.
So, schools out for what may feel like forever (especially to little people) and parents the world over are staring down the barrel of a job they’re not qualified for, and if you’re trying to work full time alongside its even more daunting. I’m not here to tell you that you should or shouldn’t be sticking to a routine, what curricular we like best (let’s face it, there’s an overwhelming diversity of resources!). But instead I’m going to talk about the ways and resources I’ve found to get our usually active family through the long home stretch. I started this conversation on Instagram and had lots of interest in the ideas we’d complied and some great suggestions too. So, I thought that today, having tried and tested a number of them over the first week, I would share some of our favourites from our time at home together.
.
The last time we went out as a family, Columbia Rd Flower market three weeks aqo, but it feels like a lifetime ago already.
It’s my personal decision that I am only doing formal learning with my child before lunch, I feel that the one-to-one teaching ratio justifies this, but also because I want him to remember this period fondly as nice family time together. Alongside gardening club, cooking club, craft club (I have never been more glad of our Toucan Box subscription!), film club and even cleaning club we’ve also started a penpal club (so many clubs!), as a way to combat the social isolation from the distancing.
.
Gardening Club
.
Friday Fun Club
Fridays are our fun day, I’m hoping to come up with a different theme each week that sparks creativity. On the first week we baked a cake from items in the store cupboard and put on a tea party for google augmented reality animals (not a tiger sadly, more on on augmented reality animals below). For next Friday we’re going to impersonate our favourite artists and start a studio each trying to emulate the style of our chosen artist.
.
This weeks Friday Fun was a tea party with a difference.
.
So, what’s online? So much! Not only permanently, but also as a response to Coronavirus, loads of cultural institutions have created special interactive spaces whilst their doors are shut. There is so much to discover, from exploring museum collections, Americas national parks, games, quizzes, watching shows and ballet, taking part in a yoga adventure, tracking the night sky, have a look below at what we’ve been using.
.
.
Tate Kids
My favourite resource this week has been Tate Kids, the plethora of materials is huge and great for families who usually visit galleries often (main picture above is Ted at the recent Olafur Eliasson’s exhibition at the Tate). Here you can learn about artists, take a quiz to find out what colour you are, what arty hairstyle you should get, watch mark making tutorials, make pop art like Andy Warhol, print and colour in Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, paint digital pictures with an array of great tools from weather icons to rainbow brushes (my son painted digital pictures for hours!).
.
.
Science Museum Games & Learning Resources
We joined the Wonderlab annual pass this year and are going to miss visiting The Science Museum in the Easter holidays. However, the museum has another insanely good website. Rugged Rovers is a downloadable app where you can design and test your own all terrain space rover, you can even play against friends which I think Ted is too young for but he’s enjoyed creating vehicles and testing them out with daddy. There are great home learning resources too with worksheets on things like Instant Ice Cream making (aimed at KS2/3, but we are definitely going to do this together).
.
.
West End Performances
As a part of their From Our House To Yours during lockdown the Royal Opera House are transmitting past performances from their full repertoire regularly during lockdown. Ted & I really enjoyed watching the Peter & The Wolf ballet last night and there will be lots of other performances geared towards a younger audience over the coming weeks. Another London venue who have made performances available is the London Palladium who are streaming their Julian Fellowes adaptation of Wind in The Willows, it is free to view but with a suggested donation to help people in the industry who’s livelihoods have been affected by lockdown.
.
.
Google Augmented Reality Animals
Recently added to the Google search results function, as long as you have an AR enabled device, you can add around 30 wild animals to domestic scenes. We made our creatures miniature when we invited them for afternoon tea but you can play around with size however you like. Simply search an animal on google and look for the AR google box below the Wikipedia summary of the animal. Since my good friend suggested this we have had a lot of fun putting raccoons in the kitchen, penguins in the living room, lions in the garden, and even an octopus and a wolf for afternoon tea (luckily, unlike the literary Tiger they didn’t eat us out of house and home, which is very lockdown friendly of them!).
.
.
Cosmic Kids Yoga
Cosmic Kids Yoga is free to view on their YouTube channel (there is also a subscription service). It’s an absolutely brilliant way to introduce Kids to yoga. With yoga adventures set around popular themes (Star Wars, Pokemon, Frozen Etc), my child is excited each day for his yoga slot, he loves learning the poses within the adventures and the shorter Zen Den (aimed at aiding relaxation and well being) is perfect for in the evening before bed. We’ve also been tuning in to Joe Wicks’ P.E class at 9am which is great but be warned parents it’s very much a h.i.t class!
.
.
Google Arts & Culture – Virtual Tours
This is such a great idea when you can’t get outdoors, go around the world via the places that interest you with Google arts & culture, it may be a guided tour of bats in the Carlsbad caverns, swimming in the coral reef, walking in Venice, or taking in unusual architecture, this is great resource to fuel kids curiosity. You can visit the Guggenheim, the Uffuzi, the British Museum, and many, many more, or simply navigate around the homepage and let your child lead the tour. Perhaps the best resource though is the virtual tours of some of America’s best known National Parks (sadly no Joshua Tree), Ted loved exploring Hawaii’s volcanic national park together.
.
.
Star Gazing with Star Walk App (free)
One of the upsides of lockdown is the increased clean air quality as a result of us doing less, with less polluted skies we have noticed that even in London we can see more stars in the sky at night than usual. Star Walk 2 is a brilliant free app recommended by a friend, if you have a child who loves space this is a really great resource. Scan the sky with your phone to identify which stars, planets and constellations you can see, we saw Venus last night!
That’s our picks from the week at home, I’d love to hear yours in the comments below.
