Welcome Parents and Guardians,

Let’s just cut to the chase shall we!

No need for me to explain the absolute chaos that’s taken over our lives as we know it.  We are all in a place of the unknown. As of now, my family is quarantined at our home, but all healthy and safe.  I hope the same for you and your loved ones.

As a former educator, I felt a social responsibility to help parents find a way to cope with having children at home unexpectedly.  Many of you work full time jobs outside of the home and are not accustomed to having children home all day. Much less trying to provide them with an education at the same time. As much as we would like to think of this as a nice, early, bonus summer vacay, the reality is that it IS NOT!  Will the kids go back to school at all? Will they be tested? Will the tests even count? What about getting to the next grade level? Will our children be prepared? These are all questions I’ve heard just from my close friends, so I know these questions are a part of everyone’s day to day conversations right now. While I certainly can’t answer any of those, I can try to help provide resources for you all from ONE central location.  

Many of these resources do require some type of device and an internet connection.  If you do not have these, I strongly urge you to reach out to your child’s school or state education department.  Many of them are creating educational packets to send home with children who cannot work online.  

Before I get into all of the resources available, please note that this list will be ongoing as people send me new information.  I have attempted to make sure that each of these resources is FREE to you as a parent, user friendly and provide your children with VALID educational material!

Resources are listed by subject:

---

SAMPLE DAILY SCHEDULE: 

KHAN ACADEMY: http://360040167432-How-can-Khan-Academy-be-used-for-remote-learning-during-school-closures-

THIS WILL BE A LIFESAVER! ** This also has tons of other resources embeded in the lesson plans.

---

PARENT RESOURCES:

LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: https://www.louisianabelieves.com/resources/covid-19

TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com

---

FAITH:

HEALING PLACE CHURCH: will be providing a daily devotional for all ages, including adults, on the youtube channel.https://healingplacechurch.org, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyaCwDx572QONDEnyZ0VXMQ

---

ALL CORE SUBJECTS:

(this means these sites include resources for multiple subjects)

EUREKA MATH, WIT & WISDOM (ELA), PHD SCIENCE – https://greatminds.org

THIS WILL BE AN INVALUABLE TOOL

PLEASE READ – I emailed them to find out if the letter circulating on facebook was true, and IT IS!!  Here is the response they sent me. 

From GreatMinds: “We’re currently working on a sequence of modules included in our Knowledge on the Go video series that will allow students to continue their learning and families to support their students. This series launches Wednesday, March 18 and will consist of free recorded daily lessons in Grades K–12 of Eureka Math; Grades K–8 of Wit & Wisdom, our English language arts curriculum; and Grades 3–5 of PhD Science. Great Minds’ own teacher-writers will deliver the lessons, which will be accessible by anyone and viewable on any device, even a smartphone. Great Minds will release approximately 25 video lessons across the three curricula per day.”

QUIZIZZ: https://quizizz.com/admin – online quizzes 

BRAINPOP: You will need to register, but IT’S FREE,  and awesome! Also has supplemental activities for each video or lesson AND there are lesson plans if needed https://www.brainpop.com 

PBS: https://lpb.pbslearningmedia.org

---

ELA – ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS:

STORYLINE ONLINE:  https://www.storylineonline.net

---

MATH:

KHAN ACADEMY: https://www.khanacademy.org

PRODIGY: https://www.prodigygame.com

iXL: https://www.ixl.com

---

SCIENCE & SOCIAL LIVING:

CINCINNATI ZOO HOME SAFARI (via facebook live)- https://www.facebook.com/cincinnatizoo/

NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/stem

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com

12 MUSEUMS WITH VIRTUAL TOURS: This was an article from Time and Leisure Magazine:  Please pardon the LONG hyperlink! https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE: https://www.si.edu

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK: virtual field trip https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/photosmultimedia/virtualtours.htm

DISCOVERY EDUCATION: virtual field trips (usually requires a login, but I was able to get in ) https://www.discoveryeducation.com/community/virtual-field-trips/

GOOGLE EARTH: https://www.google.com/earth/education/

American Chemical Society: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/students.html

---

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY:

GoNoodle: https://www.youtube.com/user/GoNoodleGames

COSMIC KIDS: https://www.cosmickids.com

FLUENCY & FITNESS:https://fluencyandfitness.com/

---

I know there are MANY MORE resources out there.  These are the ones I’ve personally been through and know will be valuable to you and your child. 

Please feel free to send me more resources that I can share with our community.  You can email me at amandahigginsphotography@gmail.com and I will happily check it out and add to the list.

As a small disclaimer, I am a former elementary school teacher, however, I have not been in the education system for a few years now and as you know things are rapidly changing in that field. 

These are merely to provide you a starting point as a parent and hopefully give you some peace of mind!

I hope you find this useful!  

Happy Parenting!  

AND…

GIVE YOURSELF SOME GRACE!  

YOU DESERVE IT!

-Amanda