Fun, Educational things to do at home with your children if school is cancelled. #COVID19 #FunFreeActivities

So school is cancelled or you decide to pull your kid out of school or the kids are on vacation or the kids are sick, how do you keep them learning? What do you DO with them?

One of my problems about the kids being home is that they naturally gravitate towards screen time. Non-educational screen time.

What are some things you can do with your kids (assuming that you are stuck at home too).

All ages: Play board games. Read books aloud. If the books are difficult, read the book (or if you don’t have time – play the audio book at the same time) and watch the movie! Cook (or help cook) with the child calculating double or triple the recipe (Ratios! Chemistry!). Play with Legos. Make slime. Make scientific models (Like a model of DNA from toothpicks, licorice, and mini-marshmallows). Leave coffee table History books around the house (open). Sign up for an online class (many options these days – including free ones). Buy FUN workbooks/educational books. Have the kids explore the backyard and take photos of different plants/insects/animals (like lizards and such). Then have them research the animals and maybe make a book. Science projects (you can google them for different ages)

Some examples of activities:

For the little ones: (K-3rd) What about reading the “Little House on the Prairie” books and trying to follow the history? You made the bread per Laura’s recipe in the book, make candles, that kind of thing. You can map where the Ingalls family travelled and research the time period. That would cover Literacy, History, Geography, and Math (following the recipe and doubling or tripling recipes.) They discuss farming in the book, study how to keep chickens, cows, alive. Study locusts and other animals that destroy crops.

For 4-7 Grade, read “Around the World in 80 days” by Jules Verne. Have the kids trace the route on maps (Geography), study the countries that the book discusses (Culture), calculate time zone changes (Math), write essays or opinions on the book (English), make a video of their opinions of the book or act out something that happened in the book. Discuss how historically/culturally accurate the book is. Calculate if it is possible to travel around the world in 80 days. There is a chapter in the book where the train Fogg is on has to go over a bridge that is in danger of collapsing. This might be a good time to introduce a bridge building game. Whist is played in several parts of the book. Have the kids look up how to play Whist.

For high school kids, you can buy study guides for any subject you choose. Algebra, Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, US History. There is Khan Academy. There are online classes and there are books. Programming. Books. Electronic books. Go on youtube a figure out how to isolate vegetable DNA or build a robot.

And don’t forget to get your kids to exercise! Run! Throw a ball around! Do archery in the backyard! Do planks and jumping jacks!

Let me know if you have more great ideas! I will follow up this post with specific classes, books, online resources and fun activities for different age groups!