The schools have been closed for a couple of weeks now and despite teachers sending home learning packs on the last day, many of us are running out of resources. It’s highly unlikely that schools won’t reopen anytime soon so parents are looking to the internet for new worksheets and educational activities. There are some excellent educational workbooks out there for kids of all ages, but anyone who has tried to order some recently, will know how difficult they are to come by right now!
With this in mind, we’ve put together a list of our favourite websites (tried and tested with the help of an enthusiastic 5-year-old) offering FREE home learning resources.
If you’re struggling to find ideas and activities for your homeschooling itinerary, these websites are well worth checking out…
Education.com
Subjects: Reading and Writing, Maths, Science and Social Studies
Education.com is an American website offering educational content for preschool and primary age children. There’s a rather large library of printable worksheets and lesson plans plus, some fun online games and interactive stories.
Our favourite thing about this website is their tool which allows you to create your own worksheets. If you’re currently focusing on a particular theme or topic, you can create things like crosswords, wordsearches, spelling tests, and maths questions to suit. If your child has a particular interest or hobby, you could theme these around that also, to make home learning that little bit more interesting for them.
A premium subscription for this website costs $8 per month, but in light of the recent school closures, they have made some of their premium content available to basic members too. We particularly like the independent study packets and guided lessons.
Twinkl.co.uk
Subjects: All
Twinkl.co.uk is a great website offering an extensive library of 525,000 teacher-created resources. Used by teachers, childminders, homeschoolers and parents across the globe, the quality of the content on here is top notch. They add new content daily so there’s always something new to download or access online.
They’ve pretty much got every subject and curriculum topic covered on Twinkl and there are vast amounts of resources for each. The content is broken up into key stages so click on the relevant one for your child and explore the amazing variety of worksheets and other resources put together by education professionals.
There are a number of different subscription options, starting at £4.99 per month, but there’s also a fair bit of free content available at the moment too. By signing up and creating a FREE account, you will gain access to thousands of free teaching resources. If you’re close to finishing the home learning packs sent home by your child’s school, this is an excellent option as all the content fits in with the current national curriculum.
Oxfordowl.co.uk
Subjects: English, Maths and Reading
This website of home learning resources was created by Oxford University Press – the people behind the Biff, Chip and Kipper books that many of our little ones bring home from school. Experts in helping primary age children to learn to read, this website is a great source of phonics and comprehension activities.
Oxford Owl features educational content for children aged between 5 and 11 years old and offers some useful tips on helping your child to achieve the National Curriculum expectations for their age. There aren’t vast numbers of activities available on here for each year group but, what IS available is bound to be very similar to what they would normally be doing in the classroom. You can download PDF worksheets, access a few online learning games, read through their library of eBooks, print off some recipes and try out some practice activities for the KS2 SATs. We’re particularly fond of the free eBooks and there’s some great info on the website about Oxford reading levels!
White Rose Maths
Subjects: Maths only
Part of the Trinity family of academies, schools and initiatives, White Rose Maths was created by a small group of teachers and mathematicians. Passionate about maths, they provide training courses and resources for teachers but also some great online resources for those teaching their children at home.
Whilst the school closures remain in place, White Rose Maths are uploading 5 lessons each week, for year groups 1 – 8. There are currently 3 weeks’ worth of these available so there’s plenty to keep little minds occupied and appropriately challenged. Each week comprises 5 activities with supporting video lessons. A really good resource – particularly for those of us who would rather leave the maths lessons to those who actually enjoy the subject!
BBC Bitesize
Subjects: All
This site has been a popular choice for years, particularly for secondary school children preparing for examinations. Did you know that they also have some wonderful educational resources on here for primary school children? There are lots of learning guides, a few interactive games and a wide range of fun educational videos available for both KS1 and KS2 children. The phonics guides are really good for children in reception and Year 1.
From Monday 20th April, BBC Bitesize will be publishing daily online lessons for children of all ages. They’ll also be uploading educational videos on YouTube, podcasts on BBC Sounds and launching a brand new TV channel dedicated to home learning.
We’ll update this list regularly and add to it as and when we find and test other great educational websites. If you own a business in Yorkshire and would like to offer some useful advice for parents or share fun educational activities for children, please email news@theyorkshirepress.co.uk
