Working from home with kids and your partner at home is challenging. We need to create a new routine. We need to be flexible. Work needs to be synchronised with your team and spouse, especially if they can also work from home. But how about kids? They need to carry on education. Children need to be entertained and taken care of. First of all – take it easy – try to agree with your partner when you can take care of children and when your spouse can spend time with them as you need to take this call or do something on your list for today. And secondly, make sure you get creative and prepare a routine for your kids and yourself. Below is the list of some online resources that can help to compile some activity lists for our little ones.
Resources for keeping everyone safe while working from home with kids 👦 🛡 💻
Disclaimer:
I will describe the solution that is easy to set up. I know it’s the best, and it works perfectly for me, but I may not be objective as I work for these guys. 😀
First thing first – stay safe!
Before we go deep into our virtual journeys, especially when we allow our kids to use devices online, we need to ensure our secure network. This will ensure that if our kids or we accidentally access places that we don’t want them to visit, that websites will be blocked. It will also ensure that we do not download any harmful software to our devices.
The solution is actually easy; you need to reconfigure your DNS settings to use secure instances. We call them OpenDNS Family Shield. DNS – Domain Name Server – is the service that translates every human-readable name that we tape in our browser (e. g. www.bbc.co.uk) into numbers that computers and network devices will understand (e. g. 151.101.64.81).
Rather than trying to scare you with technical details, I will redirect you to step by step guide written by my colleagues: Home Internet Security.
TL;DR You need to change DNS settings to:
208.67.222.123
208.67.220.123
Resources for working from home with kids: Education 👩🏫 🎓
Now, when we already have our home network secured, let’s start exporting some of the educational offerings from the Interwebs.
- BBC Learning – UK curriculum content
- Big History Project – History tasks
- Blockly – Educational games that teach programming
- Blue Peter Badge Challenges – Different challenges for children to work through
- CBeebies Radio – Listening activities for children
- Crash Course Kids – Educational videos – filtered by age
- Crash course – Educational videos – filtered by age
- DK Find Out – Lots of games and quizzes.
- Duolingo – Learn a language for free
- Future Learn – Free site, different courses
- Geography Games – Let’s play and learn geography
- Khan Academy – Maths and computing
- Mystery Science – Home science ideas
- National Geographic Kids – Activities and quizzes
- Nature Detectives – Activities that can be done in the garden as a family
- Open learn – Free taster courses
- Operation Ouch – Engaging science and medical (STEM)
- Oxford Owl – Free eBooks following colour banded scheme
- Paw prints Badges – Free downloads of craft activities
- Prodigy Maths Games – Free online maths
- Red Ted Art – Arts and crafts for younger children
- Scratch – Computer programming
- Seneca – Excellent to set tasks for GCSE and A-Level
- TED Ed – A multitude of different educational videos – something for everyone
- The Imagination Tree – Crafts to do at home
- The kids should see this – Child-friendly science videos that do not underestimate their ability
- TinkerCad– Free app for 3D Design, electronics and coding
- Toy Theatre – Colourful activities for primary school-aged children
- Twinkl – Limited time free offer for various resources. Split into Primary and Secondary
Resources for working from home with kids: Museums 🎭 🏛
We cannot travel, but we can still have a virtual trip to many places, thanks to technology, digitalisation and websites that share all those places.
- British Museum – Free tours and activities
- Google Art Project – Some wonderful pieces from multiple locations across the world
- Guggenheim – A chance to view some of the collection online
- London Zoo – Free tours and activities
- Museum of London – Online games and some activities to do at home
- NASA Langley – Free online tour
- National Gallery of Art – A chance to view some of the collection online
- Natural History Museum – Free tours and activities
- Science Museum – Free games and activities
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History – Free tours and activities
- The Dali Museums– A chance to view some of the collection online
- The Vatican Museums – A chance to view some of the collection online
And a small touch from my company:
Shared by readers:
- Kids morning exercise every day at 9am
- 3D Augmented Reality – a snake in my shower and a bear in my garden
- 5 playful Easter projects for pupils
- Trello board full of ideas for WFH with kids
- 10 nature activities for kids if you’re self-isolating at home
- Beginners Coding Guide for Kids
- Homeworking & Homeschooling blog post by Brad Egeland.
Staying home these days is not easy. We need to keep working, sharing our duties at home, as well as taking care of our small treasures. It is important to remember that noting will substitute time that parents can dedicate to their kids. However, in these extraordinary times, we need to make sure that our kids stay educated, entertained and can play as well. They understand more than we think they do. Let’s take care of them. Stay safe, folks!
Do you have any links that you would like to share? Comment below, and I will add them to the list.
Thanks for reading!
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