Educational resources for our kids this lockdown

We're back at home teaching the kids.  There's plenty for them to do during this lockdown though.  The teachers have got to grips with google classroom in a big way and it shows.  I mean it makes sense, I'm using TEAMS to teach so why shouldn't they be busy doing meetings and providing materials too?

Sometimes though it can be overwhelming or the kids just need to do something different.  Sometimes they don't 'get' what's been provided and other times I just need them to do something a bit more fun or interactive so I can be doing my own work too.  As I work in education I've seen lots of online places that you can access to help.  Here's a few.

Activity Village has over 23,000 resources - 1,000 for free.  It's definitely a 'keeping the kids busy' type resource that's would be great for being at home, full of crafts, printables, educational activities and games.  It's pretty educational, but then that's how many kids learn right?

BBC Bitesize is one of my favourites.  When my son needed to know about the Mayan's, Antarctica or about whatever else for his homework or holiday projects this is where I go.   It's free, broken down by country and key stage, and has a search facility.  Cartoons and interactive games explain the topics.  I love it.  

CBBC are running live BBC Bitesize sessions for Primary kids from 9am each weekday morning till lunchtime and then BBC2 runs Bitesize for secondary school kids until about 3pm.  It's a great thing to start or end the day and fill in when I've got work to do. You can even see what subjects BBC Bitesize have scheduled when on their website.

IXL is an online resource for KS1-KS4 maths and English Practice. It is broken down by school year (Reception through to Yr13) then into English and maths skills which are all fun and done online. We have a subscription but you can also access 10 questions a day for free which is worth doing to keep up practice and get ideas.

Oxford Owl is at its heart a kids e-book resource for those learning to read and based around the Oxford Learning Tree levels.  You can join for free if you are a parent and you can access their eBook library plus you can access other advice, support and educational activities and games without registering.

Teach it  specialises in secondary school resources - you can access all the resources as a PDF for free by registering on the site.  The subscription levels here are for collaborating and sharing content with departments so if it's just you at home looking to print out some things then it's as good as free.

TES Resources has over 1/2 million resources so whatever you are looking into at the moment there is probably something here.  There are free things, some for members and you can also buy resources through it as one-offs too.

Twinkl - Has thousands of free resources on it from topic related mindfulness colouring sheets to cursive handwriting pages.   Twinkl is great and has it's own SEN section, but if you want access to all the resources you would usually need to sign up for a monthly membership.  Good news - to support you during this period, Twinkl is offering lots of extra resources for free and it's one I use all the time. 

What do you think to these?  What other online resources do you know or would you recommend?  

The information above is correct at the time of writing.