Resources for Learning at Home

In early 2020, our world took a turn that sent our students, families, and educators into a distance learning arena. Navigating the new structures within our lives, schools, and places of work certainly brought unexpected challenges. Thankfully, and with the help of our school community, we locked arms, shook off the surprise, and went right into collaboration, innovation, and implementation. Determined to ensure a comprehensive approach, we re-imagined and initiated our Montessori pedagogy through a remote platform that still ultimately adheres to our mission to foster personal and academic growth, independence, confidence, responsibility, and joyful lifelong learning.

Here is a compilation of family-friendly virtual tours, music, exercise, story times, and other activities to support and assist you as you, our incredible parents, work diligently to don yet another hat. If you have any questions or specific needs that you’d like support with, please feel free to contact us and we will do our best to provide answers or resources for you. You may also send us resources that you feel would benefit other parents within our community. 

Tips for Working Parents With Virtual Learners

• Set a schedule. Plan tomorrow today to support your focused work time as parents as well as an independent learning time for your students.
• Take advantage of recorded classes. If your child is needing support with their online learning, do the recorded lesson when it fits in your work schedule.
• Set boundaries: Your children need routines and you might need times when you’re in “do not disturb” mode.

WORK FROM HOME/PARENTING RESOURCES

• Trauma-Informed, evidence-based, social emotion learning from Dr. Becky Bailey, Conscious Discipline
• Strategies for working from home during the stay at home orders
• Sample Schedules For Kids Home From School During Coronavirus Outbreak
• Social Distancing: Now What Do I Do With My Kids (Dr. Ziegler)
• Tips for Working With Kids Home (Washington Post)
• How to Work From Home With Kids When You’re Socially Distancing
• Parenting and Coronavirus Webinar
• 13 Simple Ways Any Adult Can Support Language Development in Young Children
• Working from home: A guide to creating a healthy and productive workspace at home
• The Complete Guide to Sleep Regression

VIRTUAL TOURS

• Cleveland Orchestra – Discover new ways to connect with the Cleveland Orchestra
• Cleveland Zoo – Virtual Classroom at 11am & virtual exploring at 1pm
• Cincinnati Zoo – Virtual Safari 12pm Daily and replays available
• Monterey Bay Aquarium – Live cams of animals
• Virtual Farm – tours grouped by age!
• Museums, Operas, & Symphonies 
• 12 Museums Offering Virtual Tours
• National Parks Tours
• Road Trip from Home: Virtual Field Trips

STORIES, MUSIC, & ART

• Stay and Create with Hershey Montessori School’s Concord Campus Art Guide, Golnar Parry
• Playhouse Square at Home
• Authors Doing Online Read Alouds – by grade level
• Mo Willems lunchtime doodle lessons (author of the Pigeon books)
• Story time from space – astronauts reading to us from space!
• Center for Puppetry Arts – livestream puppet shows
• Draw everyday with JJK – drawing lessons daily 12pm (CST)
• Metropolitan Opera – Daily – 6:30 PM (CST) – recording will remain on the site each day for 20 hours
• 15 Broadway Plays & Musicals You Can Watch From Home

EXERCISE

• Cosmic Kids – Yoga, mindfulness, & relaxation videos for ages 3+
• GoNoodle: Good Energy at Home offers free movement, yoga, and mindfulness videos.

EDUCATION

• Smithsonian Learning Lab – Understand history, art, culture, and the sciences through inquiry and analysis.
• Scholastic Free Learn at home
• Nasa– released full image library
• ScienceFlix (Grades 5+) – available until April 20th free of charge (Username: Learning20 / Password: Clifford)
• New York Public Library – download over 300,000 books for free
• 10 Documentaries to Watch With Kids

PODCASTS

• 25 Best Podcasts for Kids (Common Sense Media)
• Brains on! – science podcast for kids

ACTIVITY IDEAS

• Nurture Store – screen free activities
• Downloadable coloring books from museums
• Make your own word search
• 30 Hands-On Activities (4-H)
• The Great Outdoors