With schools closing for the next few weeks, students are expected to finish their work and keep up their academic standing until school is back in session. If you’re a parent trying to find some structure or assistance as your children try to work on assignments, we have a few ideas that may help!

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Tips

Maintain a routine

It’s important to keep kids in the groove of a daily routine. Try to create a loose schedule for your children to follow on a daily basis including times to wake up, get ready, and do some homework or a learning activity with breaks in between. This is also a good time to encourage some creativity and flexibility in their routine. School often provides a core curriculum for students, but be sure to encourage your children to learn about what they personally find interesting. It’ll keep them engaged while they learn!

Read books with your children

Reading with your kids is a great way to get your little ones engaged and learning through words, photos, and imaginative thinking. Make it an interactive experience, especially with pre-K students as they develop language and literacy skills.

Organize virtual playdates and learning activities with other families

Socialization is important for children, whether they’re young and trying to develop social skills or they’re older and just want to see their friends again. Try reaching out to other moms to set up virtual playdates/activities between kids so they can have fun and not feel so isolated during the next few weeks.

Online Resources

Scholastic Learn at Home

Scholastic is currently offering free courses online for students in pre-K through grade 6+. There are 20 days’ worth of courses available with cross-curricular “learning journeys” and provide 3 hours’ worth of activities each day. This would be a great way to encourage your kids to continue learning, keep their minds and active, and to maintain a structured schedule similar to a school week.

Learn more about the classes on http://www.scholastic.com/learnathome.

BreakoutEDU

BreakoutEDU has a large selection of educational games available for students from kindergarten to grade 12. Each game touches upon a different subject – computer science, math, English language, social studies, and more. Educational games are a great way to keep children involved in learning while having fun.

You can find the games on https://www.breakoutedu.com/funathome.

Kinedu

Strengthen your young child’s development and cognitive skills with the activities provided by Kinedu. They offer over 1600 age-appropriate activities for children up to age 4, so you’ll always have something new to try with your little ones!

Sign up and find activities on https://www.kinedu.com/.

PBS Kids

If you want some new tips and activities sent to you daily, the PBS Kids weekday newsletter sends out helpful tips and tools for parents searching for ways to help their kids learn at home. They also have activities for children ages 2 through 8 in everything from Emotions & Self-Awareness to literacy.

You can sign up for the newsletter and find the activities on https://www.pbs.org/parents.

Education.com Worksheets

If you want to steer from too much screen time, print out some worksheets provided by Education.com! They have worksheets for letter tracing, punctuation, multiplication, geography, and more for students from preschool to grade 5.

Browse through and print the worksheets on https://www.education.com/worksheets/

Educational online games

There are so many great sites for educational, fun games for kids! Here are just a few favorites:

• PBS Kids – https://pbskids.org/games/
• Sesame Street – https://www.sesamestreet.org/
• Nick Jr. – http://www.nickjr.com/games/
• Fun Brain – https://www.funbrain.com/
• ABCya! – https://www.abcya.com/
• BrainPop – https://www.brainpop.com/
• NASA Kids’ Club – https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html