School closures due to COVID-19 have forced parents of elementary school kids to step into the role of home-educators. To help fill the days and keep your kids learning at home I have compiled a list of 14 free educational websites for kids.
PBS KIDS
PBS for parents offers advice on helping children learn at home in fun ways. PBS kids cover a wide range of topics from math to crafts and science. Sign up free for the PBS Kids newsletter for daily activities and tips.
Scholastic
Scholastic has four weeks of educational content for four different age groups (PreK and Kindergarten, Grades 1 and 2, Grade 3 and 5 and Grades 6 -9. Children can read books and articles, watch videos and learn how to create projects at home.
Scholastic also offers free worksheets (you can print them at home), a collection of science videos and an app called Home Base that lets kids connect with characters from their favorite books.
Math Learning Center
Math Learning Center has a curriculum for students from kindergarten to fifth grade to stay on course. There are also games to help make math fun.
Fun Brain
Fun brain offers Math, reading, online books and learning games for kids ages range from preschoolers through 8th graders.
Sesame Street
Sesame street is best for the younger kids, there are lots of fun educational videos with characters like Elmo. Younger kids would love sesame street online.
Starfall
Starfall offers language, arts, and mathematics programs for the kids’ age range from Preschool to Third Grade. Starfall’s emphasis on phonemic awareness, systematic sequential phonics, and common sight words in conjunction with audiovisual interactivity has proven effective in teaching emergent readers.
RosettaStone
Rosetta Stone is letting students learn a foreign language with its program at no cost for the next three months. Kids can learn one of more than 20 languages through immersion while getting feedback and reports on their progress. Students as young as kindergarteners can use this tool.
Old Farmer’s Almanac for Kids
It’s learning with a twist. The Old Farmer’s Almanac for Kids features riddles, puzzles, a question of the day, a timeline of interesting history facts, sky events and weather conditions to track at home with your children.
National Geographic Kids
National Geographic Kids helps students explore the world from home. There’s fun content about animals, people, and places. Kids can play games, take quizzes and learn experiments.
Disney Jr
Fans of Mickey and friends will love visiting Disney Jr. Educational. Games, coloring pages, and videos are a few of the highlights. The games focus on memory, hand-eye coordination, color matching, and other important skills for developing minds.
Wow in the world
Wow in the World is an NPR podcast for kids ages 5 to 12 that explores science and technology. Full episodes are about 30 minutes or less. Kids with shorter attention spans can tune into “Two Whats?! and a Wow!” — game show spinoff with episodes less than 10 minutes long.
Khan Academy
As a nonprofit, Khan Academy provides free educational resources year-round for children ages 2 to 7. This is a great site to turn to for courses on math, science and other topics.
Brain Pop
BrainPOP uses videos, games and interactive activities to teach elementary and middle school students a variety of subjects, including science, social studies, health, and art. It also has webinars for parents about how to teach kids transitioning to a remote learning environment.
Babbel
Babbel is offering three months of free language lessons for students from kindergarten through college. Learn one of 13 different languages through conversation and repetition.
Speech recognition technology helps ensure kids are speaking correctly, and personalized reviews help them retain the knowledge.