Who says you can't learn inside?!

Question

Hi Friends!

I think we can all agree that these past few days have been a bit crazy! How are you staying sane? I've been cleaning/cooking/texting/facetiming, and adding as much structure to my day as I can. It's amazing what putting on real clothes will do, even if I'm not planning on leaving the house.

While chatting with ACEs all around the world, one of the topics that kept popping up was kids. Since many schools have closed for the rest of the month (and might be even longer), the question I keep hearing is "What am I supposed to do with my kids while they're home and I am working?!"

Well, as per usual, our ACEs shared A TON of resources for learning, lesson plans, games, puzzles, etc. I don't have kids myself, but I do have nieces, and you bet I'll be sending these to my sister! She's home with a very hyper 4 year old and an endlessly curious 6 year old. Thank you to ACEs below who shared these awesome resources!

Hope everyone stays strong out (or in?) there and please post your favorite social distancing resources/tips/tricks below, while still #neverstoplearning 🙂

@HeatherMHarris' picks:

* A great curated reading list for ages 12-18 by her son's former librarian. She was a huge influence on his love of reading. 
* "Infinite Flight" iPad app to teach the kids about flying dynamics... And that is what is responsible for her son developing his passion in flying and now being part of Civil Air Patrol and having flown an airplane at age 13... how amazing is he?!!
* Type to Learn:  is a great online program for young kids learning to type
* You can give them a bunch of recyclables as a Makerspace... And teach them some Design Thinking where they have to design something for another kiddo based on their requirements... My son's third grade class had to design lunch boxes for one another from recyclables based on what the other person wanted... Early Design Thinking! (I can't hear "design thinking" or "design patterns" without thinking of @stevea! @stevea, do you have any ideas to add?) 
* iCivics and BrainPOP - great learning sites for elementary age

@NicoleJohnson's picks:

* If you haven’t seen Storyline YouTube, she discovered it yesterday and it’s EXCELLENT for little kids
* If you were at Inspire in Anaheim in 2018, you'll remember Jane McGonigal, our guest keynote speaker, NYT best-seller, "world-renowned designer of alternate reality games — or, games that are designed to improve real lives and solve real problems" aka superwoman. Jane's launched a stay-at-home scavenger hunt!

@estherb47's picks:

* For a ton of free reading
* Might need a teacher to login for these lesson plans, but worth a try!

I'm sure @Samanthaj_hughes, @patrick_digan, @dataMack, & @rafalolbert will have more goodness to share 😉 And for added inspiration: here's my nieces, Katherine & Charlotte aka Chuck reading (though I'm sure Chuck is just pretending)

Le Kovach Kids

NicoleJohnson · Accepted Answer

I have another one I can't help but recommend - this teacher is SO. UNBELIEVABLY. SWEET. She's currently doing "Story time with Mrs. Potts", doing a reading every day with her cute dog Ellie.

https://www.instagram.com/ashley.potts/

I cannot tell you HOW MUCH I LOVE these teachers who cannot help but find new and creative ways to continue to spark joy and learning in the minds of our littles, even in the midst of chaos. God bless you, teachers. ❤️

NJ

MaddieJ · Accepted Answer

Here's a great list of podcasts for kids aged 2-6, featured in the New York Times. Organized into categories (stories, educational, meditation, and music), hopefully there's something here to help keep your little ones entertained 🙂

NicoleJohnson · Accepted Answer

Not all of these are as feasible when you're actually trying to get some work done too, but Seattle Times had a pretty fun list of 23 things you can do with stuff you probably have at home. https://www.seattletimes.com/life/at-home-with-kids-because-of-coronavirus-closures-here-are-23-fun-activities-using-stuff-you-already-have/

I am particularly intrigued by the "snow" using baking soda & hair conditioner?? 🙂 I can see some painters tape roads & art projects in our near future as well...

NJ

NataliaV · Accepted Answer

My local children's museum has a list of resources for at home science experiments, super popular with my high energy kindergartner: https://curiodyssey.org/activities/science-experiments-for-kids/ Certainly some fun to be had with things around the house!

This small business owner is offering a Stop Motion Kids Camp, great for my aspiring magician who needs a little camera help on his execution. She also was running a promotion to comp her course if you repost her social story https://stopmotion.school/p/stop-motion-kids-camp

Samanthaj_hughes · Accepted Answer

Well I feel so late to the party, but our schools are still open until Friday and even then still open for the key workers children but closed to the masses until further notice. So I have been getting my act together. Dan and I for the first time have worked together at home today and had to share the dining room table, taking it in turns to have meetings in another room so that we dont disturb each other too much. Day one was a success.

So getting back to the question at hand, most of you know that I reside in the UK, but if you don't you do know now, so these links may or may not be useful but give them a whirl anyways.

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/offer

Twinkl has an offer to allow everyone to have full access until the end of the month and this may be expanded.

UKTWINKLHELPS is the offer code.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Hit the button is great for division and multiplication practise, its free!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvg-J-wytdOdnMSo6xVgHbA

Our PE teacher and his wife are doing a PE channel for our kids, I think this is great so going to give them a shout out here too as its on youtube and most likely accessible by all.

This is it for now, but good luck everyone, I will update here as much as I can!

I will be teaching my girls some alteryx and data handling too. Thinking of some fun things for them to do like recording their heights from all their measurements and maybe predict how tall they will be. Or an alteryx challenge or two... we shall see.

Samanthaj_hughes · Accepted Answer

and I back because I just found the best DISNEY link ever! Kids everywhere will love this: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/hass-storytelling/imagineering-in-a-box?CMP=ILC-DPFY19Q4wo0808190814190031F <> Can I have a month off to learn what I like? I may have just treated myself to datacamp...

Mel_E · Accepted Answer

Enjoy art and culture from around the world in real-time from the comfort of your home! Streaming art + culture from around the world.

TaraM · Accepted Answer

my daughter was all about playing her viola yesterday and it was out of tune, so I reached out to the smart and talented @ChristineB for help. Not only is she a great Alteryx teacher, but she is also a gifted violist. After she taught my daughter to tune her viola, they jammed!

Thank you, Christine #TogetherWeSolve