SCHOOL & LEARNING RESOURCES FOR PARENTS

We have had lots of conversations with parents as we all wade into the challenge of keeping our children learning while we self isolate.  Many parents are feeling completely lost or overwhelmed, so we wanted to bring together some of the wonderful resources that are available at the moment.

First off though, we wanted to let you know that we are not home-schoolers. We have a huge amount of respect for the parents who choose to invest years planning and learning to be able to guide their children through their school learning. Also our appreciation really goes out to the teachers and administrative staff who train for teaching as their life's work.

What we are doing is "crisis schooling" in this time of self-isolation & social distancing.

The two are not the same!

So here are some bits of advice that we have been pondering as we move into this challenge:

1. BE KIND TO YOURSELF AND YOUR KIDS.
   When in doubt stop pushing and do something fun.
   
   
2. YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO HOURS OF WORK.
   Choose a few activities to give your kids some structure and then call it a day!
   
   
3. TEACH A LIFE SKILL.
   This is a great time to make sure that kids have some basic self sufficiency tasks such as laundry, making lunch, making their bed etc.
   
   
4. DON'T TRY AND DO IT ALL!
   Give some time in an area where your child needs some extra support in their learning or some extra time to fully understand a concept they may have rushed through.

schooling resources for parents:

We know that this can all be very overwhelming, so we have broken our list of online support resources down by subject / area of study.

GENERAL CURRICULUM BY GRADE | READING | FIELD TRIPS & TRAVEL | SCIENCE & MATH | LEARN TO CODE | MUSIC & DRAMA | LANGUAGES | WRITING & TYPING | INDIGENOUS LEARNING | MOVEMENT & MINDFULLNESS

general curriculum by grade

• 2Simple
• Khan Academy
• Funbrain 
• Newsela
• Dream Box - 90 day free trial

reading

• Lalilo Phonics 
• Children’s Books Forever 
• EBook Kids
• OverDrive (Rakuten OverDrive)
• Reading AZ 
• Seussville 
• Starfall
• Squiggle Park 
• Epic
• Book Club for Kids 

Field Trips & travel

• Virtual field trips
• Virtual world tours (trip savvy)
• New England Aquarium 
• Georgia Aquarium 
• Shedd Aquarium 
• Monterey Bay Aquarium 
• Baltimore Aquarium 
• Explore Livecams 
• Atlanta Zoo 
• Calgary Zoo 
• Houston Zoo 
• St. John’s Cherry Brook Zoo 
• Toronto Zoo
• Canada’s Wonderland 
• Lego Land 
• Sea World 
• Walt Disney Parks 

Science & Math

• Crash Course Kids on YouTube (starting with 5th grade science but adding more topics as they move forward)
• TED - ED on YouTube 
• Minute Physics on YouTube
• Big Think on YouTube 
• SciKidz blog (usually a science summer camp)
• Discovery K12 Online Homeschool
• Enchanted Learning
• Explore space with NASA 
• Homeschool Math -  worksheets by grade
• Knowledge.ca - science & technology
• Adaptive Mind
• A Plus Math 
• Beast 
• Bedtime Math
• Bitesize Math 
• Can Figure It Out - Geometry
• Cool Math For Kids
• E-learning For Kids