Updated List of Children’s Activities and Educational Websites

With students home for the near future, many parents may be struggling to keep them busy and learning.

We compiled this list of online learning resources and activities to entertain your young students amid coronavirus cancellations.

• Earthwork Harvest Gathering and Hoxeyville Music Festival are partnering to offer a kid’s concert series. Every Sunday afternoon at 2pm performers will be singing out their hearts on Facebook Live, and they will also be accepting contributions. Click here to view past concerts and get updates on future performances.

• Northern Michigan is rich with history, and you can now learn all about the Mackinac State Historic Parks and explore at home on their website.

• San Diego Zoo Kids provides free videos, factoids, and activities for all things in the animal kingdom. You can also check in on your favorite animal friend at the zoo on their live cams. To start your learning adventure, click here.

• National Park Service offers virtual tours of the beloved Yellowstone Park. Explore the beautiful canyons, hot springs, waterfalls, and Norris Geyser Basin while learning the history of the world’s first national park. Go to www.nps.gov for more information.

• Step foot on the mysterious Red Planet with Google’s Access Mars online program.  With the help of NASA’s Curiosity Rover, users can navigate through Mars’ tough terrain where no person has ever gone before. Go to accessmars.withgoogle.com to begin your journey.

• Be a virtual farmer for a day with Farm Food 360º.  Without getting your hands dirty, see how everyday food is produced, such as milk, eggs, and fruit. Take your tour at www.farmfood360.ca.

• Created by childhood education advocate, Susie Allison, the website Busy Toddler gives parents a fighting chance when it comes to “at-home” learning.  Ranging from sensory play to messy fun, Busy Toddler provides countless activities for energetic youngsters. To get educational ideas, go to www.busytoddler.com.

• PBS Kids offers hours of entertainment with tons of educational games, and videos. From a tablet or computer, children can create heroes, go fishing, build and race a go-kart, or learn and play with characters such as Clifford the Big Red Dog, Daniel Tiger, and Elmo. See all the games to choose from at www.pbskids.org.

• Travel to down the corridors of the world’s largest art gallery, The Louvre, while observing the Eqyptian, Medieval and Decorative arts. Presented in both French and English, the virtual tour gives an artistic and cultural journey to the past. Go to www.louvre.fr/en for a guided experience.

• Through the use of colors, shapes, lights, and waves, Chrome Music Lab takes a dive into the beauty of music. This online program sparks a creative vibe within and provides music-themed exercises for all ages. Make your first musical experiment at musiclab.chromeexperiments.com.

• Starfall is a virtual, educational playground for the mind that helps exercise a child’s problem-solving skills. Ideal for ages Pre-K through 3^rd grade, this website can be easily navigated making it ideal for a beginner.  To start lessons in math, language arts and music go to starfall.com.

• Presented by the British Museum and Google, The Museum of the World is a whimsical flight through the years that explores found artifacts from the 7 continents. From crude tools made in 2 Million BC to ancient sculptures, this interactive timeline is an adventure worth taking. Go to britishmuseum.withgoogle.com for more information.
• Learnin’ with Bubba and Ryno at Cops & Doughnuts in Clare County is a great opportunity for kids to watch educational videos on a number of subjects. To see their videos, click here.

• Did you know that panda droppings can be made into paper? There are more “weird but true!’ facts, along with animal-related current events, personality tests, and much more at National Geographic Kids. Find out which shark matches your personality at kids.nationalgeographic.com.

• Performed in a cozy setting, Storyline Online brings popular children’s books to life with the familiar voices and faces of famous people, exciting animation, and music. From Oprah to Kristen Bell there are plenty of stories to choose from. To read along with your favorite star, go to storylineonline.net

• Organized by core curriculum guidelines, ABCYa offers activities in language arts, mathematics and science for ages K through 6^th grade. Lessons include how to ‘type a friendly letter, finding treasure using latitude and longitude, and how to tell time. Go to abcya.com for more information.

• Since 1946 Highlights for Children magazine has entertained children of all ages with stories, brainteasers, and the infamous hidden picture games. After adapting to the digital age, all of these popular activities can now be found on the Highlights website at highlightskids.com.

• Guten Tag, Bonjour, Hola, Salve, Namaste – Learn the basics in over 30 languages with Duolingo. Available on multiple devices, this program offers “bite-sized” lessons while using fun games to “implement long-term retention”. To learn a new language go to duolingo.com.

• Learn about the history of space travel and what it’s like to live on a space station.  Explore galaxies, hang out with NASA’s top astronauts and read about future technology on NASA’s extensive, educational website. There is also a kid’s club for the little astronauts in training. Blast off into space at NASA.gov, or go to NASA.gov/kidsclub.

• Explore Code, HTML and Java Script as you create webpages and virtual robots on Code’s training website. Help Rey direct BB-8 to aid the Resistance, rescue the eggs and defeat the Pigs with Angry Birds, and build a squad to battle the ogres during Code Combat.  To start your coding adventure go to code.org.

• Bunk connects history with today’s current events by recalling moments in the past, and showing how they shaped our modern-day civilization. This straight forward site gives older children a reason to critically think about the past, present and future. Go to bunkhistory.com.

• Fluency & Fitness is currently offering a 21-day free trial to help kids exercise their bodies while exercising their minds. Jump and count to 120, hop while learning long vowels, and dance to a pattern and more at fluencyandfitness.com.

• Join Steve Hartman as he teaches an interactive week-long course for students of all ages. The topic is kindness. Click here to find it.

• Michigan State University is offering a number of online classes for adults and kids. From learning how to be home alone, to learning about the ways to destress, they have it all. Click here to learn more.
• And no matter what it’s like outside, the weather is always beautiful when you’re taking a virtual tour. Pure Michigan just released another new option that will take you all across our great state. Click here to see the tours.

• And for those who want to experience the world outside of the mitten, Google Earth is offering virtual tours of 30 famous Unesco World Heritage sites. The globe is at your fingertips with a 360 view of beautiful and historical locations. Click here to see it all!

• Author J.K. Rowling launched “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” and “Harry Potter at Home” online, described as a free, magical resource to keep readers of all ages entertained right now. Click here for the online series.

• Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources put together some fun and educational resources through it’s Nature at Home website.

• From live cams of eagle chicks, to puppies, penguins, sheep, aquariums etc. Explore.org is all free, and it’s all awesome.

• The Grand Rapids Public Museum is now offering a virtual way to explore Anishinabek culture. The program lets you learn how they lived alongside the natural world, check out artifacts that tell the story of the first people of this place, then complete activities to discover the seven grandfather teachings, and learn all about the tribes around Michigan. Click here to explore the culture.

• As we push through this COVID-19 crisis, you can be a part of history through a new project through the Michigan History Center. To be a part of their story – click here