We’ve Collected All the Best Free Learning From Home Programs so Your Children Can Continue Their Education During the Coronavirus Pandemic
{updated 25.03.2020}
We all need to do our bit to “flatten the curve” of the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic, and that means keeping our children home from school until it is safe to return. Unfortunately, it is not only our sanity that is at stake in this scenario but our children’s ongoing education too.
As a mother of four school-aged children — two in primary school and two in high school — I, along with many other parents, am concerned about my children missing out on their schoolwork. While I’m sure their teachers will eventually start emailing or uploading their lessons to Google Classroom, they need something to keep them occupied in the meantime.
So we’ve collected a whole bunch of free Learning From Home programs so your children can continue to learn while practising social distancing.
Scootle – a national repository that provides Australian schools with more than 20,000 digital resources aligned to the Australian Curriculum.
Fuse – resources for all stages of learning. Explore featured resources and browse resources aligned to the Victorian (and Australian) Curriculum. Developed by VIC Department of Education.
ABC Education – 4000+ videos, games and resources aligned to the curriculum.
Prodigy – a free, adaptive mathematics game for grades 1-6 that integrates problem-solving into a role-playing game using a Pokemon-style wizardry theme.
Scholastic – day-by-day projects to keep kids reading, thinking, and growing.
Activity Village – free printable activity packs to keep young children busy
PhET – science and maths interactives that allow students to work through a situation or problem.
BrainPOP – designed to help you and your curious learners stay informed and on-track with free access during school closures.
Starfall – or Kindergarten to Year 3. Online activities to support early reading.
Kahoot – get access to millions of ready-to-play games on any topic, in different languages, for children of all ages. Many of these games were created by teachers to complement their school’s curriculum.
The Literacy Shed – Range of free reading materials for Kindergarten to Year 6
Australian Computer Academy – for K-6, student challenges and teacher resources to support teaching and learning for Digital technologies in the classroom.
Minecraft Education Edition– a virtual educational platform, that provides an opportunity for students and teachers to collaborate and create in an immersive environment.
The Kid Should See This – Free collection of over 4,300 kid-friendly videos, curated for teachers and parents to share meaningful media in the classroom. Useful as a writing prompt for informative, persuasive and imaginative texts.
Red Dragonfly Maths Challenge – Provides a range of challenges to be solved in five to ten minutes that develop mathematical reasoning.
Australian Museum – for K-6 has a variety of resources for teachers to support teaching and learning in the Living World and Earth and space (resources) strands of the Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus.
Home Schooling Downunder – emergency quick-start ideas for parents planning their own continuity of learning plan.
CSUnplugged – K-6 teaching and learning resources that do not require a digital device. It is a collection of free teaching material that teaches Computer Science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons and lots of running around.
Quizlet – A free tool that allows students to study information via learning tools and games (flashcards, quizzes etc).
Peardeck – resources for primary school children including lessons with interactive questions, polls, quizzes
National Geographic Kids – lots of content written for kids by kids
BTN – Behind the News for 3-8. Explores news using the current language, music and popular culture of youths. The programme explains the basic concepts that underpin the issues and events, while also providing background information.
Studyladder – a comprehensive program of online educational activities for students aged 4 to 12, mapped to the curriculum.
Storyline Online – streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Readers include Viola Davis, Chris Pine, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening, James Earl Jones, Betty White and dozens more.
Get Smart – links to hundreds of interactive activities for use in your classroom
Khan Academy – World-class learning for anyone. A free international resource for learning
GoNoodle – burn off extra energy with these kid-friendly dance routines on Youtube
123HomeSchool4Me – over 300,000+ FREE worksheets for toddler, preschool, and K12. Free educational printables cover alphabet letters, math, language arts, history, geography, and more.
Scribd – their entire library of millions of ebooks are available for free for 30 days, no credit card or commitment required
This Redditor has compiled an extensive list of free eBooks for people of all ages:
Here are 2,780+ free ebooks and 100 free audiobooks that are sorted into lists by topic. Please feel free to share this list – stay home and stay safe. I will be uploading new lists as I am able to on more topics. Feel free to share this list with folks looking for free online resources from r/FreeEBOOKS
We will continue to update this list as we find more continuity of education resources for you so bookmark this page!
Stay safe and let’s flatten that curve!
