This blog post came about after a chat with a friend of mine who is currently in a similar situation to many, stuck at home with two small children. Social media has been a lifeline for many of us, allowing us to keep in touch easily, giving us access to some amazing resources and information being shared by friends and family. But there are some, like my friend, who choose not to use social media or avoid it for personal reasons and it made the think about the amazing resources she might be missing out on!

So ironically I used social media to help her and I asked my FB friends for some recommendations and I got LOADS of fantastic links to websites and YouTube channels where children can be entertained, educated or just play to while the hours away and lift the boredom of lockdown! I was really surprised at how many websites are now giving content away free during this lockdown and I am sure there are millions of families thankful for this. I found myself exploring Chester Zoo the other day and I plan to take a look at what some of the museums are offering, so it’s not just for kids!

I thought to myself that there might be lots of people in a similar situation or even avid social media users who might discover something new from this list.

Cbeebies

This ever popular website includes games, puzzles, singalongs. coloring in activities and of course they are linked to your children’s favourite shows,

Click here for the link >> Cbeebies

PE with Joe Wicks

Children full of energy? Put it to good use with Joe Wicks’ daily PE videos on Youtube… and more home exercise ideas for the little ones.

Click here for the link >> Joe Wicks

Cosmic Yoga 

Yoga, mindfulness and relaxation designed specially for kids aged 3+, used in schools and homes all over the world.

Click here for the link >>Cosmic Yoga

Draw with Bob

Bob posts a draw-along video every Tuesday and Thursday at 10am.

Click here for the link >> Draw with Bob

The Maths Factor with Carol Vorderman

The Maths Factor is now FREE for everyone (usually about £2 per week) to support children’s continued learning at home for the duration of the UK Schools closure period.

Click here for the link >> The Maths Factor

Audible Stories

If your child likes listening to stories then check out Audible who have a huge range of free stories for all ages.

Click here for the link >> Audible Stories

NASA at Home 

NASA at home as a lot of space related activities for children of all ages. You can explore the moon or strange new worlds outside our solar system and learn about the universe from the team at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Click here for the link >> NASA at Home

5 Min Mum

5 Min Mum is a website dedicated to simple, easy five minute games and activities for little kids aged 1-5.

Click here for the link >> 5 min Mum

Chester Zoo

A one for animal lovers! Since you can’t go to the zoo right now, Chester Zoo are bringing the zoo to you! They take you on virtual tour of of our zoo for a whole day of animal antics, fun facts, and exclusive behind the scenes knowledge from their zoo keeper team. If you miss the live streams, you can catch up on their YouTube channel.

Click here for the link >> Chester Zoo

Twinkl

This website was recommended a few times, especially by teachers! Following the national curriculum, it includes detailed lesson plans, lesson presentations, creative and differentiated lesson activities and resources, home learning tasks, challenge cards, fact cards, eye catching display packs, key vocabulary grids and formative assessment materials. There is also a Parent Hub that can help with home schooling.

Click here for the link >> Twinkl

Minecraft

I don’t know a lot about Minecraft but I am told it’s an open-world game that promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in an immersive environment where the only limit is your imagination. so sounds good! Minecraft is making its educational worlds available free, to help pupils no longer able to attend school because of the corona-virus pandemic.

Click here for the link >> Minecraft

Teach your Monster to Read

This groundbreaking game makes learning to read fun and covers everything from letters and sounds to full sentences. It’s been designed in collaboration with leading academics and compliments synthetic phonics programmes used in schools.

Click here for the link >>Teach your Monster to Read

Alphablocks

Alphablocks is the hit CBeebies TV show that’s helping hundreds of thousands of children learn to read. The Alphablocks are 26 living letters who discover that whenever they hold hands and make a word, something magical happens. Learn to read and spell easy, intermediate and hard words with the phonetic spelling technique designed especially for kids learning to read.

Click here for the link >>Alphablocks

Phonics Play

A site packed with interactive phonics games, phonics planning, assessment ideas and many teaching ideas and resources. In response to the Coronavirus situation, they have decided to make PhonicsPlay free to use during this period. Children can use the site at home without their parents needing to subscribe.

Click here for the link >> Phonics Play

Myleene’s Music Klass

Curriculum based and most importantly, fun. There’s no need for instruments or to feel intimidated. Any age, any ability welcome. Music helps to look after our children’s minds and souls, especially at a time when they need it most plus, you may even find the next Elton or mini Mozart!

Click here for the link >> Myleene’s Music Class

Elevenses with The World of David Walliams

David Walliams has announced that he will be releasing a free audio story every day for the next 30 days in a bid to provide entertainment for children currently unable to go to school.

Click here for the link >> Elevenses with the World of David Walliams

Thank you to everyone who helped me compile this list and I hope you all find something useful here! 

Stay stay and stay at home…this will all be over soon!

Karen x