How Families Can Utilize These Free Tools While Homeschooling

Cumberland Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics has closed all of its locations until May 1, 2020. Read this blog post for more information.

To help our patients through the COVID-19 outbreak, we are creating a series of helpful and relevant articles that will be posted here in the coming weeks.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, parents are facing a new set of challenges every day.

Maybe we are working from home and trying to teach our children at the same time. Maybe we are off work but have no clue how to become home school teachers.

Regardless of your circumstance, we all have the same goal in mind and that is to insure our children are getting a great education.

In this blog post, we put together some free resources you can use to help your kids learn, engage, and most importantly, stay happy!

Resource Links:

1. YouTube Learning: Did you know that YouTube just launched Learn@home? This free learning hub offers videos, tutorials and activities appropriate for all different ages and areas of interest.
2. i-Ready: You can upload free at-home activity packs to help support Tennessee students during school closures. You can also ask your child’s teacher if they have a login for you to use while school is out. Resources are for students from kindergarten to 8th grade.
3. Teachers Pay Teachers: This is the world’s largest online marketplace for educational resources. Make sure you click “free” in the filter to see all the free downloadable prints you can add to your materials. A lot of teachers upload free resources to help parents during COVID-19.
4. Khan Academy is offering free lessons in math, science and humanities from kindergarten through the early years of college. Students can use their exercises, quizzes and instructional videos to learn and master skills. They will get immediate feedback and encouragement.
5. OpenCulture.com: This website is offering free drawing lessons led by famous artists and illustrators. This is great for your child’s creativity.
6. Scholastic Learn at Home: Do you and your little one need new reading materials? This website has day-by-day projects to keep kids reading, thinking and growing. Make it a goal to read 3-4 books a day.
7. Zearn.org has free engaging math lessons and resources provided during the COVID-19 pandemic. To get started, there is a great set of webinars for you to watch!
8. Pinterest has a ton of free worksheets and daily activity ideas that you can use. It is great to find some hands-on learning activities because it will keep your little ones engaged. In the search bar type “kindergarten math activities” for example. We also created a Pinterest board here to get you started.
9. Staples is offering a series of complimentary Print & Marketing services to help support individuals and businesses during this difficult time.

Make sure to Include Breaks!

Breaks are super important as well, so make sure you add in a little bit of free time to allow them to stretch, play, use their imagination, and exercise. Kidz Bop exercise videos on YouTube are a great way to help burn energy. Magic School Bus is also a great Netflix show to help your little ones learn while also being entertained.

We hope this blog post gave you some great ideas to add to your daily routine. Keeping kids engaged and entertained for 8 hours a day isn’t an easy task, but you are on the right track.

Stay safe, wash your hands, and keep up the great work!