Hello
I thought it might be useful to list some online resources people have found useful whilst schools are closed. My own experience is that many online resources are shared in closed Whatsapp groups, some Facebook groups and no doubt on twitter and elsewhere but not everyone will have access to these resources. The volume of shared information can also be overwhelming.
Before I start with a list I hope many others will add to and modify, I think it’s important to say no-one should feel like they have to do some, or any of these. Some schools are providing plenty of work to do, others less or not in a way that’s conducive to your child’s learning. Additionally some people will literally have no time to homeschool the children in your care or have laptops etc children can use. Some of these may help but my take on all this is we are not teachers, and certainly at my children’s age learning is not all about academic study - no-one should feel guilty about how we teach our children over the next few months. What I have found with some of these is they have added some structure back in for my kids which they have enjoyed and it has relived some pressure on us as parents.
My kids are in primary school, so here are some things that we have found helpful. though many are for all age groups.
- Educational \ Academic
Oak National Academy - Primary and Secondary
We only started this last week. For Primary you can select a schedule for each year and it’s basically one English, one Math and one Foundation lesson each day. It has a teachers on screen (recorded) speaking and you pause to complete tasks. I’ve found it brilliant and the kids really respond to having a teacher speaking to them (though I think a few of the maths answers were wrong!). We build this into our daily schedule now.
BBC Bitesize Daily Lessons
We’ve not done this, but it looks good.
The maths Factor with Carol Vorderman (Maths only)
My kids do this almost every day and love it. Carol in onscreen talking to them and getting them to do tests online.
https://www.youtube.com/user/maddiemoate/featured - Maddie from https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b09yn3ly/maddies-do-you-know is doing daily programs at 11am - the kids love her and I find I learn things as well!
Royal Institution Science Experiments to do at home with children
Free Learning packs (limited time once signed up I think) - our kids loved some of these.
3 months free Language learning with Rosetta Stone - we are starting this next week.
- Fitness \ Sport
We do three:
Joe Wicks PE - 9am every Monday to Friday - my 9 year old prefers this.
Andy’s Wild Workouts - my 6 year old prefers this
https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga
- Art \ Drama
https://artsandculture.google.com/explore?hl=en
- Wildlife \ Nature
Lots of free content on BBC IPlayer including lots of David Attenbrough series, and some zoos are doing virtual tours such as https://www.longleat.co.uk/news/longleat-launches-virtual-safari .
- Other
Audible are doing free children’s stories during lockdown https://stories.audible.com/start-listen
