Dear Parents,

During this difficult time when schools are closed indefinitely because of COVID-19, it can feel a little daunting to have to deal with the chaos resulting from this pandemic and still have to take care of your child’s learning. We would like to assure you that our ministry leaders are here for you at this time. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us when things get stressful.

If you are home with your kids, take advantage of this time as an opportunity when you can integrate education with our Christian values (e.g. Talk about stewardship when they are learning about biodiversity). Have fun with the extra time to build relationships with your children.

If you are looking for some ways to support your child’s academic learning, I have put together some resources that you can use. The highly recommended ones are marked with ‘***’. Every child and family is different, I hope you will find something you can enjoy with your kids.

In another blog post I have put together some homeschooling strategies. If you want more detailed guidance, visit the page: So How To Do This Homeschooling Business?

How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 36:7 (ESV)

• Scholastics have 3 weeks of day by day curriculum that are easy to follow and with minimum planning on the parents’ part. Ages K-9 (Resources are provided for parents to guide the kids into the material)
• Khan Academy*** has been providing high quality online learning videos for preschoolers to adults.The video lessons comes with lots of practice questions to prepare a child before moving on to the next lesson. Parents can simply select the subject and grade appropriate to each child. Each child will have an account where Khan Academy can send reports of the child's progress to parents via email. (Minimal teaching from parents required.)
• Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr. ***
  Fun and short animated learning videos on various subjects even including famous people. It comes with quizzes, key vocabularies, additional reading and other learning materials including games to support learning. (The videos are great for learning a concept that parents then can expand the learning through the resources given or from your own lesson plan)
• Live It*** is a 10 weeks free online Educational Interactive classroom featuring themes on nature & animals. You must register in order to get the weekly secret link to the interactive classroom.
• Raz Kids*** is a literacy and comprehension program in various reading levels.
• UBC Geering up has gone live with their new YouTube science lessons. This is perfect for your science loving child. This can also work as a supporting resource for your lesson plans or as an educational show.
• Kids Typing Club is a free typing program online.
• Math Aids has lots of math worksheets for kids K-12. Great for practicing and sharpening math skills after learning a math concept.
• K5 Learning provides worksheets for various subjects for K-5.
• Kids of Integrity is a Christlike character-building curriculum for children ages 3-10 created by Focus on the Family Association.
• Lalilo is a French literacy app made for K-2. Students travel through themed worlds as they accomplish their learning journey.

Faith based resources

• Adventure and Odyssey: Christian audio stories and devotions for age 10+
• There are always ample of great ideas from Focus on the Family
• Two Family worship suggestions: one from Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and the other one from the book Teach Us to Pray: Scripture- Centered Family Worship Through the Year (Lent sampler) by Lora A. Copley and Elizabeth Vander Haagen
• Bible Project
• The Beginner’s Bible: Video bible stories for K- Gr.1
• The Pilgrim’s Progress This movie from Revelation Media is free to watch until April 30th, 2020.

Apps:

• Bible for kids
• Superbook
• YouVersion Bible

Here are some Math games to play:

Preschooler:

• Dice Games for Preschoolers from The Measured Mom

Primary:

• Free Math Activities with Dice from Teachers Pay Teachers
• 30 Math games and activities from 123 Homeschool 4 Me
• 22 Active math games from We Are Teachers

Intermediate:

• Math games using dice from The Teacher Next Door
• Other Dice games from We Are Teachers

Math Apps

• Sushi Monster: Addition and multiplication game
• Ten Frame Mania: Addition and subtraction using ten frame
• Geoboard
• Sudoku

Some active breaks ideas

• Chaphill Kids and CJ and Kids: Dance and sing worship songs with motion
• Freeze Dance to your own music or try this one from Kidboomers
• Jack Hartmann Kids Music Channel andThe Learning Station: Huge range of action songs for kids
• Some Brain breaks idea
• Do simple stretches or push-up type exercises. Allow your child to decide how many to do by rolling a dice. Variations: ask the child to show you an exercise, practice mental math by adding 1more /1 less or double the number on the dice to get the number of exercises to do.
• Have your child make their own Movement Maze with tape

Science

• National Geographic Kid
• Local live stream Eagle Camera: live stream of an eagle’s nest
• Vancouver Aquarium Live Cam***: visit the aquarium while social distancing
• Science experiments to do at home

Arts

• Lunch time Doodle with Mo Willems (Author of Gerald and Piggie books)
• Artful Parent blog
• Virtual Art Museum at Van Gogh Museum
• Deep Space Sparkle Art Lesson***
• 12- online art instructional videos ***
• Vancouver Symphony Live steam
• Easter Word Art

Online Story

• Adventure and Odyssey (Radio stories series from Focus on the Family)
• Audible ( Amazon’s Audio books- With subscription you can find Children’s Chinese tories)
• Search for children’s audio stories online
• Ryan and Craige storytime***
• Public Library’s Digital Library: Visit any public web site and log in with your library card
• Epic***