Resources for Parents and Children
Parent Resources
NY Times: How to Talk to Your Child About the Coronavirus: A psychologist offers guidance to parents about talking to their children about the Coronavirus based upon the child’s age.
Harvard Health Publishing: How to Talk to Children About Coronavirus: Tips for talking with your child including modeling calmness, keeping an eye out for reassurance seeking, and common questions kids are asking about the virus.
Psychology Today: How to Talk to Kids and Teens About the Coronavirus: From preschoolers to teenagers, this article discusses strategies for talking to kids of all ages about the Coronavirus.
Young Children
Free Forest School: A great place for parents and caregivers to gather information about how to make nature play and learning one in the same.
Jbrary: A library of storytime resources including songs, fingerplays, scarf play, and more.
School-Aged Children
Lunch Doodles with children’s author Mo Willems: Beloved author of The Pigeon books is offering daily doodles for kids! Willems is encouraging kids to share their drawings with him and other children online. A fun way to stay creative and connected to other kids!!
Children’s Author Read Alouds and Activities: A comprehensive list and many links to children’s authors who are offering read alouds of their books and accompanying activities.
The Walking Classroom: Lesson plans and Podcast for parents for school-ages children.
Scholastic: A variety of free resources for school-ages children. Scroll to the lower half of the page to access free resources.
Reading Rockets: A great resource for where to find more information on a specific topic such as planets, bugs, music, and more.
Think Indigenous: A Facebook community of indigenous educators from across the country are volunteering their time to help educate students about indigenous knowledge online as schools in many provinces and territories are closing.
We Are Teachers: Free, online resources for teachers that has helpful tips and tricks for fun ways to get kids to learn. Check out the 16 Card Games That Will Turn Your Students Into Math Aces!
Outdoor Learning
Project Learning Tree: Outdoor-activity ideas for the whole family.
John Muir Laws Nature Education: Learn to draw birds, plants, and mammals, start a nature journal, build curiosity… This website is a gem for the whole family with resources for both children and parents/caregivers looking to support learning at home.
Tinker Garden: A wealth of information about outdoor learning and activities for infants through 10 years of age.
Family Activities
Audible Stories: Stories (including titles across six different languages) for the whole family are free on Audible while schools are closed. All stories can be streamed on a laptop, desktop, phone or tablet.
Guided Relaxation Scripts for Kids: Free scripts are available for parents to lovingly read aloud to children to help bring a sense of calmness and relaxation.
101 things to do at home with kids: This extensive list is filled with further online resources for the whole family to access from a virtual museum tours to juggling tutorials!!