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