Here's Your Guide To All Of The Online Activities For Your Kids That We Could Find

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After weeks of being inside with their children, many parents may be running short on things to do. We've compiled this list of online activities, learning sites, and fun things to keep them occupied and active. Hopefully having some of these resources at your fingertips will help ease your anxiety about homeschooling. I know that putting this list together did that for me.

We'll be updating this list regularly. Please reach out if you have a question or if you know of a resource that we can add.

VIRTUAL MUSEUM TOURS ALL OVER THE WORLD

Just because we are staying safe at home, it doesn't mean we can't enjoy the beauty of art around the world -- virtually, of course. Many museums have put together virtual tours for all to enjoy.

• Right here in SoCal, Descanso Gardens is bringing the experience into your home.
• Adventures in Familyhood has a list of virtual field trips all over the world from zoos, aquariums and museums.
• Google Art and Culture has partnered up with over 500 museums and galleries around the world to bring online virtual tours and exhibitions.
• Louvre Museum, Paris
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
• Uffizi Gallery, Florence
• Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

MUSEUMS OFFERING MORE THAN VIRTUAL TOURS

Many museums are offering online activities for the whole family.

• California Science Center has online activities and education programs along with virtual tours.
• LA Plaza's Virtual Walkthroughs
• MOCA is offering weekly virtual programming.
• Monterey Bay Aquarium has live webcams.
• Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is offering virtual activities, fun tours and educational videos.
• The Broad Stage is offering livestreamed performances.
• The Getty Museum has put together fun virtual tours and art for the family.
• The GRAMMY Museum's "Museum From Home" offers public programs and exhibits online.
• The Hammer Museum has created Watch + Listen, an online series of lectures, symposia, films, readings, and performances
• The Metropolitan Opera is offering free nightly opera streams.
• The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach has started an online aquarium academy, which includes on-demand videos and activities for families and a live animal cam.
• The Catalina Island Museum offers online coloring activities and digital puzzles through its Catalina Ambassador Program.
• The Cayton Children's Museum offers videos with sing-a-longs, art and storytelling every weekday on YouTube.
• Craft Contemporary is offering video tutorials for fun crafts to do at home.
• The Japanese American National Museum offers online resources for students to learn the basic history of the Japanese American World War II camp experience.
• The Laguna Art Museum offers art activities inspired by the museum's collection.
• The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) lets people view their permanent collection online, and also offers virtual exhibitions, short films and lectures on art.
• The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) offers virtual tours of exhibitions.
• The Norton Simon Museum offers art projects and coloring sheets for kids at home.
• The Santa Barbara Museum of Art offers art activities for kids at home.
• The Skirball Cultural Center is offering family art projects along with suggested ways to build community from home.

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VIRTUAL CONCERTS

Want a family date night? Put on your best PJs and enjoy free concerts from around the world.

• Children's Musicians Across the Globe Perform Online Kids Concerts

FUN LEARNING SITES

Make learning fun at home while keeping kids on track:

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• ABCya! has learning activities for kids in kindergarten and up.
• Abdo Digital bookshelf offers free digital books for all ages.
• Amplify offers online activities for all ages.
• Audiblehas a collection of audiobooks for kids up to age 18 that are free while schools are closed.
• Bay Area Video Coalition is offering free video production, audio production and game design, online classes, for ages 14-17.
• BBC Kids offers ways for kids to learn about ancient history or other countries.
• Beanstalk, a site for kids ages 1-6, is offering free membership during school closures.
• Carmen San Diego offers interactive activities to build self and social awareness.
• Club Ski Kidz offers activities for kids to explore science.
• Code offers computer science for students to understand and learn coding at any age.
• Coolmath offers a fun way to explore math for kids ages 3-12.
• Dreambox provides virtual learning through interactive games for all ages.
• Duolingooffers instruction to learn more than 20 languages through games.
• Education.com has a variety of fun learning activities for free during school closures.
• Exploratorium,a museum based in San Francisco, has created a website that teaches kids about science and art.
• Family eBook Libraries offers free ebooks for families.
• Fun Brain teaches math and English through games for kids from pre-K to 8th grade.
• GoNoodle has videos to help keep kids moving by dancing and exercising.
• Highlights Kids features online games and activities.
• Hippooffers studies for middle school and high school students.
• How Stuff Works addresses a variety of subjects like science, culture, and technology.
• Khan Academy is offering a free daily schedule to help parents and students learn during school closures.
• KQED Learn offers middle and high school students the opportunity to build their media literacy and critical thinking skills.
• Mystery Science is a learning tool to get creative through science.
• National Geographic Kids has many ways of keeping the kids entertained, from science experiments to animal webcams.
• Sesame StreetStudents of any age have access to hundreds of resources.
• PBS Kids has activities and a parent newsletter, along with history and science documentaries.
• Peekaboo Kidz offers animated shorts on history, science, math, and more.
• Prodigy boosts math skills with games.
• Scholastics Learn at Home has projects and printable worksheets on many subjects for kids in pre-K to 8th grade.
• ScratchJris a site for little ones to start learning about coding through games.
• Spanish Playground helps children learn Spanish at home.
• Starfall provides downloadable worksheets for pre-K to 3rd-grade students to learn math and language art.
• The New York Times has partnered with Verizon to give three months of free membership to high school students, from April 6 to July 6.
• Time for Kids offers articles and videos around topics like politics, environment, and entertainment.

PODCASTS FOR KIDS

Podcasts are becoming the new way of learning, exploring and imagining. These are geared toward kids.

• Brains On! is a science podcast that uses stories and creative sound design to answer questions from kids.
• But Why is a podcast for kids seeking answers to "But why??" questions.
• Circle Round offers make-believe stories for children ages 4-10
• Peace Out teaches mindfulness and relaxation for young children
• Smash Boom Best is a virtual debate show for kids. Parents and kids can also interact with the show by voting online.
• Story Rime consists of two minutes of whimsical stories, for children ages 2-13
• Stuff You Missed in History Class offers teens and tweens a chance to learn about events not usually included in classroom history lessons.
• The Collections is a podcast by Huntington Garden President Karen R. Lawrence that includes interviews with the head of the Huntington's library, art museum and botanical garden.
• What If World has host Mr. Erick read stories inspired by children's imaginations.
• Kids Listen curates weekly episodes from member podcasts and puts out an activity to go with it.
• Book Club for Kids features middle grade kids discussing their favorite books, along with interviews with authors and celebrity readings.

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ART! MUSIC! EXERCISE! FUN ACTIVITIES!

Being safe at home doesn't mean we can't get up and move, dance and get creative! Many online sites are offering creative online activities.

• Activity Herohas free online classes around multiple topics, including art, music, science, and cooking.
• Atlassea's Project Blue features ways to help save the oceans and help kids become more aware of environmental issues.
• Camp Kindness Counts offers parents free guide books to foster strong compassionate character through online camps, with each camp offering different exercises for compassion, kindness, generosity and more.
• Carla Sonheimhas six free online art classes.
• Chrome Music Lab offers free hands-on music lessons.
• Circletime has free interactive videos like yoga, singalongs, and cooking.
• Common Sense Media has a list of free events and activities for home. You can also visit Common Sense Media/Latino for activities in Spanish.
• Disney Jr. offers fun activities for the little ones and offers printables.
• Doodle Academy provides free art activities for all ages.
  

  

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• Lunch Doodles by Mo Willems is a daily free video art class starting at 10 a.m. PT hosted by the children's author.
• Green Child Magazinehas resources for parents and meditations for kids.
• HERE Global Relief is a free app that offers meditation with interactive exercises for the family.
• Kitchen Table Class Room has art classes and free printables.
• Little Kids Rock offers free online music classes.
• Nick Jr. offers fun activities for kids.
• Petersen Automotive Museum offers activities and videos for the family such as coloring and building your own car.
• Skill Share has 13 free art classes for kids of various ages. Parents and children can both learn new art techniques.
• Snappy Words has lots of word games, from Wordle to crossword puzzles.
• Sparkethhas online art classes for ages 6-18. You can try it free for 30 days.
• The Old Farmer's Almanac for Kids has fun puzzles and riddles for the younger ones.
• Thrive Art School in Seattle has created free art videos available on YouTube for parents and children to learn art techniques.
• Tree People has educational videos on environmental topics.
• We are Teachers has a list of fun physical activities for the whole family, plus other activities to keep kids moving and active.
• DreamyKid has created a new free category on the app to keep the family at ease, with meditations and affirmations for the family.
• The Kid Should See This offers over 4,500 videos on math, science, art, nature, music and more.
• Conga Kids has released a "Social Dance for Social Distancing" online video series. The 10-video series includes dance tutorials, activities, history and geography lessons and more.

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