We’ve been fortunate reaching out to our Southern Adirondack Library System to find resources for parents and kids stuck at home right now. We’ve been compiling lists of online resources for reading, educational activities, virtual tours, drawing classes, and more. We hope this will help families cope better with the social distancing.
Scroll down and find something fun and educational to share with your family.
Our library website also has a huge collection of databases you may access: indianlake.sals.edu for free! Hover over “Digital Library”, and click “Learn” for many resources, interesting research, encyclopedias, and databases. There’s tons of stuff available, but of particular interest to families will be “Kids Infobits”. Your family can learn about animals, plants, music science, sports, and much more.
http://daybydayny.org/
A website for young children and their families with daily ideas to keep learning fun. It is part of the New York State Library early literacy initiative Ready to Read at New York Libraries.
https://www.storylineonline.net/
Stream videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations.
https://pbskids.org/
Videos and games for little learners. There is also a helpful parent’s resources section with ideas and activities for your little ones.
https://www2.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/reader/index.html
Resources from the US Department of Education.
https://switchzoo.com/
Fun learning games with animals.
https://www.si.edu/kids
Learning games and videos from the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex. Learn more about the Smithsonian’s 19 museums and the National Zoo—shaping the future by preserving our heritage, discovering new knowledge, and sharing our resources with the world.
http://buttonsandfigs.com/
A fun, educational program for kids, parents, educators, librarians, anyone, everyone who values wordplay. Buttons & Figs introduces kids to great nonsense literature, poetry, and songs as a way to give them permission to play with words.
https://www.storynory.com/
Free stories for kids age 7 to 11 including some fun re-tellings of classical myths and lots of original content.
https://www.parents.com/syndic…/museums-with-virtual-tours/…
This is a list of museums that offer virtual tours.
https://totallythebomb.com/heres-33-national-park-tours-you…
This has cool virtual tours of National Parks.
https://kidsactivitiesblog.com/…/list-of-education-compan…/…
A list of educational companies offering free subscriptions due to school closings.
https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/…/learnathome.html
Free educational activities.
https://www.katemessner.com/read-wonder-and-learn-favorit…/…
An extensive & updating list of read-alouds, mini-lessons, and more from children’s author Kate Messner.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/OperationStorytime…
Follow on Twitter to see how authors are sharing their stories virtually.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjaYnyCJDdU&feature=youtu.be
Lunch doodles with kid’s author MoWillems
https://jarrettlerner.com/activities/
Downloadable comic activities from author Jarret Lerner.
https://www.youtube.com/StudioJJK
Drawing classes with graphic novelist Jarrett J. Krosocka on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCowhHSUaWp3KJDcuI0nR0vw
On this channel, you’ll find workshops, readings, activities, art projects, writing games, writing advice, and more.
https://www.slj.com/…
An article from School Library Journal about kid’s authors helping educators, students, and parents during the covid-19 pandemic. Has links to resources.
https://www.vice.com/…/millions-of-books-are-secretly-in-th…
An article about downloading books in the public domain that are free. The article has links to online sources for these books.
The library appreciates the patience and understanding from our community. We’ll all get through this with more patience, understanding, and kindness for each other.
We hope this collection of websites will help you and your families get through this time in a better way. We will provide updates as often as we can to provide you all with more materials to explore.
Keep healthy.