11 Important Skills Kids Can Learn for Free Online While in Quarantine
How do we work *and* keep our kids happy, healthy, and productive during the #Covid-19 school closures? Thankfully, celebrities and ed tech companies have stepped up to help.
Thanks to the growing variety of engaging (and free) online activities, kids in quarantine can learn important 21st-century skills that are often missed in traditional school curriculums. In this way, kids have fun, stay busy (and out of your hair), and will eventually return to school with exciting news to share with their friends and teachers.
Learn to Read (Toddlers-2nd grade)
StarFall is a free online curriculum that teaches kids to read. If StarFall does not suit your child, check out ABCMouse Early Learning Academy, the leading online learning platform for students ages 2–8. Age of Learning is offering ABCMouse and other expensive learning platforms free to families affected by the COVID-19 school closures.
Code and Share Projects with Friends (K-12th grade)
Code.org offers free coding courses for students ages 4 and up!
If kids aren’t keen on structured courses, they can practice developing their coding logic freestyle on Scratch. Scratch is an interactive and highly-social platform designed by students at MIT. Kids publish their coded projects and interact with other kid creators.
High school and college students looking for a more robust course can apply to earn one of Code Academy’s 10,000 scholarships for CodeAcademy Pro. The company is offering the scholarships as a response to the COVID-19 school closures.
Become a Responsible Digital Citizen (3rd-12th grade)
If there is anything COVID-19 has taught us so far it is this, don’t trust everything you read on Facebook. Our kids need to learn how to navigate the web like pros, both for their safety and for the future of our democracy. To this end, Google designed a fun online world called Interland where kids (ages 7–12) learn how to “Be Internet Awesome.” Kids play games, complete challenges, and earn badges. In the meantime, they learn critical 21st-century skills like how to spot fake news, safeguard their personal information, and deal with cyberbullying.
Older kids might enjoy playing Newsfeed Defenders on iCivics. iCivics offers simulation games where kids try things like responding to an international crisis, running a presidential campaign, arguing supreme court cases, and more.
Explore New Languages (K-12th grade)
DuoLingo gamifies the language learning progress. You and your kids can sign up, choose between 35 languages, and start earning points through a variety of language learning activities. Kids can compete with their family members and friends to earn the top spot on the leaderboard each day. They can use their points to buy fun goodies and power-ups in an online store.
Younger kids might prefer StudyCat ‘s game-centered language learning approach. They offer English, Spanish, Chinese, French, and German courses. The program normally costs a pretty penny, but they are offering their service free during the COVID-19 school closures.
Practice Personal Finance (4th-12th grade)
Personal finance might be the #1 in-demand skill that kids still don’t always learn in a traditional school setting. Banzai is an interactive personal finance course designed for middle and high school kids. Kids can also play online games to practice financial literacy skills, like Geni Revolution.
Explore Everyday Economics (6th-12th grade)
Another important and oft-neglected subject is economics. Students interested in economics can take one of Marginal Revolution University’s interactive economics classes for free online. Students who discover a budding interest for all things finance, may want to go on and play SIFMA’s online Stock Market Game.
Design a Theme Park or Animate a Movie with Experts at Disney (great family activity)
Disney just released their innovative Imagineering in a Box program via Khan Academy. Students complete interactive online projects, watch videos of real Disneyland Imagineers in action, and learn what it takes to design a theme park.
Families who enjoyed the program may also enjoy Pixar-in-a-Box, where students learn about every stage in the animated film-making process. They watch behind-the-scenes videos, learn storytelling secrets, and practice using animation technology! Throughout the course, experts at Pixar explain how they use school subjects (like math, science, and the humanities) to make great movies.
Draw With Famous Artists (1st-12th grade)!
Famous artists and illustrators have responded to school closures by offering free lessons and activities online. Kids in quarantine can enjoy daily a variety of free art lessons, including picture book illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka’s daily drawing lessons on YouTube, Illustrator Carson Ellis’s Quarantine Drawing Club, Trisha Zemp’s free stop-motion animation camp, and #MoLunchDoodles with Mo Williams (daily video lessons and an off-line activity from the Kennedy Center’s Artist-in-Residence).
Contemplate Big history (6th-12th grade)
Big History Project is a free online course that mixes videos from CrashCourse (history and science) with mind-blowing interactives. Students complete projects and earn badges. By the end, students have explored the universe from the Big Bang to the present and have developed advanced critical thinking skills along the way. You can thank Bill and Melinda Gates for funding this incredible free online curriculum (complete with teacher support and free grading services).
Master Mathematics (K-12th grade)
Math is a layered subject. If a student misses a few simple skills in arithmetic, they will have a shaky future in advanced mathematics. While your kids are at home, why not ensure there are no glaring gaps in their foundational knowledge?
Khan Academy ‘s online math program focuses on mastery, meaning students must prove they are comfortable with one topic before moving on to the next section. Students focus on the topics they struggle with most, prove their mastery, and eventually return to school with the confidence that they are ready to move forward.
Younger kids (grades 1–8) can try Prodigy Math, an online curriculum that uses a lot of games. And during the COVID-19 outbreak, families can get free access to SumDog, a website with an array of math and spelling review games for kids.
Learn to Love Writing (1st-12th grade)
If your child struggles with writing, why not take advantage of writing tools that are currently offered for free due to the Covid-19 outbreak? For example, Boreal Tales is an online game that encourages reluctant writers to create worlds, write stories, and share their writing with other kids. Usually, schools or parents must purchase a subscription, but during the Coronavirus outbreak Boreal Tales is extending their free trial period indefinitely.
Quill, a respected platform with K-12 grammar and writing activities, is offering free premium subscriptions to families affected by school closures.
Summing it up
Time out of school can be both fun and productive for your kids. By making use of free resources, your kids can use their free time to catch-up, hone their skills, and discover new interests. Kids have the opportunity to learn critical skills, like financial literacy and digital citizenship, that are too often left out of conventional school curriculums. These fun websites do much more than keep your kids out of the home office. They help kids stay busy, confident, and happy!
Resource Roundup:
- Reading: StarFall
- Coding: Code.org
- Digital literacy: Interland and iCivics
- World Languages: DuoLingo or StudyCat
- Financial Literacy: Banzai
- Economics: Marginal Revolution University
- Big History: Big History Project
- Behind the Scenes at Movie Studios: Imagineering in a Box and Pixar in a Box
- Art: Various Artists
- Math catch-up: Khan Academy or Prodigy Math
- Writing catch-up: Boreal Tales and Quill
Originally published at Hop Into History. If you like what you see here, please subscribe via Medium or my blog. You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram.
