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My children will be home for a few weeks (at least) while schools are closed due to the Coronavirus/COVID-19. What are some good strategies or options for helping them continue to learn while at home?

This is a question that would not normally be on topic at this site, but due to the likelihood it affects many of our community as well as worldwide, it is being posted as a wiki-question. Answers are welcome to include recommendations for websites/software/etc. that would normally be disallowed, so long as any relationship between the poster and the site is disclosed, and the answer is a good answer beyond simply a link. Explain why the resource is helpful and how to make best use of it.

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    Just to be clear - we're really hoping for some more good answers on this topic, please add your own answers (or add to mine, or whatever) to help make it a more complete topic! You can also add detail to the question, if you think it would be useful to improve the searchability or the scope.
    – Joe
    Commented Mar 13, 2020 at 19:17
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    How shall we teach math online? - lots of online resources under discussion, that can do a lot more than just math.
    – Mazura
    Commented Mar 14, 2020 at 20:09
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    @RyanfaeScotland In this case the moderators got together and decided that it was appropriate to post this. You're definitely welcome to post a topic in meta if you think it's appropriate to have something like this! I will say that this is very exceptional circumstances, though.
    – Joe
    Commented Mar 16, 2020 at 16:59
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    @RyanfaeScotland as the current school closures put many parents rather suddenly in the position to deal with teaching and learning beyond what they would have to under average circumstances, I feel the post is very helpful, and especially given the disclaimer, I have no qualms leaving it open. As for a Meta debate before posting it, that would have needed a certain time slot to collect community input and time is a factor here. Moderators also have a responsibility to support the community by triggering a discussion, so I can understand and applaud the initiative.
    – Stephie ♦
    Commented Mar 16, 2020 at 21:13
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    @TimurShtatland I know. (And I am in the “parenting includes teaching” camp, even if it’s not formal schooling, personally.) Just wanted to point out the special circumstances at the current time.
    – Stephie ♦
    Commented Mar 17, 2020 at 5:26

8 Answers 8

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Khan Academy is a great resource for letting children learn math and science/technology at any age. It allows children to progress through different subjects, includes videos to teach them each subject and then offers practice questions to help them master subjects.

I in particular use the "MAP Recommended Practice" feature with my son, who is a fairly advanced math student. You can enter their test scores in, and based on those test scores it recommends the next lessons for them to take to ensure appropriate subject matter and difficulty.

I have been offering my children 2 hours of Khan Academy per day, plus 1 hour of reading, 1 hour of practice programming (using Scratch or Python), and 1 hour of more gamified learning (such as Prodigy, which is basically Pokémon but with math problems needing to be solved in order to do damage to your opponent!). I intersperse an hour of video gaming time and an hour of playing either outside or around the house (but mobile, not sitting time) in order to keep them active.

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    Do the kids need full-time supervision for this? Also can you be more specific for "any age"?
    – Pedro A
    Commented Mar 14, 2020 at 13:34
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    @PedroA: (Disclaimer: I work at Khan Academy.) It depends on the subject. In math, we've got K-12 and early college. There's high school physics, chemistry, biology, computerscience, economy, history, and more, and grade 2-8 ELA. The content is organized in recommended lesson order, so as long as the child is able to work independently, they shouldn't need supervision. For early learning, there's the Khan Kids app. Both the website and the app are free and have no ads (and we don't sell your data) - our primary source of income is donations.
    – Aasmund Eldhuset
    Commented Mar 15, 2020 at 1:43
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I would grasp the opportunity to teach them about things that they don't learn in school, or to teach them in a different way from the way they are taught in school.

Perhaps look at family photos and family trees and talk about how your grandparents lived; visit the neighbourhood and study the changes. Go into the garden and find insects. Study your energy bills and put together a plan for reducing them. Perhaps do a project where you are both learning something together (a craft? a foreign language? playing the recorder?) so they can learn about learning.

It won't help them pass exams, but there are more important things in life than exams. And this is an opportunity not just for teaching, but for bonding; for discovering more about each other.

PS: I'm puzzled by the phrase "it affects many of our community as well as worldwide". What is our community if not worldwide?

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    "Our community" = Parenting.SE community. :)
    – Joe
    Commented Mar 16, 2020 at 3:51
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If the kids are allowed to take their textbooks home, it should be a simple matter to get emails from their teachers with lesson plans (all teachers have to have lesson plans in place.) Then just ave the child follow the plan, or do it with them.

If they don't have their textbooks, you might need to be creative.

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I would recommend Coursera as their classes are from respectable colleges and professors. Also, another online class program I've used that I have very much enjoyed and learned from was The Great Courses Plus. There, are classes on nearly everything you can think of. From less complex topics an elementary or middle schoool student can comprehend and learn from, all the way to theoretical physics.

Coursera - https://www.coursera.org/

The Great Courses Plus - https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/

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If you know anyone who homeschools their kids, this is exactly the question they have solved. Talk to them and see if they have any tips! Growing up homeschooled, when I was younger I had a much more structured day, but when I was older, I managed my own time and once I had completed a day's work, I could mostly do what I wanted.

There is also a sizeable base of curriculum out there, if schools close for longer than currently expected.

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We had good experience with Beast Academy: https://beastacademy.com/

Beast Academy offers "A Complete Math Curriculum Recommended for Ages 8‑13", which consists of 2 parts: Beast Academy Books and Beast Academy Online. Beast Academy materials are reasonably priced and interesting enough for the child to progress mostly independently through the math curriculum with only minimal supervision.

Beast Academy Books are sets of illustrated textbooks and books with problems and puzzles. They are fun and very well thought out. The textbooks are richly illustrated and use stories with monster (or beast, hence the name) characters. The problems are arranged from easy to hard. The material gradually builds up skills to solve quite complex and fun problems (for both children and adults). The harder problems are marked with stars. There is an answer key at the end of the book. The books are the primary means of learning.

Beast Academy Online are sets of videos with instruction and interactive online problems and quizzes. These nicely complement the books. You can use these to assess the progress.

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This is nice for a bit science interested kids. Many things easier to understand from visually clear animations. I would search for animations in the related subjects for the math, physics and chemistry part. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ0yBou72Lz9fqeMXh9mkog There are some misleading fake scientific "facts" among mostly correct facts in the scientific, educational school .. university literature. I assume the correction of them to start within 2020 or 2021 by release of about 8000 until now hidden scientific facts and patents.

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Self organized learning is a skill that is only rarely taught. This “corona shut down” is a great chance for a revolution of learning like problem solving, information researching and reading, reading, reading.

Math tasks and foreign languages can be solved with the specific school books. The teachers should tell at least the program for a week. The students and kids can share and control their solutions by chats, whats app and e-mail.

The ability to explain a problem to each other is the test whether you have understood something.

Learning is to find out what you all know. Knowledge means to show that you know something. Teaching means to show the others that they know it as well as you self.

Learn to make mind maps of the subjects and areas and terms you are studying.

Read about the SQRRR (SQ3R) method and apply this method when reading or studying.

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