Whether your child is home-schooled, in traditional school, before or after school, or needing something to occupy and educate during the summer, this post is filled with tons of learning at home activities for children. I’ve compiled a lot of internet resources that are free or have a free trial that would work for a short time. All of these at-home learning activities are designed to help you find educational and safe online resources for your kids.
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Learning at Home Activities for Every Day
No matter where your child does the majority of their educational learning, you are going to be faced with times that you will need to provide some addition at home learning activities. You may want to schedule some time every day for some fun learning at home opportunities or this may be a huge part of your home school day. This huge list of learning at home activities will provide you with lots of ideas and resources.
RELATED: 5 Things You Should Do With Your Kids Everyday
RELATED: 11 Easy Ways To Fill The Days with a Preschooler (or older)
- You will probably find some ideas here that will also appeal to your older kids as well. Remind them of the fun they had when they were younger!
- This post includes resources, tips for setting up a schedule and a place to work on school work as well as some specific things that she has used in her home as she works with her kids.
- This is a huge collection of amazing companies that are providing free subscriptions and resources for families who are finding themselves in a sudden homeschooling situation.
Parents.com has compiled a list of 12 museums that are offering free virtual field trips.
Julie from Birmingham Mom Blogs has compiled a great list of ideas and activities to keep the kids busy during a quarantine.
Lisa Tanner has compiled another great list of 15 Tips for Having Your Kids Home all Day.
The following online learning resources to keep your kids busy and learning at home are researched and curated for you, but always check out the website, games, and videos for content before allowing your child to go online. Videos or games on websites may not be content that you want your child to access. Please use your discretion. I’ve just tried to find links that could be helpful! I have not screened everything.
Bible/Worship Online Resources to Keep Your Kids Busy and Learning at Home
Animated Bible Stories for Kids
- Science lab, nature explorer, arts and crafts, Bible academy, daily devotions and episodes to watch.
- Tons of Bible story videos for kids.
These Bible videos are word for word enactment from the KJV of the Bible. They were produced by the Visual Bible Project. I love the representation of Jesus in the Matthew Video. It just really brings the Bible to life.
Learning at Home Activities for Reading and Writing
Capturing Teachable Moments Part 1 Language Arts, Reading, and Music – A huge list of ideas that you can incorporate into your daily life. They don’t take lots of supplies or materials.
Capturing Teachable Moments Part 2 Math and Science – A huge resource list of ideas for adding math and science content into your daily life without requiring specific supplies or materials.
Story Prompt Generator from Highlights
- This is a super fun site where kids can generate their own story starting prompt. If they don’t like the prompt, they can select another one.
RELATED: Simple Ways to Keep Your Kids Reading In the Summer (or Anytime!)
- Free phonics, grammar, reading and language skills for elementary-aged kids.
- Online reading, comprehension practice, and educational games.
- Leveled reading and assessments for students.
- Tons of videos, quizzes, and activities for all subject areas.
- Play games while practicing reading and math skills.
Learning at Home Activities for STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math)
- If your child needs some additional math help, Khan Academy is a free site with thousands of video tutorials for how to work out math problems. This just might become your favorite site! 🙂
- Huge collection of math and science lessons based on specific textbooks or specific topics. Lessons include teaching videos, practice, and assignments.
- Practice math and reading skills while playing fun games.
- Build a biome, build a habitat, animal memory, sound match, where do I live, and so much more!
- Listen, watch, and play games to learn about all kinds of amazing animals.
- Tons of online activities, science question videos, games, hidden pictures, and many other categories.
- Learn all about geography and fascinating animals
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base STEM activities
Cincinnati Zoo Virtual Field Trips
- From their website: “While the Cincinnati Zoo is closed and kids are home from school, let us help make your children’s hiatus from school fun and educational. Join us for a Home Safari Facebook Live each weekday at 3 pm where we will highlight one of our amazing animals and include an activity you can do from home. Join us starting Monday, March 16 at 3 pm, for our first Home Safari- featuring Fiona!”
- This site says “The Exploratorium isn’t just a museum; it’s an ongoing exploration of science, art and human perception—a vast collection of online experiences that feed your curiosity.”
Create Stop Action Movies with Legos
- This project could take quite a bit of time and planning. A couple of years ago we assigned our high school students to create a stop-action Bible story with Legos. The students absolutely loved it and they turned out really cool. They created the video and then added narration and music.
Scratch – Beginning Programming
- This basic programming site is a lot of fun for kids to kids out. It’s free and there is a basic tutorial to get you started.
- There are tons of different resources and activities on this website. There are videos, games, and activities about space, flight, and much more.
- This site has real-world math story problems for middle school and high school. There is a yearly fee, but they offer a free 30-day free trial.
- This site is packed with project-based learning ideas and activities. They are neatly sortable by grade level or topic. I just downloaded one lesson plan and it’s super detailed and informational!
- This site has virtual lessons for aviation. If you or your child has been interested in being a pilot, this site has some great videos and lessons coming out each week.
- This site is a history challenge project for classrooms and students in Australia. But even if you don’t live in Australia, you could easily utilize the information and make it applicable to your local area or region. There is a great activity for researching a specific topic and creating a poster board. You can find that under “Classroom Activity.”
- This site has a huge selection of project ideas for project-based learning. The lesson plans and resources are well prepared which makes the resource very usable for your classroom or student.
- This site has a ton of information and resources for encouraging kids to work on something they enjoy. There are tips and helpful resources for starting a genius hour, as well as ideas and suggestions to help kids find something they are interested in.
- Free drawing lessons each week from illustrator Rob Biddulph.
Learning at Home Activities with Music
You may feel a bit intimidated trying to think of ways to incorporate music into your learning activities at home, but there are tons of great resources and ideas to help you develop a musical love and interest in your child. Whether you are “musical” or not, you can encourage your child to enjoy making music, listening to music, and experiencing music.
- Free concerts as well as behind the scenes information. Go to the digital concert hall and enter the code for free concerts.
- Fun free football-themed color by musical symbol pages
- Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
- She has a list of music resources and musical activities that she has compiled.
- This website has a fun way for kids to create music and then listen to their composition. Kids could literally spend hours on this site creating music, rhythms, and tons of other fun activities! All online and free.
- Here’s a video tutorial for using Chrome Music Lab.
- VMM has some great Youtube videos for practicing rhythms, ukuleles, recorders, motion songs, and tons of additional videos that teach the concept and children can follow along.
- This site includes song videos, units, listening activities, rhythm and solfa practice as well as recorder, guitar, and ukulele practice videos, interactive activities, and games.
Fun Youtube lessons from two music teachers who are also navigating online learning.
- Their Youtube Channel is here with all of their video lessons.
- Online music lessons and resources.
Physical Activity Ideas for Learning at Home
Sometimes it is much easier to find online resources to keep your child busy, but you also need to encourage your child (and yourself) to be active and get some physical activity every day.
RELATED: Simple Ways to Encourage Your Child’s Curiosity Through Nature
- A great list of ideas that you can do at home with your children that include learning about nature and learning in nature.
- Get a free National Park Pass if your child is in the 4th grade. Now is a great time to do some exploring.
- Online Jr. Ranger Program for Aztec Ruins National Monument
- Visit the parks from home!
Physical Education Ideas
- 12 easy physical education games that could be adapted to online directions. Most only need 2 or 3 people which could be your student and their parent or their siblings.
- 20 Simple Ideas for Kindergarten Students with Minimal Equipment
- Move to Learn has a YouTube channel full of brain break videos with physical activities. Scroll down the page for the younger aged videos.
- Welnet – Online PE Options
Learning at Home Activities on a Road Trip
This heading may sound funny, but you can ensure that your child is learning “at home” with you while you go on a road trip or vacation as well. Learning doesn’t only happen within the walls of your house, but your at home learning can go along with you. Learning at home is also a mindset. This simply means that you are intentionally finding ways to include learning in your child’s everyday activities.
The following articles will provide you with lots of road trip activity ideas!
- 7 Reasons You Should Take Your Kids Camping
- Road Trips with Kids Part 1 – Food
- Road Trips with Kids Part 2 – Activities
- Road Trips with Kids Part 3 – Books to Read
- 7 Things You Need in Your Car Emergency Kit
I will continue updating this list as I find more resources. If you have found an online resource that would be helpful to keep your kids busy and learning at home, please leave a comment below.
Please share this list of online learning resources to keep your kids busy and learning at home with your friends! Pin it, email it, or share it on Facebook. The more we can support each other, the better.
What a great list. I checked out Create Stop Action Movies with Legos and this sounds so great (for kids and adults alike!). Thanks for sharing.
You could turn it into a family activity for sure!
The Scratch website has always been a bit hit in our home!
Thanks so much! I’ve been sharing so much with my siblings who have little ones!
I’m glad it was helpful. I will keep updated it as I find additional resources.
This is a great list, so thorough! I will definitely be saving this one for my friends who have children!
Thank you so much for sharing!
This is a great list! There’s something for everyone!! I’m definitely going to be using some of these to keep the kids busy over the next couple of weeks.
I will keep updated as I find additional resources!