Below are the best educational resources online that are free, easy to use, and widely available for all kids. When Working From Home as a parent there are different stages of how to engage with your child depending on your level of support and additional care and the age of your child.
Are you the primary teacher? The babysitter? Or the parent working while your kid is supervised from another room?
If you are a working parent, we know you have different needs. You need to keep your career on track and your child fed, educated, and happy.
We can’t advise on every aspect of WFH parenting but we can provide guidance on WFH educational content to help enhance your child’s learning so that you can focus on work while your kiddo advances through core academic content.
The resources that follow are sorted by age and estimations of time and educational outcomes. This list is a friendly guide that parents can leverage to learn from other educational leaders and teachers to best prepare your child to improve their learning at home while you work.
Grade 1
| Grade: 1 | Link to Learning More | Time | Educational Outcome |
| General & Reading | Online educational games for your kid | 45 minutes | Game |
| Math | First Grade Math | 45 minutes | ArithmeticPlace ValueAdding and SubtractingMeasurement |
| Writing | Creative Time | 60 minutes | Writing down letters of the alphabet |
| Art | Build an Object | 60 minutes | Draw or build your favorite household item |
| Exercise | Run Around Time | 60 Minutes | Take your First Grader for a walk or run around a local track |
Grade 2
| Grade: 2 | Link to Learning More | Time | Educational Outcome |
| General & Reading | 2nd grade games | 60 minutes | Bar GraphingNouns and VerbsPlural Nouns2D and 3D (and 3D printers that are under $500 for your kid!) |
| Math | Second Grade Math | 120 minutes | Add and subtract within 20Place ValueAdd and subtract within 100Money and TimeAdvanced Measurement |
| Writing | Match Opposite Words | 120 minutes | Reading and pattern matching |
| Art | Drawing and painting | 60 minutes | Watercolors and finger painting |
| Exercise | Play a Sport! | 60 minutes | Kick a soccer ball, throw a baseball, shoot a basketball |
Grade 3
| Grade: 3 | Link to Learning More | Time | Educational Outcome |
| General & Reading | Reading Games for 3rd Grade | 120 minutes | Irregular Plural NounsComplete SentencesContext and MeaningComma Fun |
| Math | Third Grade Math | 120 minutes | Introduction to multiplication1-digit multiplicationEstimation of valuesIntroduction to divisionBasic fractionsIntroduction to Quadrilaterals |
| Writing | 180 Day Writing Challenge | 60 minutes | Write one poem, short story, or paragraph every day for 180 days |
| Art | Sketch and Tell | 60 minutes | Identify landscapes, still-lifes, and portraits.Robust Shapes and Colors |
| Exercise | Running: Form and Fitness | 60 minutes | Learn how to keep the body in shapeRun your first mile and try to beat 12 minutes! |
Grade 4
| Grade: 4 | Link to Learning More | Time | Educational Outcome |
| General & Reading | 4th Grade Reading and Introduction to Critical Thinking | 120 minutes | Usage of CommasSorting and Building ParagraphsTransition Techniques and WordsProper Nouns |
| Math | 4th Grade MathEducational Sports Games Online for Counting and Measurement | 60 minutes | Place ValueMultiplication Continued2-digit numbersAdvanced Counting and DivisionFactors, patterns |
| Writing | Essay Time | 60 minutes | Writing of first essayPrompt: Describe things that matter to you and why? |
| Exercise | Pick a Sport or Two | 60 minutes | What sports does your child like the most?Find one or two sports they can do deeper into. |
Grade 5
| Grade: 5 | Link to Learning More | Time | Educational Outcome |
| General & Reading | 5th Grade Liberal Arts Literature and Reading | 120 minutes | Subject Verb AgreementTyping: How to Type on a ComputerSemicolon Love |
| Math | 5th Grade Math | 60 minutes | Decimal Place ValueAdding and Subtracting DecimalsMulti-Digit MultiplicationFractionsIntroduction to Powers of TenVolume |
| Writing | Free Form Essays | 60 minutes | Select Topics and Use a keyboard to type complete sentences, longer paragraphs with topic sentences, and explain interesting historical events. |
Grade 6
| Grade: 6 | Link to Learning More | Time | Educational Outcome |
| General & Reading | 6th Grade Critical Thinking and Analysis | 120 minutes | MapsCoordinate Planes and GraphingStorytelling based on dataUsing words to determine meaningIntroduction to research and making logical arguments |
| Math | 6th Grade Math | 60 minutes | Rations, rates, percentagesOperationsNegative NumbersNumber propertiesVariables and expressionsEquationsIntroduction to geometry |
| Writing | Free Pages Tool for Writing and Online Editing | 60 minutes | Curation of ideas and arguments into logical structucturesWriting on new and more advanced topics based on research |
Grade 7
| Grade: 7 | Link to Learning More | Time | Educational Outcome |
| General & Reading | Introduction to news publications (WSJ.com, New York Times, Cnn.com) | 120 minutes | Applying news and current events to critical thinking related to reading, writing, understanding of news and social context |
| Math | 7th Grade Math | 60 minutes | Fractions, decimals, & percentagesRates and proportional relationshipsExpressions and equations |
In addition to academic content, there are a host of online and free educational experiences that you can leverage to increase your child’s exposure and imagination.
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Holland, for example has free virtual tours. As does the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has a #metkids section. The art is made for, with, and by kids. The free content can inspire your little one to get busy creating paintings, sketches, and art that other kids can see as well.
There is a fun time machine that you can view with your child to explore different time periods, geographies, and big ideas. The British Museum partnered with Google to create an incredible virtual playground for your child to explore different continents and historical artifacts.
If you are in the mood for a virtual field trip with your child during a WFH break in your day, here are free resources you can’t miss.
Virtual Museums for Educational Remote Tours
| Virtual Museum Name | Why It’s Educational & Fun |
| Virtual Museum: Chicago’s Adler Planetarium | The Adler Planetarium connects people to the universe and each other. |
| Virtual Museum: Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium | Home to sea otters and seahorses, beluga whales and bluegills, reef sharks, stingrays, lake sturgeons, Pacific white-sided dolphins |
| Virtual Museum: National Museum of Mexican Art | The National Museum of Mexican Art stands out as one of the most prominent first-voice institutions for Mexican art and culture in the United States. |
| Virtual Museum: IIT Institute of Design | IIT Institute of Design (ID) is known for pioneering human-centered design and systems design. |
If you want general guidance on software and online tools that you can use with your child – and that is somewhat age agnostic, here are resources games, educational advancements, and learning core academic concepts.
Educational Software and Resources
| Name of Resource | Audience |
| Scholastic Learn-At-Home Resources | K-9 |
| SciShow Kids (on Youtube) | All kids |
| Frontiers for Young Minds | All kids but skews olderFocus on STEM education and science |
| BBC Bitesize | Math & English focus Ages: 3-15 |
| Wonderopolis | K-12 |
| California Academy of Sciences | World class science and STEM contentEngaging content for all ages |
| NASA STEM @ Home for Students | All agesSTEM focusedMath and science and science for the future |
Bringing It All Together: Education at Home
If you are stuck at home as a result of Covid19 and your kid is running around your home office, you are not alone. If you want to enhance learning outcomes when your child is doing remote schooling, the resources outlined here will help.
These tools are free to use, on the internet, and easy to understand. They can be access directly online, on a computer, streamed, or broadcast via bluetooth connections or printed.
Most importantly, these tools align with good learning outcomes. These are not tools for entertainment or mindless screen time.
These educational resources are there to help your kid learn and to help you feel confident that your child is progressing across core concepts – reading, writing, critical thinking, science, physical health, and art – as you are working from home.
