This guide has been updated.
We already know the bad news: Bored kids, harried parents, days when time slows to a standstill. And after being out of school buildings since mid-March in many places, kids are now staring at 10 or more weeks of summer, without even the structure of online school activities. Many in-person camps are canceled. And even for the camps that are open, parents may be hesitant to send their kids into a swarm of peers where social distancing guidelines will be difficult to enforce or quickly forgotten. But here’s the good news: Museums, libraries, arts organizations, private companies, celebrities and many others are creating online content for kids or offering free access to existing resources. Many more online portals and entertaining apps have been with us all along but never seemed more relevant.
To give parents a sense of what’s out there, we compiled resources in 10 categories: reading, education, travel, mental wellness, music, art, physical activity, theater and dance, languages and entertainment. Then, as it became clear that we were in for a full summer of canceled activities and open schedules, we went back on the hunt for virtual camps and free resources that can help kids get outside and try something different, away from the screens that have in many cases consumed them since schools closed their doors.
So don’t just sit there — give geocaching a go, sign up for weekly outdoor activity guides, learn how to wrap a mummy, take a virtual train ride, conjugate Spanish verbs or watch a Metropolitan Opera performance. Just because time is at a standstill doesn’t mean you have to be.
Don’t see your go-to resource? We will be periodically updating this list; feel free to leave recommendations in the comments.
Summer fun
- Nature Cat’s Great Outdoors app, based on the PBS Kids series “Nature Cat,” is updated daily with adventures geared to help kids explore nature, with tools to record and share their observations. The app works with iPads, iPhones, Android tablets and phones, and Kindle tablets.
- Illustrator Wendy MacNaughton, known for illustrating Samin Nosrat’s “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat,” is hosting a virtual art camp called Draw Together Camp, with drawing classes at 1 p.m. Eastern Mondays and Thursdays on her Instagram page. Every week she will have a new topic related to the outdoors. Past classes are on YouTube.
- Active for Life, a Canadian nonprofit organization, has created lists of fun seasonal activities for kids of all ages this summer, including sprinkler games, DIY obstacle courses and more.
- Geocaching, which uses GPS coordinates to lead users to containers hidden all over the world, is an easy, free and socially distanced activity parents and kids can do together this summer. Use this official app to download cache sites and start hunting.
- Similar to geocaching, letterboxing involves following directions to hidden boxes at locations across the United States and around the world. Check out the letterboxing community at AtlasQuest.com for information about getting started and box locations.
- Camp Tinkergarten is providing eight weeks’ worth of free activities for kids of various ages, from babies through elementary school. Registration is needed to access instructions for themed outdoor activities, a trail map where your child can track their progress through the summer, book recommendations and more.
- Many in-person camps have been canceled this year, so Common Sense Media has created this list of virtual summer camps for kids ages 4 and up, including programs for teenagers as well as kids with disabilities or medical issues. There is a fee for some camps, but there are many free options.
- Kids who have summer writing requirements for school or who are looking to share their pandemic experiences with peers should check out The Kids Write, a free site run by a mom and writer who lives in Ottawa. Kids can submit their writing about life during the pandemic to have it published on the site, and they can read what other kids are sharing.
- The U.S. Botanic Garden at Home is offering free online resources for adults and kids of all ages while the facility is closed. Options include virtual tours, photos and videos of how the garden is changing through the growing season, coloring sheets and kid-friendly plant lessons and activities, cooking demonstrations and more.
(For The Washington Post) Reading
Disappearing into a good book is a welcome escape from the stress and chaos of daily life — even when there isn’t a pandemic. Reading is beneficial for people in all age groups, but it’s essential for children: It develops and strengthens vocabulary, social and emotional intelligence, curiosity, memory, concentration and brain function. Happily, numerous organizations are offering free worksheets, games and exercises to help budding readers build basic skills. Kids eager to tell their own stories can join children’s authors’ free writing classes. And for those times when parents need a break (or a great story), kids can join librarians, authors and actors for recorded story times or dive into a wealth of free audiobook links.
- “Read & Learn with Simon Kids” is a new video series hosted on the Simon Kids YouTube channel. Parents and educators can find self-shot videos by Simon & Schuster authors and illustrators, including read-alouds, drawing tutorials and more.
- “Snack & Read Live with Simon Kids” is a half-hour video series that streams live on Facebook every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 2 p.m. Eastern.
- Story Online features actors — including Lily Tomlin, Oprah Winfrey, Chris Pine and more — reading children’s books alongside colorful illustrated videos.
- Audible offers free streaming of some of its audiobooks. Books are classified by age and theme.
- The Library of Congress has numerous classic literature titles available free to download, including “Alice in Wonderland,” “Anne of Green Gables,” “The Jungle Book” and many more. There are pages with suggested titles for kids, teens, adults and educators. Plus, the website has links to numerous taped author webcasts from Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Toni Morrison and many more. Author Jason Reynolds is sharing twice-weekly videos with creative writing prompts for young readers to tell their own stories, and Dav Pilkey, author and illustrator of the “Captain Underpants” series, is sharing downloadable activities and videos on drawing. For older readers, the National Book Festival Blog will feature videos of author appearances categorized by topic each weekday.
- Dolly Parton, singer-songwriter and founder of the international literacy and book-gifting organization Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, has concluded her 10-week series of comforting bedtime stories, called “Goodnight with Dolly,” but the readings can still be found on the organization’s YouTube page. The Imagination Library website includes activity sheets and parent guides for each reading.
- The Folger Shakespeare Library’s educational resources for kids include audio recordings of William Shakespeare’s plays, podcasts, videos and more.
- Harper Collins has curated content and programs to help with reading, including daily live-streamed story times, a podcast about classic literature, and more.
- The Royal Shakespeare Company is offering learning activities for kids, including games, scripts and more, related to William Shakespeare’s plays.
- Listen to a collection of short stories translated into languages from around the world on the World Stories website.
- Logic of English is offering free online games and literacy lessons, with written and video instructions for each game.
- The D.C. Public Library is holding virtual story times on weekdays on Facebook with its librarians. Residents of suburban Maryland and Virginia are also eligible for a card that will allow them to access all of DCPL’s online resources, including ASL lessons.
- New York Public Library’s “At Home Storytime Guides,” which were designed by the library’s early-literacy team, pair early-reader books with fun activities so parents can host read-alouds at home. The library also offers numerous remote-learning resources for patrons of all ages, including age-appropriate story times every weekday for younger readers and remote homework help and test prep for older readers. Some resources, such as online tutoring, require a New York library card to access.
- The Children’s Poetry Archive, a subsidiary site of the England-based Poetry Archive, collects audio recordings of poems written for children.
- Into the Book, from PBS Wisconsin, is offering activities in English and Spanish for early readers to explore literacy concepts such as visualizing and inferring. You must register for a free account to access the activities.
- Storynory’s database of online audiobooks for young readers includes original short stories, fairy tales, poems and more.
- This list from Reading Connects Us helps young readers find authors or illustrators who are open to communicating through snail mail, email, social media or their individual websites.
- Waterford.org has a list of websites with free audiobooks available for kids, including Spotify, Audible, OverDrive and LibriVox.
- Young learners can build and learn reading basics through fun, colorful, free games on Teach Your Monster to Read’s website.
(For The Washington Post) Education
Ever since schools started closing amid the coronavirus crisis, the Internet has exploded with videos, educational apps and documentaries to help kids learn (and help parents get some work done). But before jumping into the world of wonderful online resources, home-schooling experts recommend taking a breath. Create the kind of environment, schedule and home life that can best balance your responsibilities with peaceful learning. And then pick one, two or three of these vetted resources that you think will match your kids’ interests and educational needs.
Pre-K through elementary:
- PBS Kids provides games, activities and tips for emotions and self-awareness, social skills, character, literacy, math, science and arts for ages 2 through 8.
- Education.com: Worksheets have their place. Print what might help you get through a conference call for prekindergarten and elementary school kids: dot-to-dots, handwriting practice, math equations, geography quizzes, color-by-numbers and more. The site also offers online games and guided lesson plans.
- Mystery Science is offering a starter list of K-5 science classes free, without requiring users to sign up or log in.
- SplashLearn invites kids to grow the math skills learned in kindergarten through fifth grade with an app full of math games. The iPhone and iPad app provides parents with weekly report cards and costs $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year; the PC version is free.
- Young Writer’s Blueprint gives kids the opportunity to beef up their creative writing skills through this short course taught by author Alice Kuipers.
- Scholastic Story Starters are creative prompts to help kids get started with writing. They include options in adventure, science fiction and fantasy.
- The National Wildlife Federation’s Ranger Rick site offers free, online nature-themed kids’ activities (games, videos, crafts) and access to monthly educators’ guides.
- The Washington Nationals are providing free online activities to help kids in grades 1 through 6 with reading, STEM skills and staying physically active. Baseball-themed activities include practicing a pitching stance and calculating a fielding percentage.
- The Washington Post’s very own KidsPost page is full of educational stories, quizzes, contests, galleries and crafting how-tos. Subjects include current events, sports, animals and space. Kids can submit their own weather art for the print page, too.
Pre-K through teens:
- Scholastic Learn-at-Home has put together four weeks of resources for grades pre-K through 9, with a theme for each day. For instance, a first-grader might read a story about a spider, watch a video and then draw their own spider. Older grades also get writing prompts.
- NatGeo@Home groups together quizzes, videos, science experiments and at-home classroom resources for kids to complete during the week. There are also activities for kids and their parents to do together on the weekends.
- WideOpenSchool, hosted by Common Sense Media, gathers resources from Scholastic, Noggin, Google, YouTube, PBS, National Geographic and more to provide learning in many areas — science, social studies, math, life skills, arts, writing — in an organized fashion for kids in grades pre-K through 12.
- BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. offer lessons via video for the K-12 set on topics that align with state education standards. Games, quizzes and activity instructions then follow. Normally $18.95 (BrainPOP Jr.) or $24.95 (BrainPOP) a month for family plans, BrainPOP is temporarily free.
Elementary through teens:
- NoRedInk has hundreds of free writing and grammar exercises for grades 5 through 12.
- James Dyson Foundation engineers came up with 44 engineering and science challenges using household objects, for all ages. (Some younger children may require parental assistance.)
- Seterra offers more than 300 online map quizzes in 36 languages for students. Free printables allow for handwritten quizzes. The website (free) and app ($1.99 for iOS and Android) also have anatomy quizzes.
- NASA is offering chances for kids in grades 1 through 12 to chat with scientists, watch videos, find directions for STEM projects, solve puzzles, play games, read books, color sheets and watch lectures.
- Tynker has more than 40 courses for the wannabe coder in the house. Kids ages 5 to 7 can solve logic problems and create simple apps; kids 8 to 13 build games and design Minecraft mods; ages 14 and over learn coding languages and how to make websites and even prep for AP Computer Science.
- With Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government, created by the Government Publishing Office, kids can go on a virtual learning adventure with Ben Franklin. Topics include branches of government, how laws are made, symbols and structures, election processes and federally recognized tribes.
- The Smithsonian Institution Learning Lab allows kids to access millions of digital resources from the Smithsonian’s museums, research centers, libraries, archives and more. The site also offers prepackaged collections that contain lessons, activities and recommended resources.
- National Museum of American History activities include building a virtual sod house, examining the imagery in a buffalo hide painting and more.
- Scholastic’s interactive immigration module includes narratives, an Ellis Island tour and historical lessons about immigration in the United States.
- Discovery Education has virtual field trips across a variety of subject areas, such as a dairy farm or a behind-the-scenes look at careers at Facebook. Trips include written guides and video aides.
- The National Constitution Center’s virtual field trip takes kids inside the Constitution.
- The Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has YouTube videos for its Virtual Camp Discovery, which explores science-based activities including slime-making, meeting a gopher tortoise and more.
- The National Museum of African American History and Culture offers resources and activities for educators and students. Its Learning Lab collection uses objects, documents, imagery and videos to explore well-known and lesser-known moments of history.
- The Free Library of Philadelphia’s site features a page with links to resources for studying African American history and culture, including major speeches, notable figures and a timeline of African American history.
Tweens and teens:
- The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian offers 11 digital lessons, two in Spanish, about Native Americans in North and South America.
- The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is offering American history videos, including animated and live action, on YouTube.
- The American Museum of Natural History in New York is sharing a range of online content, including its OLogy science website, with activities and games to help kids learn about the natural world; curriculum collections for teachers, parents and students (topics include dinosaurs and river ecology); and opportunities to visit virtually through the museum’s YouTube channel.
- MrBettsClass is a humorous history video series for older kids.
- TedEd@Home allows students to search for lectures — recorded or animated — on subjects of interest or sign up for a daily email of lesson plans that span all subjects and age groups.
- Instead of presenting U.S. history as a collection of facts and dates, Annenberg Learner’s “A Biography of America” series presents it as a living narrative, with 26 videos. At the end of each lesson, find questions to prompt deeper learning.
- On the National Constitution Center’s site, teens can participate in Zoom civic dialogue sessions on constitutional matters with scholars. Sign up for public sessions to hear a lecture and participate.
- PBS LearningMedia has made many of Ken Burns’s award-winning films available on its website through June 30, to aid teachers, parents and students in distance learning. Ken Burns in the Classroom will include access to “The Roosevelts,” “The Civil War,” “The Dust Bowl” and more.
(For The Washington Post) Travel
These days, our travel is limited by the perimeters of our own neighborhoods. Thankfully, we can still see breathtaking sights in faraway lands, learn about people, animals and cultures around the world and even travel back in time — with a little help from the Internet. Pay a visit to Ellis Island or Colonial Williamsburg, observe wild animals on a national park’s webcam, or ooh over panoramic photographs of far-flung cities and landmarks. You can also sharpen your knowledge of geography or hone your language skills. Whether you want to learn about a country hundreds of miles from your home or explore your own state, here’s a sampler of virtual field trips, tours and classes for those times when a trip around the block just isn’t enough.
- Many children’s museums are closed because of the pandemic, but visit the Association of Children’s Museums’ website for links to online programming offered at member museums, including crafts, STEAM activities, story times and more.
- The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is offering online programs, stories, videos, activities, virtual tours and other resources for children of all ages and adults, accessible from its Air and Space Anywhere page.
- Use the upcoming election as a jumping-off point for exploring presidential history this summer. The White House Historical Association has created an online library of resources from more than 100 presidential sites throughout the country. Options include a virtual tour of Abraham Lincoln’s home in Springfield, Ill., or Martin Van Buren’s home in Kinderhook, N.Y., a tour of the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site in Buffalo and more.
- Our own KidsPost recently wrote about SafariLive, a virtual safari tour of South African game reserves put on live twice a day by WildEarth. The video broadcasts are online at 12:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. Eastern time, and allow kids of all ages (parental guidance is advised) to “ride along” with a ranger and visit the watering holes of elephants, rhinos, leopards and more. Participants can also email questions to the rangers, who select a few to answer during the tours.
- 360 Cities is offering free access to numerous high-quality 360 images of famous panoramas and landmarks from around the world.
- You can learn about colonial life in America with teacher resources, live video demonstrations and virtual tours from Colonial Williamsburg.
- National Geographic’s Explorer Classroom goes live every weekday at 2 p.m. Eastern with conservationists, researchers, scientists and storytellers.
- Waterford.org has nine field trips that can be taken from the comfort of your couch, including seeing zoo animals, walking on Mars or viewing paintings in the Louvre museum in Paris.
- Take a virtual field trip to Ellis Island and learn more about immigration in the United States at Scholastic’s website.
- Visit the Smithsonian museums virtually by clicking on “Explore & Learn/Explore interests” to see objects from the museums’ collections, with annotations.
- The Junior Ranger Program, offered by the National Park Service, includes free online activity books that touch on topics such as archaeology, paleontology, space, the ocean and more. The books include activities that can be completed indoors or outside.
- The National Park Service also offers webcams with live video of national parks, plus interactive online exhibits and numerous articles and pictures.
- Travel & Leisure has compiled 13 virtual train rides allowing you to “explore” countrysides in Europe, Asia, North America and more.
- Through a partnership across many states, the Civil Rights Trail highlights more than 100 significant sites in the history of the Civil Rights movement. The website includes galleries and images, plus tools to plan a trip when travel is less restricted.
- Watch more than 100 back episodes of National Geographic Kids’ geography show, “Are We There Yet?” on YouTube. The show is for kids ages 4 to 8 and hosted by sibling duos who explore unfamiliar locations across the globe.
(For The Washington Post) Mental wellness
Living through a pandemic can be frightening and frustrating, with the routines of daily life disrupted and coping mechanisms limited by a world on pause. Too much energy, too little space. Too much time, too little to do. And, always, too much scary news. Helping kids understand their emotions and how to manage them is uniquely important during this strange time. The resources listed here will help parents talk with their children about the novel coronavirus, teach relaxation and mindfulness and help make all our emotions a little bit easier to navigate.
- On YouTube, Moovlee offers yoga and meditation exercises for kids that are led by a cartoon monkey.
- The Child Mind Institute is hosting daily live streams at 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Eastern with therapists on its Facebook page.
- GoZenOnline offers anxiety relief songs, relaxation exercises and tips for parents on its YouTube channel.
- Cosmic Kids has fun mindfulness exercises for kids on its YouTube channel.
- The well-known meditation app Headspace now has an app for kids.
- Susan Kaiser Greenland, author of “The Mindful Child,” has turned her website into a database to help parents and kids coping with the pandemic. Resources are divided into “mindful games,” with breathing exercises and creative ways to help kids stay calm, and “response to covid-19,” which has information on a pay-what-you-can course, hosted by a group of therapists, about how to respond to children’s needs.
- Chanel Tsang’s Peace Out is a podcast with relaxation stories for kids.
- “First Aid for Feelings: A Workbook to Help Kids Cope During the Coronavirus Pandemic” is a free workbook created by parenting expert Denise Daniels.
- Sesame Street’s “Little Children, Big Challenges” initiative includes an app, inspired by the popular children’s television show, to help children learn problem-solving strategies and emotional regulation.
- Child psychologist Abigail Gewirtz wrote a script to be used as a guide for talking to children about the coronavirus.
- “Stop, Breathe & Think for Kids” is an app to help children focus, relax and rest.
- Child-care expert Janet Lansbury talks about respectful parenting on her podcast “Unruffled.” Recent episodes have covered topics related to the outbreak.
- The National Child Traumatic Stress Network has put out a coronavirus fact sheet with details about how the pandemic might affect the mental well-being of children.
- The Fred Rogers Center put together a compendium of resources for parents.
- “What happens when coronavirus changes EVERYTHING?” is a downloadable PDF guidebook by Sara Olsher for coping with ruptures in routine as a result of the pandemic.
- School social worker Nicole Batiste has put together a covid-19 journal for kids with guiding activities to help children express their emotions.
- Calm offers guided meditations, relaxing audio and mindfulness resources for kids.
- GoNoodle posts videos with imaginative, guiding exercises to help children manage emotions.
- “Carolina Conquers Her Coronavirus Fears” is a coloring book put together by LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans to help kids cope with uncertain circumstances and fears brought on by the pandemic.
(For The Washington Post) Physical activity
Staying fit during the covid-19 crisis is challenging for even the most fitness-focused among us. So, what to do with kids ages 2 to 18, who probably are sitting in front of screens more than ever, who are missing their scheduled sports and activities and who are not used to exercising on their own? We humans need daily exercise. Kids are no exception. They should get a minimum of 60 minutes a day of cardio and strength. Try to mimic the amount of exercise the child gets on a normal day to make sure they stay fit and happy. The general rule for kids’ strength-building is that prepubescent children are safest doing body-weight exercises, such as push-ups and situps, while teenagers can lift weights. Make a plan with your child that focuses on wellness and health above all. This list of fitness resources includes three-minute dance videos, online yoga, ideas for games like hopscotch and indoor balloon volleyball, fitness card games, online youth sports performance videos and much more.
- GoNoodle offers videos to get kids moving, including dancing, stretching, running, jumping and more. The channel has an app that’s recommended for kids 5 and up.
- Cosmic Kids Yoga offers free yoga on YouTube for young children ages 3 and up. There are countless classes, from three minutes to three hours, featuring brilliant colors, storytelling (themes: “Frozen,” “Moana” and “Peter Cottontail”), singing and of course yoga with a yogini Jaime Amor.
- Adriene Mishler, an Austin-based yoga teacher with 7 million YouTube subscribers, is offering free online yoga classes ranging from 10 minutes to an hour. The classes focus on power flow, basic yoga, meditation and more. Open to all fitness levels and ages but more appropriate for teens than younger kids.
- “Top 25 At-Home Exercises” by the American Council on Exercise offers kids of all ages — young ones with the help of an older sibling or parent — a chance to mix and match body-weight drills such as push-ups and situps to create their own workout, which could mean 10 challenging minutes or 40 moderate ones. Each exercise is explained and shown, but once you know them, this potentially is a screen-free option.
- SHAPE America has instructions for an arts and crafts project (you have to create your own deck of fitness cards) that can provide kids with the option of several screen-free games for one to five players. Some games are suitable for young kids and others for middle-schoolers and older. For the youngest kids, this project requires older-sibling or parent involvement.
- The YMCA offers dozens of free online videos, both kid-specific and general-public, by YMCA coaches and instructors. The kid- and teen-geared classes are clearly marked, such as “Youth Sports Performance,” which features indoor and outdoor drills to develop overall athleticism and prevent injuries. Some videos require equipment (such as a soccer ball, cones or a fitness band). Videos range from five to 25 minutes.
- Emily Coates, a physical therapist with MedStar Health, gives suggestions for screen-free ways families can promote basic fitness (60 minutes a day of aerobic and strength training for children ages 6 to 17) and establish good habits while distance learning, such as building in plenty of physical fitness breaks during the day, including a scheduled recess. Outside activities include Frisbee, catch, tennis, biking, walking, running — all while practicing social distancing and good hand hygiene — and indoor activities include dance parties, Simon Says and Nerf wars.
- British fitness trainer Joe Wicks offers free boot camp-style classes for kids on YouTube. The classes, which focus on body-weight exercises, range from five to 15 minutes and are geared toward elementary school-aged kids and younger. He also has many non-kid workouts that would be suitable for teenagers.
- Fitness Blender is a free online workout platform for adults that features mostly body-weight exercises. There are more than 500 workouts — focusing on specific muscle groups, cardio, flexibility — and is appropriate for teens with the exception of a couple of videos geared toward kids.
- Nike Training Club is an app that offers close to 200 free workouts ranging from 15 to 60 minutes and covering HIIT training, weightlifting, yoga and more. It is designed for tech-comfortable and self-motivated adults but can be suitable for high schoolers.
(For The Washington Post) Music
The signature sound of this pandemic may be that of a delivery truck slowing down in front of your house, but thanks to the wealth of free material available online, there’s plenty more melodious music out there. On any given day, you can hear chamber musicians play Schumann at the Lincoln Center, catch a Metropolitan Opera performance of Bizet’s “Carmen” or listen to field recordings of Mississippi Delta bluesmen at the Smithsonian Institution. Or you can learn to make your own music: There are sites that will teach you to play guitar, read music and compose your own songs — or symphonies. Music is the mood-altering drug we could all use a little more of right now. So bring that package inside, pop on a Spotify playlist and take a quick turn around the block to “Walking on Sunshine.”
- Spotify’s Coronavirus Children’s Dance Party playlist features what it calls “100 kids songs that won’t drive parents crazy” (plus “Baby Shark,” which will).
- Cincinnati Public Radio’s Classics for Kids is a classical music education website for younger kids with games, resources for parents and teachers, and more.
- The Library of Congress’s concert series features live performances of classical music.
- The Smithsonian Institution’s website offers access to its huge collection of music from all over the world, including a section with interactive classroom lessons.
- Sight Reading Factory offers interactive sight-reading exercises designed for kids, including voice and more than 30 instruments. There are limited options that can be accessed without a paid subscription, and the activities require some familiarity with the concepts.
- Kids Guitar Zone is featuring free beginner guitar lessons for kids with Australian educator and musician Andrew Keppie.
- Bramwell Tovey, then the music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, is both conductor and narrator in this broadcast of “Peter and the Wolf” from Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Music.
- Metropolitan Opera is offering free encore videos, during the covid-19 shutdown, of previous performances. Scroll down for weekly schedules and “free student streams.”
- MusicTheory.net features free music theory lessons, exercises and tools for young musicians.
- Flat is a free tool for writing your own scores online, including discussions of craft and concepts.
- Laurie Berkner of the Laurie Berkner Band (and formerly of Noggin) is doing a Facebook Live every morning at 10 a.m. Eastern. Also, each weekday, the band will be posting a song for a morning Berkner Breakfast (7 a.m.), an afternoon Berkner Break (3 p.m.) and an evening Berkner Bedtime (7 p.m.).
- The Lincoln Center is streaming free daily performances and workshops through a new portal.
- World Music Network’s website features numerous guides to music from around the world. The guides are free, but some music requires a purchase.
illustration for parenting resources page (For The Washington Post) Art
If there’s any silver lining to this pandemic, it’s the jaw-dropping creativity demonstrated by the quarantined and isolated around the world. Art teachers are live-streaming drawing classes while decked out in art history-themed costumes. Housebound art lovers have re-created favorite paintings with common household objects. Illustrators are turning to the symbols of the outbreak — toilet paper, hand sanitizer — with a fresh artistic eye. Children can join in the creative fervor with free coloring sheets, online classes and games, and digital museum tours.
- Yellow Line, a studio based in Leonardtown, Md., has a YouTube channel featuring free art lessons, with an emphasis on drawing, best for kids ages 6 to 16.
- The National Museum of Women in the Arts’s NMWA@Home initiative includes online exhibitions as well as kid-friendly virtual scavenger hunts, a downloadable coloring book highlighting pieces from the museum’s collection, and more.
- Author and illustrator Mo Willems has concluded a three-week stint as artist-in-residence at the Kennedy Center. You can find all 15 episodes of “Lunch Doodles,” along with the accompanying downloadable activities, archived on the organization’s website.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers MetKids, an interactive module, to help children explore the museum’s collection. Kids can navigate to educational videos and creative prompts.
- The Louvre offers virtual tours of some of its exhibits, including the moat and Egyptian antiquities.
- From Australia to Mexico to Amsterdam to Los Angeles, this curated collection from Google Arts & Culture uses street view to take armchair travelers around the globe. It has views of famous landmarks such as the Colosseum in Rome and Taj Mahal in India, and guided virtual tours and curated collections touching on art, literature, science and more.
- Tate Kids online has interactive, art-inspired games and activities. Some highlights include a street-art game and an interactive painting game that allows children to create digital art in Van Gogh’s style.
- Cassie Stephens, an art teacher based in Tennessee, offered live art classes every day through the end of May, and the recordings can still be found on Facebook.
- The Smithsonian Learning Activities Choice Board is updated weekly and highlights activities related to various Smithsonian museum collections (divided into science, social studies, arts and culture).
- The website Toy Theater has art tools that allow you to build virtual sculptures, paint on famous paintings and do other interactive activities.
- A video series from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, “The Country Dog Gentlemen Travel to Extraordinary Worlds,” stars dogs who teach children about the collection.
- Scribblify is free app that children can use to doodle with all kinds of funky tools.
- NGAKids Art Zone app for iPad has interactive games for children, inspired by the National Gallery of Art’s collection.
- For seven weeks, art teacher Bar Rucci posted a weekly “Art & Play Activity Guide” on Instagram, and the guides can still be found on her website.
- Albright Knox Art Gallery has a series of free games for iOS and Android based on works by artists such as Piet Mondrian and Vincent Van Gogh. The site also includes creative activities for kids (and adults) inspired by gallery artwork.
- On Whiteboard Fox, kids can use a digital whiteboard to draw and doodle alone or share the whiteboard with friends.
- While the Museum of Modern Art is closed, older kids may enjoy one of its free online art classes, which include “What Is Contemporary Art?” and “Fashion as Design,” as well as instruction in art pedagogy.
(For The Washington Post) Theater and dance
It has been said that all the world’s a stage — but what to do when the world has contracted to the size of your living room? Never fear, there are online resources that make it possible to expand your child’s knowledge of theater without leaving home. While live theater and dance performances are on hold, why not encourage kids to swap the role of spectator for that of performer? Or tap the dramatic potential of self-quarantine? How about learning what goes on behind the scenes of a theatrical production? The resources listed here include tutorials in beginning ballet, exercises for budding playwrights and courses in the history of drama.
- The Hamilton Education Program, a partnership between the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the producers of the “Hamilton” musical, is offering free access through August to EduHam at Home, a family version of its online education program. Students can study primary source documents from the era, learn how Lin-Manuel Miranda used similar documents to create the musical, and create their own performance pieces based on that material. The program includes videos from “Hamilton” and its cast members, interviews with Miranda and more.
- KIDZ BOP offers dance-along videos that can encourage the incorporation of music and movement in daily routines.
- Crash Course’s series of 50 videos go through the history, theory and technology behind theater, mimicking an introductory college-level course.
- Daniella Ballerina’s YouTube videos present easy-to-follow, engaging ballet lessons for preschoolers.
- PBS Learning Media features theater resources that include almost 300 videos (including workshops and behind-the-scenes peeks), interactive games and lesson plans.
- Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis is offering virtual resources for both students and parents, including weekly video series and educational tips.
- Broadway Educators is offering free educational materials for those teaching or learning about theater. The resources, for all ages, can be broken down by discipline, education level, content type and category.
- Imagination Stage offers at-home creative challenges, ideas and activities free on their blog, including a follow-along dance moves video from Tiffany Quinn, the choreographer of their production “Zomo the Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth.”
- In addition to their regular free resources and articles, the Educational Theatre Association has temporarily opened its Theatre Educator Pro resources to everyone.
- Black Box Education has compiled a free list of resources for those teaching drama at home.
- The Kennedy Center is offering comprehensive theater lesson plans that can be narrowed down by content and grade level.
language illustration for parenting resources – coronavirus (For The Washington Post) Languages
While kids are geographically grounded, learning a new language is a great way for them to explore an unfamiliar culture without leaving home. Parents can pair introductory lessons with virtual city tours or foreign-language children’s programming to make it more fun. Most of the resources here require only a few minutes each day and include skill-building options such as worksheets, audio, video and even games.
- Duolingo is a free language learning app and website that only requires a few minutes a day, and it offers a premium service for a fee.
- Gallaudet University offers free American Sign Language classes online, where you can track progress with a dashboard.
- Education.com offers free printable workbook pages in Hindi, Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, German, Russian, Arabic and American Sign Language for kids in preschool through fifth grade.
- ESL Video offers free videos, quizzes, lessons and more for those learning English, as well as a virtual exchange with a language teacher.
- The Memrise app allows users to learn a language through interactive games and videos featuring native speakers.
- The French Experiment offers free online French lessons, children’s stories in French and course reviews for those learning to speak French.
- Basho & Friends is offering a free three-month subscription to its Spanish language-learning resources, which make use of songs and music videos, to aid families with distance learning during the coronavirus school closures.
(For The Washington Post) Entertainment
Time — considered a precious commodity just months ago — is the one thing kids have in abundance right now. How to stave off the inevitable declarations of boredom? The suggestions gathered here include the practical (housebound kids may as well learn their way around the kitchen) and the whimsical (there has never been a better time to make an origami frog). Amid the vicissitudes of remote learning, kids need downtime and so do their frazzled parents: Time to start journaling, catch a science podcast — or just keep a play date with Elmo.
- This origami how-to for kids features step-by-step instructions and downloadable PDFs.
- Flower crowns? String art? Vegetable prints? Find all these and more — 97 more, to be exact — on this Mommy Poppins list of 100 crafts kids can do at home.
- Amazon offers children’s programming, such as “Arthur” and “Mr. Bean,” free for Amazon Prime members. (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
- National Geographic Kids’ science-, wildlife- and history-themed content includes online games, quizzes, slide shows and videos.
- Raddish Cooking Club for Kids offers weekly “cook-along” classes as well as kid-friendly cooking resources.
- Kitchen Classroom from America’s Test Kitchen offers a free cooking-inspired “curriculum,” including recipes, hands-on activities and experiments.
- Rebel Girls offers free “Rebel Girls at Home” content, including PDFs on activities such as journaling, planting a garden or climbing a mountain.
- Camp Hello Bello, formed by Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, offers free “camp sessions” weekdays on Instagram Live, Facebook and YouTube, including singalongs, exercise sessions, puppet shows, cooking and crafts.
- The on-demand streaming service Pinna offers 60 days of free kids’ entertainment podcasts.
- “Wow in the World” is a science-themed podcast for kids, with hosts Mindy Thomas and Guy Raz.
- Story Pirates Creators Club offers daily “Story Pirates Radio” podcasts for kids, paired with related downloadable activities.
- Sesame Street’s website features singalongs, story times and other “Sesame Street” activities, including, recently, a play date with Elmo. New content is added weekly.
- Common Sense Media offers a vetted list of the best educational documentaries (“March of the Penguins,” “A Beautiful Planet” and more), while noting appropriate viewer ages.
- “Harry Potter at Home” offers free games, quizzes and activities for everyone from beginning readers to seasoned Potterphiles. Update: In May, the site announced celebrities would be reading chapters of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” out loud on video (or audio via Spotify), starting with Daniel Radcliffe.
- The Food Literacy Center offers kid-friendly recipes and accompanying YouTube and Facebook lessons designed to emphasize the components of healthy meals.
- King Arthur Flour’s website features a downloadable book of easy-to-follow recipes and techniques for dishes such as pizza, braided breads, rolls and more.
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