Resources to Keep Kids Entertained and Learning

OK, so how is home-schooling working out? Is it getting overwhelming for the parents and the children? Can we all agree at this point that teachers are definitely underpaid?

If only there were some entertaining and educational activities online that you and your child can do to get the creative juices flowing. Aha! We found some, read on!

One web resource we are obsessed with is the San Diego Children’s Museum because of all the daily activity blogs it has for people to take advantage of. One day you can make “Leaf Creatures” with natural materials, the next day you can do an educational scavenger hunt! The possibilities they provide are plentiful!

https://www.sdcdm.org/blog?gclid=EAIaIQobChMInK2Rrf7t6AIVxJ6zCh2hGwIrEAAYAiAAEgIdjvD_BwE

If you have a child that loves animals and nature or want to have your child discover the animal kingdom, they can take a virtual dive tour from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (I know it’s a mouthful). They can dive into a colorful coral reef tour, swim with seals, or explore a shipwreck.

https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/vr/?fbclid=IwAR1KXu6PCuOY5F-Vj5jI1AYSZLU1Zne81iTPKu8K5ZG54g1-7vCvAIUd9bc

For a fun classroom, check out Crash Course — a YouTube channel offering lessons, exercises and quizzes. Very visual and very active, it will grab your child’s attention. With lots of videos on specific topics, they won’t run out of material to learn.

https://thecrashcourse.com/

You cannot spell learning without PBS and they have a great resource with games and lessons in PGB Kids. Let’s face it, kids these days love a video game or a character-based lesson and PBS Kids has all their favorites teaching them something new.

https://pbskids.org/

If your child loves space and aircrafts, you can have them log onto the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s “Air and Space Anywhere” website, where they can find educational podcasts, games and activities about aircrafts and spacecraft. The site also has K-12 learning resources with lessons, activities and videos.

https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-kids-activities.html

If you have a child who loves computers and “Star Wars,” they can learn coding with some fun “Star Wars” games that are also available offline through Hour of Code.

https://code.org/starwars

Arts and crafts are the best way for some kids to learn and the following are some resources they will really enjoy while expanding their creativity.

If you have a child who loves to draw, then tune them into daily cartooning lessons from MazeToon’s Joe Wos via his YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0thYMtZj_O2jV6nS-RY7Fw/featured

Keeping with the drawing lessons, Disney Parks Blog has some character-drawing videos by Disney Park artists that even you will want to try out.

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2020/03/draw-mickey-mouse-at-home-with-a-disney-parks-artist/

If your child is more about the inner workings of theme parks, then have them learn how to build their own theme park from Pixar and Khan Academy with “Imagineering in a Box” virtual lessons.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/hass-storytelling/imagineering-in-a-box