Five Great Free Websites To Keep Kids Entertained & Learning At Home.

With school closures extended until April 19th, keeping your kids learning and entertained at home is part of everyone’s new reality. Here are another five great websites that offer free access to pupils and parents and are highly recommended by educators.

(1) www.Storylineonline.net – Suitable for all ages.

The above site is the SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) foundation’s award-winning children’s literacy website. Simply log-on to storylineonline’s website, YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/StorylineOnline) or download their app to enable your child to listen to their favourite actors read aloud some of the world’s best picture books. There’s even an activity guide linked to each book, so plenty of follow up ideas too.

(2) https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/ – Suitable for Junior Infants to 2nd Class.

For younger children, ‘Teach Your Monster to Read’ is another award winning website that supports children’s literacy learning and phonics. Their website is free to use and for a limited time their app (which usually costs €5.49) is available for free.

(3) www.readtheory.org – Suitable from 2nd class – Secondary.

It’s hard to believe that this website is free to join, but it is and has almost 14 million users worldwide. This site enables your child to improve their comprehension by reading passages online and answering a series of multiple choice questions. When your child first joins, they do a quick pre-test in order to identify reading ability before assigning reading passages suited to your child’s reading stage.

(4) www.khanacademy.org – Suitable for all ages.

Khanacademy offers free access to lessons and courses primarily in mathematics and science. Pupils can work at their own pace and personalise their learning journey. A great substitute for an actual maths teacher.

(5) Fundamental Movement Skills – Suitable for all ages.

Fundamental movement skills are the skills which support children’s co-ordination and movement. If children are experienced with these fundamental movement skills, they can play any number of sports with greater confidence. The fundamental movement skills include walking, running, hopping, skipping, jumping, dodging, side stepping, landing, balancing, catching, throwing, and striking.

Now more than ever it is important to balance screen time with exercise, so why not enable your child to strengthen their fundamental movement skills by concentrating on a different one each day.

Do visit https://www.scoilnet.ie/pdst/physlit/videos/ for videos and guidance based on the Irish curriculum’s programme; ‘Move Well, Move Often’.