Homeschooling Tips

Written by Erin Terry, M.Ed, LCMHC, Behavioral Wellness Therapist

Do you find yourself suddenly working from home AND homeschooling your kids? Me too! The COVID-19 pandemic is something none of us imagined having to face in our lifetime. We do not have the tools and resources to navigate through these muddy waters. A lot of us are being asked to carry our usual responsibilities, for example: full-time workload and stay-at-home caregiving, along with providing academic enrichment for our kids since they are out of school until May 15th.  Is anyone else pulling their hair out yet trying to balance all of this?! You are not alone!! First things first, let’s take a minute to take a deep breath and celebrate the resilient Rockstar you are! We will get through this!!

Please know you will be okay. This is temporary. You will not go crazy in this process even though it feels like you might sometimes. Try to remember, this is a perfect time to make memories with your child and to have a more hands-on approach, with opportunities to organize their learning outside of their “normal” school routine. Try to have grace with yourself as a caregiver.  Don’t be rigid with expectations and routines. Allow for flexibility when things come up because this transition is hard on everyone.

When we feel a loss of control, our anxiety spikes. In an attempt to decrease this anxiety, we desperately grasp at anything we can, to try and regain a sense of balance in our life. Some things we just cannot control; like weather, illness, school closings, stay-at-home orders, etc. During these times, it becomes even more important to find things you CAN control. Hopefully, these tools and resources can help you feel a little more control in developing a structure and routine for your child.

Step 1: Write down or develop a basic schedule of activities, draw it up and have the kids help. Put it up where everyone can see it. This helps with two working parents who are taking shifts in caring for the kids and working from home. Here is an example that is appropriate for ages Pre-K to 3rd grade — By the way, it might help you feel a sense of relief in knowing kids this age really only need one hour of solid educational instruction a day. The rest can be fun and enriching activities surrounding a variety of topics.

Here are some of the tools and resources you can find online to help “homeschool” your child:

• My personal favorite is Khan Academy. It is a FREE homeschooling site for parents, teachers, and children. It gives you examples of schedules for specific ages and will give you access to hundreds of different resources as well a fun app for children to download and interact with http://www.Khanacademy.org
• Story time in space: https://storytimefromspace.com/
• Every weekday at 1:00pm- Doodle Lunches, an artist teaches you to draw: https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/mo-willems/
• The San Diego Zoo has a website just for kids with amazing videos, activities, and games. Enjoy the tour: https://kids.sandiegozoo.org/
  and Cinn Zoo shows a new animal every day at 3pm on: https://m.facebook.com/cincinnatizoo/
• Explore the surface of Mars on the Curiosity Rover: https://accessmars.withgoogle.com/
• Indoor Activities for busy toddlers: https://busytoddler.com/2020/03/indoor-activities/
• Play games and learn all about animals: https://switchzoo.com/
• Travel to Paris, France to see amazing works of art at The Louvre with this virtual field trip:  https://www.louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne
• This Virtual Tour of the Great Wall of China is beautiful and makes history come to life: https://www.thechinaguide.com/destination/great-wall-of-china
• Math and Reading games: https://www.funbrain.com/
• This iconic museum located in the heart of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies: https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/
• Read, play games, and hang out with Dr. Seuss: https://www.seussville.com/
• 300,000+ FREE printable worksheets from toddlers to teens: https://www.123homeschool4me.com/home-school-free-printabl…/
• Math practice from counting to algebra and geometry: http://www.mathscore.com/
• Favorite kids books read by famous people: https://www.storylineonline.net/
• High school chemistry topics: https://www.acs.org/…/hi…/chemmatters/articles-by-topic.html
• Math and reading games: https://www.abcya.com/
• Online history classes for all ages preteen through adults: https://school.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive
• Biology: https://www.biologysimulations.com/
• Educational games K-12: https://www.breakoutedu.com/funathome
• Music is for everyone: https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Experiments
• Science, Math, Social Studies: https://www.ck12.org/student/
• Grammar practice for middle grades: https://www.classroomcereal.com/
• Daily free science or cooking experiment to do at home: http://www.clubscikidzmd.com/blog/
• Chemistry: https://www.playmadagames.com/
• K-5th Science lessons: https://mysteryscience.com/
• Tons of free classes from leading universities and companies: https://www.coursera.org/
• Free printable K-8 Reading and Math activity packs (available in English and Spanish): https://www.curriculumassociates.com/supporting-students-aw…
• Day-by-day projects to keep kids reading, thinking, and growing: https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/…/learnathome.html
• Classes for older teens or adults: https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/lp/t1/freemo…
• Online homeschool platform & curriculum for Pre-K to 12th grade. All main subjects are covered, plus extra curriculum courses: http://discoveryk12.com/dk12/
• A safe research site for elementary-level readers. They are offering free 24/7 access:
  USERNAME: read (case sensitive)
  PASSWORD: read (case sensitive)
  https://www.facts4me.com/
• Carmen Sandiego videos, stories, and lessons for all subject areas: https://www.carmensandiego.com/resources/
• Free at-home kids yoga lesson plans: https://littletwistersyoga.com/online-store/
• Magic Spell is a carefully crafted spelling adventure: https://brainbox.games/
• Resources for AP students: https://marcolearning.com/
• Poetry and music: https://www.thewell.world/mindful-mu…/mindful-poetry-moments
• 80+ do-at-home science activities: https://elementalscience.com/…/n…/80-free-science-activities
• Daily lessons and educational activities that kids can do on their own: https://www.superchargedschool.com/
• Novel Effect makes story-time a little more fun for kids (and grown-ups too!) As you read out loud from print books (or e-books!) music, sound effects, and character voices play at just the right moment, adjusting and responding to your voice: https://noveleffect.com/
• Quick & easy at home projects curated for kids 2 and up: https://www.kiwico.com/kids-at-home
• PreK-12 digital media service with more than 30,000 learning materials: https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/
• Critical Thinking resources for K-6 students https://marketplace.mythinkscape.com/store/redtkids
• Kid-friendly workouts — choose from Strength for Kids, Agility for Kids, Flexibility and Balance for Kids, Warm-Up for Kids, Cooldown for Kids, Stand Up and Move for Kids, OR create your own custom kid workout. https://app.sworkit.com/collections/kids-workouts
• A collection of hundreds of free K-12 STEM resources, from standalone models and simulations to short activities and week long sequences of curriculum materials. https://learn.concord.org/
• Course sets (Levels 1–5) that combine and thoroughly cover phonics, reading, writing, spelling, literature, grammar, punctuation, art, and geography—all in one easy-to-use, beautiful course. https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/
• At home OT, PT, and ST resources designed to build skills in children through movement and play. https://www.theottoolbox.com/
• Science projects that can be completed with or without Internet access https://sciencespot.net/Pages/classhome.html
• Math practice https://xtramath.org/#/home/index
• A quick start resource to help families pull together a plan for surviving the next 1-2 months at home with their kids, but it can also be a time of slowing down and enjoying kids as they learn.
• Preschool through 8th grade https://abetterwaytohomeschool.com/learning-at-home-everyth…
• Spelling 1-4 grade https://www.spellingtraining.com/
• 2,500+ online courses from top institutions https://www.edx.org/
• 22 languages to learn https://www.memrise.com/
• Miscellaneous games for all subjects k-8 https://www.funbrain.com/
• Phonics and learning to read https://readingeggs.com/
• Every course you could possibly want to homeschool preschool https://allinonehomeschool.com/
• Every course you could possibly want to homeschool for high school https://allinonehighschool.com/
• Phonics worksheets for kids https://www.funfonix.com/
• Free stories online ages 3-12 https://www.freechildrenstories.com/
• Website allows students to play basic games to reinforce math skills and compete against the computer or others https://www.mangahigh.com/en-us/
• Space science for kiddos https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html
• Math Games, Logic Puzzles and Brain Builders https://www.mathplayground.com/
• Tons of science experiments that you can do at home https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/
• An interactive way to learn history https://www.mission-us.org/
• Just explore, have fun, and learn some science along the way. https://thehappyscientist.com/
• Short videos about numbers that help kids explore complex math topics and make math more fun. https://www.numberphile.com/
• A human visualization platform that allows students to explore the human body in really cool ways. https://human.biodigital.com/login?returnUrl=/dashboard
• Helps kids learn to appreciate the arts by providing them with the opportunity to play games, conduct investigations, and explore different forms of art. https://artsology.com/
• Let’s kids play instruments online. Instruments include the guitar, piano, pan flute, drums, and bongos. https://www.virtualmusicalinstruments.com/
• A large selection of fun songs to help teach preschool and kindergarten students https://www.songsforteaching.com/preschoolkindergarten.htm
• Resource section includes free flashcards, coloring pages, worksheets, and other resources for children, teachers, and parents. https://supersimple.com/
• Life skills curriculum for students in grades K-12. Their resources include strategies for teaching social and emotional skills. https://www.overcomingobstacles.org/
• From rainbows to tornadoes and winter storms to tsunamis, meteorologist Crystal Wicker breaks down the fascinating world of weather. http://www.weatherwizkids.com/
• Kids Think Design explores careers in fashion design, graphic design, interior design, book design, product design, film and theatre, architecture, animation, and environmental design. http://www.kidsthinkdesign.org/
• This educational website hosted by the Smithsonian Museum takes a deep dive into ocean life. https://ocean.si.edu/
• Brainscape offers over a million flashcard decks for every subject, entrance exam, and certification imaginable. https://www.brainscape.com/
• Education for kids all topics https://www.ducksters.com
• Math and logic problems for ages 5 and up to adult: https://www.aplusclick.org/
• Science podcasts to listen to with your kids: https://medium.com/…/19-great-science-podcasts-you-can-list…
• Crafts, projects, science, recipes for young children: https://www.funology.com/
• Engineering challenges with things you have at home: https://thehomeschoolscientist.com/paper-structures-engineering-challenge/
• Toddler and preschool age ideas: https://preschoolinspirations.com/
• 100 free online educational program ideas: https://savingdollarsandsense.com/free-educational-resources-for-kids/