Kate Hodges

By Kate Hodges

16th March 2020

With so many families facing weeks of lockdown, we thought we’d do a round-up of resources and sites that might help you get through weeks – or even months – of staying in your home and garden.

Kate Hodges

By Kate Hodges

16th March 2020

Kate Hodges

By Kate Hodges

16th March 2020

This is an ongoing project, please email us with any resources that you find useful, and we’ll add them to the list! Don’t forget our forums are a mine of information, ideas and tips, and a quick search on our website will lead you to recipes, teaching ideas and home-ed inspiration.


Home Education tips from The Green parent

Read about how you might structure your days and weeks here

And one man’s experience of being a home-educating parent here

Find out how to make a rainy day (or stuck inside) box here

Bring the outside indoors with these creative planting ideas here

Create staycation cosiness here

Find out how to talk to your children about bad news here

Be a self-compassionate parent – more here


Make learning fun with interesting lesson plans and whizzy home-ed resources

BBC Bitesize is the grandaddy of online learning – find free lesson plans, revision aids and games for every age group here

Twinkl is full of teacher-created content (free and paid) from interactive tests to child-focussed news stories, informative e-books and printables. They’re giving parents in lockdown a month’s free subscription here – enter the code UKTWINKLHELPS

Prodigy is crammed with engaging, free fun maths games.

Khan Academy is particularly strong for computing and maths. It’s aimed at US students, but there’s a lot of crossover with the UK curriculum.

Learn Blockly or Scratch programming skills

Natgeo Kids have oodles of fascinating, informative videos, facts and quizzes

The excellent people at KiwiCo have a treasure trove of simple science experiments, activities and home-ed schedule ideas

Find fun maths, reading and classic games at Toy Theater

Scholastic have a thoughtful selection of day-by-day, cross-curricular projects

Want ALL the maths lessons for older kids? Find them at Dr Frost

Mirror school time with IXL’s virtual lessons, closely aligned to the national curriculum – paid, but worth it.

Find sweet and meaningful lesson plans and resources for free at Ms Mactivity

You don’t need to leave the house to visit your nearest library. Sign up for an online account and download as many e-books as you can read!

Find lots more learning resource ideas here


Story Time

Magical storyteller Neil Gaiman reads The Graveyard Book and Coraline here

Superstar writers Oliver Jeffers and Mac Barnett will each be reading one of their books on Instagram every day, and talking about how they wrote them.

There are dozens of episodes of CBeebies Bedtime Stories on iPlayer

Award-winning book illustrator Rob Biddulph is sharing draw-along videos daily on his Twitter feed

Enjoy live storytelling by children’s authors here

Listen In

Podcasts we love:

Brains On – your science-based questions answered

History Storytime – learn about incredible moments from the past alongside 6-year-old Sophie

Smash Boom Best – all the biggest debates settled – cats versus dogs, pizzas versus tacos, super speed versus super strength!

The Week Junior takes you behind the scenes of the award-winning news magazine for kids

Art

The Artful Parent shares clear, inspirational, creative activities to share with the kids in your life

There’s a huge bank of creative ideas at Red Ted Art - dive in!

Mother Natured shares excellent, wild art ideas that we just love

Find fun and pretty things to do at Crazy Little Projects



Play

Join cheering and sociable daily online play sessions with Sophie Pickles

There are stacks of inventive, green outdoor and garden play, make and learn ideas at Rain or Shine Mamma

Lemon Lime Adventures shares tips and resources for stress-free parenting of every stripe of child. We love them!

Happy Hooligans has stacks of ideas for indoor and garden play, plus recipes and parenting stories



Fun

Listen in to CBeebies Radio for music, games, or just some much-needed calming background sounds

Play games, do puzzles, watch your favourite TV shows or take time to apply for a Blue Peter badge at CBBC

The Beano has the funniest and silliest quizzes, jokes and games



Virtual Tours

Museums with virtual online collections

Pinacoteca di Brera - Italy

Galería Uffizi - Italy

The Vatican Museum - Italy

The National Archaeological Museum, Greece h

Museo Del Prado - Spain

The Louvre - France

The British Museum - UK

The Metropolitan Museum - USA

The Hermitage - Russia

National Gallery of Art - USA

There’s a great selection of virtual field trips here, from The Great Wall of China to online farms.


Fitness

Join ‘the nation’s PE teacher’ Joe Wicks at his daily workouts – watch live at 9am or catch up when you can.

Stretch along with Cosmic Yoga’s eye-poppingly colourful videos which combine mindfulness and relaxation into gentle workouts

Or sing-a-long with Bari Koral and her music-and-yoga videos

Try Fitness Blenders’ Kids Workout for a truly fun, yet effective exercise session

New mum? Here’s a gentle, post-natal workout you can do with your baby!



Food

Building up a store of food to see you through? There are some good tips here for panic-free, sensible stockpiling and healthy forward planning

Turn a walk outside into a useful food-gathering mission – find nettles, wild garlic or hawthorn for a hedge-gathered feast. Find some great tips here


In the Garden

Learn about the basics of food gardening for free at Urban Farm. Then go out and plant your spuds!

Communities

Family Lockdown Tips and Ideas on Facebook is a brand-new community with tips particularly geared towards families in lockdown

Sister group Home Workouts for Lockdown shares live exercise videos and nutrition tips for families stuck in their houses

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