and break it down by activity and make it look all pretty. If there are other activities your kids are enjoying send them my way and I’ll add to the list so we can continue to share and create a community resource. Also, please keep an eye on your kids. Most of these are coming from other organizations and businesses but I can’t verify everything.
Lastly, I love supporting our local Boston businesses and organizations so I’ll try to highlight those when I can.
Happy Social Distancing! – Beth Ann
Note: I put this together pretty quickly and I’ll be back to work on updating links and formatting.
TIMED ACTIVITIES
Some of the timed activities are posted later on YouTube while others are only live. I have tried to indicate if they saved for later viewing.
Varied times Yoga with Jennifer Phelan on her IG page live times change***LOCAL
10AM Matt Heaton Singalongs on FB ***LOCAL
11AM -1PM The Science Mom
Daily Science and Math Lessons (with games, craft and Q&A)
11AM Kids Power Yoga Live FB Stream *** LOCAL
1PM Lunch Doodles With Mo Willems – Kennedy Center for Arts
These are recorded and posted on YouTube if you miss the live version
2PM Discover the Universe
Virtual Astronomy Classes (Earth to Infinity, What can I observe in the sky?, How to easily measure the earth and more) Replays are on YouTube
Scribbles with Ben Clanton (Narwal Series)
2PM Deb’s Virtual Art School ***LOCAL
3PM: Cincinnati Zoo Different animal every day on its FB page
If you don’t have FB they are posting the videos on YouTube. More information is on the Zoo’s webpage.
7PM New York’s Metropolitan Opera will be offering free digital shows every night at 7:30 p.m. from March 16 through March 22.
STORYTIME
Belmont Public Library – list of free services
- Hoopla is a favorite of ours for free audio books
- BookFlix — Read great stories and watch hilarious animated versions of favorite books such as Click, Clack, Moo and Good Night Gorilla.
Storyline Online
Free children’s literacy resource featuring the world’s best storytellers reading books aloud.
Story Time in Space
Astronauts read from space
Josh Gad (Olaf from frozen) is reading books every night on his twitter account @JoshGad
ANYTIME ACTIVITIES
Cleveland Inner City Ballet — free online ballet classes
Stop Motion Class from IG Handle trishazemp
If you share the post on your IG stories, send you a code for a free stop motion class.
15 Broadway shows you can watch from home
VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS
Since we are house bound, try traveling virtually.
Museums
- British Museum
- Guggenhiem Street Tour of Museum –
- National Gallery of Art
- Musee d’ Orsay
- Rijks Musem (Amsterdam) Google street tour of inside
- Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Other Field Trips
Hidden World of Natural Parks from Google
Georgia Aquarium
Live cameras for various exhibits are available during the day
PRINTABLE ACTIVITES
Blank Comic Book Page from Jarrett Letter
ART ACTIVITES
Belmont Gallery of Art ***Local
It is posting daily art activities on its IG page.
ACADEMIC LEARNING
Kahn Academy
It is a nonprofit with the mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.
Vocabulary.com
Vocabulary quizzes connected specific books.
Super Charged Science
Free Online Classes: The science of Physics
16 Card games that will turn your kids into math aces
K-5 Learning
Math and reading worksheets for the K-5 grades
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