Resources for Families with Stay-at-Home Kids

Submitted by MelissaOrlov on 03/26/2020.
Good for Multiple Ages
  • National Geographic has great programming for kids right now at this link.
  • Dave Pilkey, Author and Illustrator of Dog Man and Captain Underpants, Collaborating with the Library of Congress to Serve Families at Home
  • PBS has great content for kids here
  • Homeschooling Resources
  • Headspace has meditations for kids
  • Cooking - Knife for younger kids: for younger inkids steam vegetables and let them chop them for snack, for older kids they can safely use to help prep their own meals (started ours with this at I1.5 yrs old)
  • YT Learning Hub -- https://www.youtube.com/learning. The goal is to give people - especially kids - easy access to the universe of educational videos on YouTube
  • If your kids are younger, YouTube Kids (get the app at https://www.youtube.com/kids/) is the better way to watch YT, and also can be a gateway towards useful information.
  • Physics Girl for physics related YouTube content. Best aimed at kids 6+
  • Hiking with a magnifying glass and the iNaturalist app to identify species; good to get out of the house, get exercise, and avoid playground germs!
  • Hoop app - for local activities
  • Library books, paperback or ebook. If you would like to avoid physical library books, you can still check out ebooks from the library.
  • Toucan Box (or other craft boxes; this one is for the UK) - My five-year-old son loves these
    • KiwiCo has a lot of g games for a variety of ages (subscription, but I think it’s worth it)
    • Watch Legomasters and then BUILD BUILD BUILD! (Legos for all ages!)
  • PBS Kids has a lot of educational activities and games on their website. (I spoke with some of them at Grace Hopper, and they put a lot of work into curating and designing these games.)
  • Tynker - coding lessons and with free educational resources

Ages 0-2 Years Old

  • Indoor Yoga on YouTube: Cosmic Kids Yoga
  • Mr Tumble nursery rhymes
  • Water play, Bath!!, Aqua doodle
  • This website has toddler activities for each month of development: https://www.sensorylifestyle.com/toddler-activities/
  • Set up a “tea” station for little ones to practice pouring. We either go outside or set up a big baking sheet at a kids table inside and give them pouring cups and a little water. Also works in the bathtub.
  • Color mixing water station — same as above with drops of food coloring.
  • “Wash the car” — give them a bucket, rag and either toy cars or a tricycle or something to wash.

 

Ages 2-4 Years Old

  • Outdoor activities for backyard or the park (when you don’t want them touching the playground) https://nurturestore.co.uk/forest-school-activities-for-toddlers-and-preschool
  • Paint with water
  • Sparkle Stories app ($15/month) has a ton of great stories for kids. My three year old sits quietly, transfixed by the Martin and Sylvia stories (usually 15-30 minutes in length).
  • Busy toddler
  • Crayons, watercolors, stickers, construction paper, preschool workbooks; this workbook has been a hit with my daughter from the ages of 3 to 4.
  • Playdough - always and forever. Feed Me I'm Yours Playdough recipe (you can make it at home with your kid, lasts for a few months)
  • Craft materials from IKEA are really good (particularly love the watercolour set)
  • Replaceable sticker books: This one from M&D lasts forever
  • Blue painter tape on the ground (for roads with cars, etc) and on the walls (tic-tac-toe and targets)
  • Paint by Sticker
  • Pillow forts, couch cushion forts, blanket fortresses
  • Move around the kid furniture (like a small kids table) to set up a “special place” for a standard activity like legos, coloring, etc.  Changing location day to day may make it ‘new’
  • Make a traffic jam with matchbox cars
  • Use a piece of cardboard and a sharpie or tape to make a “parking lot” for matchbox cars.
  • Empty cardboard boxes, painters tape and kid scissors.
  • Magnatiles (for any age, really).

 

Ages 5-7 Years Old

  • Rivet, a reading practice app for kids, all free, available on Android, iOS, Kindle Fire devices and the web. Built by an Area 120 team at Google.
  • KiwiCo - Create/Innovate subscription boxes ($20 a month), ages 0-14.
  • Duolingo - my 7 year old loves this app!
  • Kodable - fun programming app
  • Todomath - my 1st grader loves this app, you can set the appropriate level and there is some gamification to keep the child entertained
  • Bead kits, my 4 year old son loves to make necklaces
  • Coloring Books
  • Small lego kits (~80 pieces). They often go on sale after the holidays and good to buy and store for when you need a reward for being well behaved
  • Puzzles!
  • Slime, slime, and more slime
  • If you have camping gear + a yard, spend an afternoon setting up a campsite, teaching them to set up the tent, hang a bear bag, where to cook, + Leave No Trace principles.  If the weather cooperates, sleep outside in the tent.
  • Tell them to hide something and create a treasure map for you to find it. Block off 30 min. so you can go on the treasure hunt. Entertained my kid for an hour.
  • Scavenger hunts (free printouts)
  • Facetime a bestie 20 mins a day! Agree with parents on good timing.

 

Ages 7-9 Years Old

  • Scratch - Free MIT site to make stories, games and animations
  • IXL - online math program, can customize by age
  • Prodigy - free online math game.
  • Facetime a bestie 20 mins a day! Agree with parents on good timing.
  • Air-dry clay projects
  • Art of Problem Solving (math) has paper workbooks and an online curriculum tied to common core standards-- great for enrichment or a standalone curriculum (for grades 2-5, it's called Beast Academy)

 

Ages 9-12 Years Old

  • Grasshopper
  • Code.org
  • Khan Academy
  • IXL - online math program, can customize by age
  • Prodigy - curriculum aligned math platform (free with optional subscription)
  • Work on a project with a bestie over Facetime (i.e. plan a lemonade stand when the situation is over, plan a field trip, learn about a topic and present to your families online).
  • Rubix cube

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