Kids are spending more time at home. Parents may feel badly about all the time they spend watching TV and playing video games.
We’ve updated our list of FREE online educational resources and websites that will help keep kids busy and boost their brain power even if they’re not in classes. All the sites are listed in alphabetical order so scroll through to find the latest and greatest or jump down to the ones you know your kids will be most interested in exploring.
Be sure to check out our calendar of Live Stream Events for Kids.
Free & Fun Education Resources and Websites for Kids
4-H Stem Lab
sThis website is filled to the brim with science experiments. Find activities for biology, chemistry, math, and even engineering, all marked by grade level. Secondary perks of these experiments are that they are step-by-step and also coded for level of messiness and the length of time needed to complete them.
Audible
Audiobook service Audible — which is owned by Amazon — is offering FREE streaming on a large selection of children’s stories across six languages.
Bill Nye, the Science Guy!
Check out all the fun where Bill Nye, the Science Guy explains, “It’s not magic…it’s science!” Mr. Nye shows how kids can create their own experiments at home using supplies you likely have on-hand.
BrainPop
BrainPop is offering FREE access during school closures. This website helps make any room a classroom with videos and activities for a ton of topics, including science, social studies, English, math, arts and music, engineering & technology, arts & music and more.
Chrome Music Lab
This website includes a number of interactive “experiments” where you can learn about rhythm, melody, harmonics, arpeggios, chords and more. Some teachers are using this as a resource for teaching classes, but by playing around a bit, kids can have a lot of fun on their own. You won’t even need to create an account to start experimenting.
Code Monster
This is a really easy way for kids to learn coding through game play. Two adjacent boxes show code and the result of the code. A “monster” helps guide kids to making changes to the code, and learning, through experimentation, how the code works. Projects start with simple boxes and color and quickly progress into exciting experiments with animation and more.
CoolMath
Math is a tough sell for some kids, but CoolMath.com makes learning fun with its virtual “amusement park of math” activities. CoolMath.com was created for kids ages 13 and up and addresses grade level math skills. CoolMath4Kids.com was created for developmental ages three through twelve, while CoolMath-Games.com is for preschoolers.
Disney Jr.
Walt Disney had an inquisitive mind and keen sense for education through entertainment. He also had ties to Kansas City working in the city briefly as an advertising cartoonist. This site bearing his well-known brand uses Disney characters to help preschoolers learn through videos and memory and match games.
Discovery Place Stay-at-Home Science
Discovery Place has quite a few stay-at-home science activities for kids, including kitchen chemistry, a DIY catapult, an upcycled robot and more. There’s even a livestream from their Reef Rubble Community tank.
EdVenture Children’s Museum
South Carolina’s EdVenture.org is offering daily activities for children to try at home, including lessons dedicated to kid favorites like dinosaurs and cars. Videos walk parents and children through educational content and related crafts, like creating a dinosaur skeleton puzzle, designing a car, and more.
FunBrain
FunBrain is an educational game website for kids and adults. It’s also known as being the place where Diary of a Wimpy kid debuted before going on to be a successful book series and movie franchise. The site is a family favorite for its content that serves a wide range of ages. You can find learning math and reading games, online books and videos appropriate for preschoolers up to eight grade.
Harry Potter at Home
There’s magic for muggles at a new website for Harry Potter fans. The quizzes, magical craft videos, puzzles and more will appeal to long-time fans and those just starting to understand the magic of J.K. Rowling’s most famous creating.
Hasbro Bring Home the Fun
Connect at home with family-focused fun resources that boost learning and offer recommendations on coping with stress and anxiety. Fun-to-watch videos have Peppa Pig giving how-to lessons for mask making and at-home snacks. Featured activities include Play-Doh crafts, Nerf blaster trick shots and more.
Highlights Kids
Highlights has taken its beloved kid’s magazine and put it online. This is the place where you can find all ages fun and learning with games, jokes, recipes, science questions, crafts and more.
How Stuff Works
Kids are full of questions including how, why, when and where? How Stuff Works break down subjects into kid-friendly, easily understood explanations on everything from weather to cars to money. This site is also chock full of games and videos for interactive fun.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a well-known resource for homeschoolers and students who want extra tutoring. It’s also been used by classroom teachers. Students practice and learn at their own speed to build a deep understanding of a variety of academic topics. While schools are closed and shifting to remote-based learning Khan Academy is offering FREE resources.
The KIDZ Page
This fun site has hundreds of FREE games, puzzles, activities, coloring pages, clip art and more for kids. There’s also a holiday section – this could be a great resource for your family’s Easter celebration.
Learning Games for Kids
Don’t let the basic name fool you. This website features a lot of games that teach most every subject. There are games to address art, spelling, vocabulary, literature, history, math, social studies, and even keyboarding. A great comprehensive site for different ages.
Magic Tricks for Kids
An online hub for children aged 6 to 14 who are either students of magic or are looking to learn to do magic tricks.
Mattel Playroom
The iconic names of playtime like American Girl, Barbie and Hot Wheels come into your home through this FREE online resource. The site has easy access to content from Mattel brands including printable coloring pages, puzzles and activities, free and ready-to-play games featuring Barbie, Hot Wheels, Thomas & Friends and others, crafting and DIY projects, animated, stop-motion and live-action videos and downloadable apps.
Museum of Life and Science
This Durham, North Carolina museum features “bite-sized science” as digital content to to drive curosity for science and exploration. Downloadable, printable at-home science activities perfect for the curious mind.
NASCAR Hall of Fame
Things are at a standstill at the Kansas Speedway for NASCAR races, but the NASCAR Hall of Fame has put together a set of hands-on activities to help kids learn at home. Check in each week, as they add new lesson plans and activities for all grade levels.
National Geographic for Kids
You don’t have to be a National Geographic subscriber to access this site that’s taken a grownup magazine and tailored an online version for kids. There’s a big does of animals (reptiles, birds, mammals, dinosaurs, fish and more), nature, cultures and countries. You’ll also find quizzes, games and plenty of brain boosters.
National World War I Museum and Memorial
A recently-added section to museum site for this Kansas City gem gets learners in the trenches on subjects ranging from patriotism, propaganda, wartime technology and more. Content includes articles, images, videos and more that can be searched by grade level, subject and type.
Nick Jr.
If your kid’s a Nick Jr. fan, this site is fun for preschoolers for interaction with their favorite Nickelodeon characters as they learn preschool skills like numbers and shapes. Filled with printables, a printer is handy for tablework after they finish hanging out online.
Old Farmer’s Almanac for Kids
Here’s another oldie but goodie updated in a digital format for young learners. Kids and parents can have fun together with a zany combination of jokes, activities and facts around the weather, animals, astronomy, plants and gardening, folklore and history highlights.
PBS Kids
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) knows to start cultivating supporters young. The children’s shows aired on PBS have their own section on PBSKids.org with games and videos featuring characters they know and love. With PBS Kids, the Cat in the Hat and Curious George can guide kids through science, Peg + Cat can teach math skills and Daniel Tiger can prepare them for more scholastic adventures.
There’s also a FREE daily newsletter parents can sign up for to receive activities and play-and-learn-at-home tips for kids.
Peanuts
Snoopy, Woodstock, Charlie Brown and the entire Peanuts gang are on board to help students K-8 with FREE educational materials. All contents is developed by award-winning curriculum providers Young Minds Inspired (YMI). There are lesson plans, coloring sheets and FREE episodes of Snoopy in Space.
Scrap Coloring
Turn coloring on its head with digital coloring activities. Choose from a huge number of varied coloring pages, and digitally color them by choosing colors or patterns to fill sections of the drawing. When complete, the pictures can be shared or printed.
Sesame Street
Anyone who ever spent time in front of a TV set growing up knows how to get to Sesame Street. Much remains the same at this favorite childhood destination with time-honored characters (as well as some that might be knew if you haven’t watched in several years) guiding kids through preschool level learning. There are hours of art, videos and games to keep them busy as they learn colors, the alphabet and social skills.
If that’s not enough, sign up for a FREE Sesame Street account and they’ll grant you access to more content with Oscar, The Count, Bert, Ernie, Big Bird and the whole gang.
Scholastic
Remember books fair at school? This is the book publishing company that brought that learning favorite and its site caters to kids from pre-K to high school. All activities are broken into grade levels for easy access to pertinent themes and activities for your child’s developmental level.
Scholastic Learn at Home
Scholastic has created Scholastic Learn At Home, a FREE learn at home website with daily lessons for students in Pre-K all the way to grades 6 and above. Scholastic Learn at Home provides approximately three hours of learning opportunities per day, for up to four weeks of instruction, including writing and research projects based on nonfiction articles and stories, virtual field trips, reading and geography challenges.
The digital learning hub is accessible on all devices, including smartphones. No sign-up is required.
Starfall
This popular educational site is a place where kids (preschool through third grade) can learn reading and math through games and exploration. There’s also a variety of FREE resources parents and teachers can use at home or in virtual classrooms.
TIME for Kids
Time for Kids covers current events in a way that is appropriate and enjoyable for kids a their reading levels. It’s a good resource for discussing things going on in the world today and could be used to provide anxiety-reducing material during this national crisis.
