I never have been and never will be a home schooler, we are only in our first morning of french school closures due to the corona virus and I don’t know how people do it long term. Have a look at this post for plenty of fun things to do at home as well as educational.
Reading Eggs
Reading Eggs is a multi-award winning online literacy programme. It teaches children how to read in a fun and interactive way using phonics within a series of lessons and activities. It is aimed at ages 2-13 so takes children through from the very basics of having no letter recognition at all to learning to read and then further with teaching more confident readers comprehension and grammar. The link above gives a 30-day free trial.
Udemy free coding courses
Udemy courses are created by professional trainers and have been taught to over 5 million trainers. There are paid courses and free courses. Some of the free courses include children’s coding courses. Programming for Kids – How to Make Coding Fun explores free tools, techniques and ideas to inspire fun and creativity in your children’s approach to programming. Coding for Kids & Parents: Awareness Program helps to learn basic coding concepts to make your children ready for the next level of programming.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalised learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. They tackle math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more. Their math missions guide learners from nursery to calculus using state-of-the-art, adaptive technology that identifies strengths and learning gaps. They’ve also partnered with institutions like NASA, The Museum of Modern Art, The California Academy of Sciences, and MIT to offer specialised content.
Learn to knit
A very detailed free knitting course. You can follow along through tons of videos, pictures, helpful texts, and knitting charts. All you need is some needles, yarn, and the willingness to learn!
BBC Learning
I remember using this site when I was in school! This site is old and no longer updated and yet there’s so much still available, from language learning to BBC Bitesize for revision. No TV licence required except for content on BBC iPlayer.
Futurelearn
Free to access 100’s of courses, only pay to upgrade if you need a certificate in your name (own account from age 14+ but younger learners can use a parent account). They offer a diverse selection of courses from leading universities and cultural institutions from around the world. These are delivered one step at a time and are accessible on mobile, tablet and desktop, so you can fit learning around your life.
Seneca
Pick from 1000+ KS2, KS3, GCSE & A-Level courses based on exam board specifications. They’ve condensed the content to what you actually need to know for your exams. Paid access to higher-level material.
Openlearn
900+ short courses (ranging from 1 – 100 hours of study), thousands of articles, quizzes and interactive games, hundreds of videos and audios, ranging from Greek history to modern-day politics, and everything in between. Printed posters and booklets made for our TV & radio programmes co-produced with the BBC. Adult level, but some e.g. nature and environment courses could well be of interest to young people.
Blockly
Computer science skills help students collaborate, create and make nearly every subject seem more relevant. Blockly Games encourages the development of tomorrow’s programmers. Designed to be self-paced, Blockly Games can be downloaded for offline use, ensuring accessibility for all students and technology. All code is open source, meaning it is free and customisable to meet your needs.
Scratch
With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century.
Ted Ed
All sorts of engaging educational videos
National Geographic Kids
Find engaging and curriculum-led teaching ideas and accompanying resource sheets aligned with the National Curriculum and the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. Their resources are pupil-focused and interdisciplinary, supporting core subjects like English, Maths and Science as well as the wider curriculum with resources for Geography, History, Art and Culture – which includes SMSC (spiritual, moral, social and cultural) development, such as British values.
Duolingo
Learn languages for free. Web or app.
Mystery Science
Free science lessons. Every lesson begins with a Mystery that hooks your children. It’s then narrated in an unforgettable story told with stunning images and videos and punctuated with opportunities for discussion. Every lesson concludes with simple hands-on activities designed to use supplies you already have (or are easy to get).
The Kids Should See This
An unprecedented collection of 4,300+ child-friendly videos, curated for teachers and parents who want to share smarter, more meaningful media in the classroom and at home.
Crash Course
From courses like Astronomy to US History and Anatomy & Physiology it’s got you covered with an awesome variety of high school curriculum topics through YouTube videos
Crash Course Kids
As above for a younger audience
Crest Awards
CREST is a nationally recognised scheme for student-led project work in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths). CREST gives young people aged 5–19 the chance to choose their own subject and methodology when completing their hands-on investigation.
iDEA Awards
The Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award, known as iDEA is an international programme that helps you develop digital, enterprise and employability skills for free. Through their series of online challenges, you can win career-enhancing badges, unlock new opportunities and, ultimately, gain industry-recognised Awards that help you stand out from the crowd.
Paw Print Badges
They support leaders, teachers and parents and help save them time with their 1700+ free programme ideas and resources. They design collectable embroidered badges which they retail through their website and raise funds for The Pawprint Trust. The Pawprint Trust provides grants of up to £250.00 to young members of The Scout Association and Girlguiding because, as leaders themselves, they want to give something back.
Tinkercad
Tinkercad is a free, easy-to-use app for 3D design, electronics, and coding. It’s used by teachers, children, hobbyists, and designers to imagine, design, and make anything!
Prodigy Maths
Is in U.S. grades, but good for UK Primary age.
Cbeebies Radio
Listening activities for the younger ones.
Nature Detectives
A lot of these can be done in a garden, or if you can get to a remote forest location! They are split into sections for 0-2 years, 3-5 years, 6+ years.
British Council
Resources for English language learning. Choose from a wide range of resources to give a glimpse into other cultures and provide a base to develop international partnerships. With the British Council’s classroom resources, explore different cultures, discuss international issues and carry out joint projects. These resources are easily accessible and tailored to meet your needs. The topics covered are applicable to all age ranges and can be used, regardless of their location.
Oxford Owl for Home
Lots of free resources for Primary age. Oxford Owl for Home is written especially for parents to help you be as well-informed as you can be, making sure you’re best equipped to help your child have the smoothest journey through education possible. From learning to read to understanding a tricky bit of maths, from the first day at school to making sense of exams, Oxford Owl can provide the important information you need when you need it. Written by leading experts in education, the site is full of advice and ideas to help you to help your child.
Big History Project
Big History examines our past, explains our present, and imagines our future. It’s a story about us. An idea that arose from a desire to go beyond specialised and self-contained fields of study to grasp history as a whole. This growing, multi-disciplinary approach is focused on high school students, yet designed for anyone seeking answers to the big questions about the history of our Universe.
Geography Games
This website will bring you many entertaining and stimulating map games to improve your geographical knowledge. The quizzes include questions about countries, capitals, flags, regions, bodies of water, mountains, deserts, metropolitan areas and other topics that will test and challenge your brain. For everyone who wants to explore and learn about the world, you’ve come to the right place!
Blue Peter Badges
If you have a stamp and a nearby post box.
The Artful Parent
A useful resource with hundreds of art activities to keep your family happily creating and learning day after day
Red Ted Art
The aim of this site is to provide easy, do-able and fun crafts for all ages
The Imagination Tree
Creative art and craft activities for the very youngest.
Toy Theater
Chock full of interactive art games, fun reading games and cool math games. Designed for nursery and primary school children in mind.
DK Find Out
Activities and quizzes on a wide variety of topics
Twinkl
This is more for printouts, and usually at a fee, but they are offering a month of free access to parents in the event of school closures. Use the code PARENTSTWINKLHELPS
Sooper Books
Free online children’s library to help bridge the gap between children’s fascination with technology and our need to get them reading. A fast-growing selection of lovingly crafted, contemporary, award-winning short children’s stories for the busy, modern family.
E-book to explain why a child can’t go to school
How do you explain to a 3-4 year old that they cannot go to nursery or school, play with their friends or even go to the park?
GiftsOnline4U have created an e-book that is completely free for you to personalise and download to read to your little one.
Giveaway
Udemy has very kindly offered one reader the chance to win a course up to the value of $199! This can be any from their adult or children’s courses.
Win $199 to spend on a Udemy course
Sarah | Boo Roo and Tigger Too says
There are some fantastic resources out there to help parents with children at home. I also love Rainy Day Mum and Science Sparks for their kids activity resources
Lisa at Following the Rivera says
This is a great post for parents that homeschool their children. I think they’ll be handy for teachers too.
Gervin Khan says
First of all thank you for sharing this amazing post that definitely can help us learn while staying at home. Great line up of home schooling site that we can really use and be benefit.
kumamonjeng says
I have always wanted to know more about homeschooling and glad to have some information here.
Sue-Tanya Mchorgh says
I have a lot of friends that will find this post really helpful. I will be sure to share this link with them.
Heather says
I appreciate this so much. This whole situation is so foreign for so many of us.
Ashley R says
What a great post to give those who are stuck at home some help finding things to do with their kids.
HowToDrawAnOwl says
really helpfull for us
Kelly Smith says
This would be fab thanks x great resources
Megan Kinsey says
Some great resources here, thanks for sharing them!
Ritchie says
Great ideas and resources
Rich Tyler says
Be great for my little ones
michelle o'neill says
this is fantastic!
YOLANDA DAVIS says
My son struggles so this would really help.
Rebecca Beesley says
What a great list you have put together – definitely some I have not come across so will take a look. My daughter did the free trial of The Maths Factor and got on really well with it so we subscribed her to continue. We also love the Squeebles apps – they are not free but low cost and really worth it.
Sandra Fortune says
This would be fab for my grandson it could help him catch up thanks for the chance
Adrian Bold says
Some great ideas. Thanks for the article and all the competitions.
Saimah says
Fantastic list of resources, especially during this unprecedented time. Thank you for creating this list! I’ll be sure to forward to my Mommies group.