With all the craziness going on around us because of the Corona Virus or Covid-19, most of us find ourselves quarantined at home. With so much uncertainty going on, its nice to see some of the amazing good that people have provided to entertain us and help us keep the kids learning with free online activities.
I have rounded up several different types of Free Virtual and Online Activities that we can do together as a family. I will continue to add to the list as I find more. If you have any to add that I don’t have on the list, be sure to leave a comment and let us know and I will include it!
FREE KIDS ACTIVITIES AND WEBSITES
- Science Experiments for Kids
- Free Audible Kids Stories
- Activities for Teens
- Science Activities
- Science Experiments for Kids
- Learn to Code
- Kids Cooking Classes
- Stop Motion Kids Camp
- Art Classes
- Craft Classes
- Hogwart’s Digital Escape Room
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Education companies are offering free subscriptions due to school closings. All you need to do is click the link and follow the instructions on that website to sign-up.
- PBS Kids
- Purple Mash
- CoolMath
- Time for Kids
- Kids National Geographic
- How Stuff Works
- Starfall
- FunBrain
- Adventure Academy
- Teacher Worksheets Kit for Pre-School through 5th Grade– Download free worksheets for kids to work on while they are at home.
- Book Creator App kids can use this to make their own ebooks.
- Minecraft: Education Edition teaches Common Core math for grades 3-5, social-emotional learning and coding.
- Mystery Science has lessons for students in grades K-5 that they can do at home.
- Raddish Kids is offering 10,000 free kuits filled with educational and entertaining activities.
- Academic Earth – View hours of free lectures and course materials from leading universities.
- Extra Math – A free online math learning resource that is available to everyone.
- i-Ready – The most frequently used online resource for students. This program offers math and reading lessons and diagnostic tests for students. It is self-guided and they typically need to log a certain number of minutes per week in both reading and math. This program is not available to the general public.
- Khan Academy – Short lessons in the form of videos for English and math. These lessons are available online, free of charge to anyone.
- Prodigy – A game platform that teaches children math. Free access for students through school accounts, or subscription-based for the public.
LIVE WEBCAMS AND AQUARIUMS
- San Diego Zoo Live Webcams and Kids Activities and Games from San Diego Zoo
- Watch Safari’s from home with the Cincinnati Zoo
- Houston Zoo Webcams
- National Zoo
- Georgia Aquarium
LIVE NATIONAL PARK TOURS
- Kenai Fords in Alaska
- Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
- Carlsbad Caverns
- Bryce Canyon (personally one of my favorite places)
- Dry Tortugas in Florida
- Trails in Yellowstone National Park, as well as the Yosemite National Park
- Take a tour of the planet Mars! (Not a National Park…but so cool!)
MUSEUM VIRTUAL TOURS
Google Arts and Culture partnered with more than 2,500 museums and galleries around the world to offer virtual tours of their collections and spaces, way before the coronavirus pandemic. So these have already been available for patrons to view virtually. A great way to your time and see some of the greatest museums and collections around the world.
- The British Museum in London, England
- Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington D.C.
- National Portrait Gallery
- National Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art, South Korea
- Van Goh Museum in Amsterdam
- National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.
- Highlights from the American Museum of Natural History
- Queensland Museum Virtual Tour, Australia
- Anne Frank House Secret Annex, Amsterdam
- Interactive Tour of Ellis Island, New York
- Pompei, Italy (From Google Street View – SO cool!)
- The Colosseum
- Great Wall of China
- Pyramids of Giza
- Buckingham Palace Tour
- Monticello Tour
- Lyndhurst Mansion Tour
- George Washington Mount Vernon Tour
- Mark Twain House and Museum
- Blenheim Palace
VIRTUAL MUSICAL CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
- Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall
- Nightly Met Opera Streams
- James Blunt Virtual Concert
- Igor Levit Pianist Concert
- Free BroadwayHD Musicals
- Watch Instagram Live Concerts with Popular Musicians on their IG feed. (Concerts so far have been by Chris Martin of Coldplay, John Legend and Charlie Puth (can also use this hashtag to see new concerts #TogetherAtHome)
- Broadway World Living Room Concerts
- List of Live Streaming Orchestra Concerts -these start at specific times so be sure to check them out and mark your calendars.
- new Hamilton song
- SmartMusic is a great for your kids and mini musicians to practice and access a large music library.
- Dr. Jean and Friends – Song about math, reading and more that your kids can sing and dance to.
TV AND MOVIES
- Universal Pictures is now releasing their movies that are currently in theaters online to rent at home for a limited time because of the corona virus. You can watch them on your streaming TV platforms like Roku, Fire Stick and Netflix.
- The Hallmark Channel is streaming a Christmas Movie marathon on their channel
- VidAngel– The family-friendly American service is now available for free until March 30 (it’s usually $10)
- Book of Mormon Scripture Videos
- Bible Scripture Videos
BOOKS, AUDIOBOOKS AND LIBRARIES
- Audible is offering hundreds of their books completely free to listen too. Ranges in age from 0-18.
- Libby (formerly OverDrive) offers a selection of free ebooks and audiobooks.
- Scibd is offering unlimited books, audiobooks, magazines and more for 30 days
- Scholastic Books
- Hoopla is a web and mobile library. You can borrow movies, TV shows, comics and more for free.
- “Frozen” actor Josh Gad is reading to kids on Twitter each night. You can watch the ones you have missed by clicking here.
- Epic – Digital library of books. Students can access this site for free through their student account. Families can subscribe, and a free trial is offered.
VIRTUAL ART AND CRAFTS CLASSES
- McHarper Manor – Free daily live art & craft tutorials.
- Kinder Art – Art lessons for grades PreK – 8th grade. Free and fee-based lessons available online.
- Mo Willems Doodle Lunch – Mo Willems is doing a live Lunch Doodle video every day at 1 pm.
- Wild, Free & Crafty – Free art lessons online.
ORGANIZATION CHALLENGE
- 25 Day Organization and Declutter Schedule
MENTAL HEALTH
VIRTUAL EXERCISE CLASSES
- Local studios and gyms are starting to stream classes online, including Planet Fitness.
- There are also free fitness apps like FitOn, Freeletics and Simply Yoga.
- Popsugar Fitness has many videos on YouTube.
- Cosmic Kids Yoga – Yoga, mindfulness and relaxation for kids 3 and over.
- Go Noodle – Kid-friendly videos to get your kids up and moving around.
- BOKS – Free online physical fitness program for kids
- Cleveland Inner City Ballet – Virtual ballet classes on 3/25 and 4/1 at noon.
- Half-Marathon training (even if you haven’t run before…now is a good time to start)
- 5k Run training
- Yoga Class online
- free Orangetheory classes on IGTV
I hope everyone is staying safe and sane during this quarantine! It’s so good to see all of the amazing things others are doing to help us all get through this trying experience!
JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER
Would you like more Recipes, DIY, Printables and Organization Ideas?
Subscribing to the newsletter will enable us to periodically send you creative content exclusively for Idea Room subscribers.
*View our Privacy Policy here.
Natalie says
This is a great list! Thank you so much for sharing this!! My kids thank you, too :)
Amy says
You are so welcome!! :)
This is fantastic, thank you so much!
You are so welcome!
This is fantastic!! I need all the ideas I can get!!
Kristyn- Thank you! Me too!
thanks for sharing this list which I just bookmarked.
fyi, I clicked on you “mindfulness meditation” link and it is
not mindfulness which I practice. Imho there are much better
videos than this but I would suggest you at least label it as a
guided meditation which is what it is labeled as when you go to it.
Try some of Jon Kabat-Zinn for true mindfulness.
Namaste, Larry
Thank you Larry! I will make the suggested changes!
You have given great information. Everyone can enjoy their holidays with these ideas. Thank you
Thank you for this, so many amazing suggestions! Thank you for all you do:)
Kate- So happy you found this helpful. Thanks for following along!
The National Park Virtual Tour is my favourite! Thanks for creating this list :)
Mumu- That one is so amazing. Glad you found this list helpful!
What an amazing piece of information for moms like me!. Much needed in 2020 and covid times. Terrific ideas to engage kids for sure. Thanks for sharing.
Riki-So happy you found these helpful.
i wanna know if these activities can be used in remoted class ? with zoom for example as everything is by distance actually.
Thanks for this initiative
Jay, Not sure. You would have to look at each individually.