Free Online Learning For Kids
I wanted to put together a list of resources for all of us (as I’ll be referring back to it too!) full of places where you can find online learning for your kids.
Our school has a handy section where they have provided some printables, but I wanted to find websites which are set up specifically for primary school learning.
I couldn’t believe how many resources were out there when I started properly delving into it all, and I am so happy about this!
I’ve grouped it in to subject where I can (as this is how I like to group things together to find stuff) but then put more general bits together.
If you know of any resources that haven’t been mentioned below, please let me know in the comments under the post and I will add them to this.
Oxford Owl
Before we get started looking through the resources, I wanted to put this at the beginning. When I realised that I was going to have to suddenly home-school, I quickly realised that I didn’t know the curriculum for the year.
I wanted to make sure that I knew exactly what my daughter is expected to know by the end of this school year. I’m not planning on doing a heavily structured school environment, but I want to cover everything that she should be doing.
I found this really great site called Oxford Owl which has lists of what the kids need to learn for each school year. Spoiler: it’s more than I realised! Wow, they have to get through a lot in a school year!
My plan is to create a checklist to make sure that we are covering/are going to cover it, going off what is on this site.
You can browse by the school year, and they have sections within each one for the subjects.
There are a ton of different resources for children on this site and it’s grouped by Year Group. There are Maths and English sections available. You can also search the work by the curriculum for the year, which is really handy for making sure that you are covering everything.
Topmarks is a great site that my daughter has been using quite a bit to play maths games on. They have a wide variety of games and learning resources that you can search for by age group or subject.
There is a lot of free content available here, for primary, secondary and 16+. There are clips for the children to watch as well as games. I had a quick look on the area for the year that my daughter is in, and they have resources in these subjects:
- Art and design
- Computing
- Design and technology
- English
- French
- Geography
- German
- History
- Italian
- Mandarin
- Maths
- Modern foreign languages
- Music
- Physical Education
- PSHE and Citizenship
- Religious Education
- Science
- Spanish
- Welsh Second Language
They have a main website (and I think it’s US based) but they have put together a newsletter which have a handful of engaging lesson plans organised by age group that span all subjects delivered to your inbox every day.
Each newsletter will also include insights and tips collected from TED-Ed’s global community of students, parents and teachers.
FuseSchool is a global education charity. They provide animated, bitesize videos covering maths and science. You will have to sign up for a free account to get access.
The Children’s University Manchester
The Children’s University of Manchester has been designed to support KS2 (7-11) teaching and learning. They have the following subjects:
- History
- Languages
- Science
- Art and design
- Student life
- Ancient Egypt
Their teacher-created resources provide entire schemes of work, lesson planning and assessments right through to online educational games, augmented reality and so much more.
In the offer code section, enter CVDTWINKLHELPS or UKTWINKLHELPS.
They have a Primary Resources section which has curriculum-led teaching ideas and accompanying resource sheets aligned with the National Curriculum and the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence.
The resources are pupil-focused and interdisciplinary, supporting core subjects like English, Maths and Science as well as the wider curriculum with resources for Geography, History, Art and Culture – which includes SMSC (spiritual, moral, social and cultural) development, such as British values.
They’ve provided teacher support to show which areas of the curriculum each individual primary resource covers. The primary resources themselves are written in the tone of National Geographic Kids magazine and are sure to engage your children by making learning fun and accessible.
Using this site (or app) you can learn any language for free!
This site has flash cards and learning tools. I really like how interactive this site is and their graphics!
This is a really simple to use site, which has learning tools for the following subjects/sections:
- Animals and nature
- Computer coding
- Dinosaurs and prehistoric life
- Earth
- English
- History
- Human Body
- Maths
- Music, Art and Literature
- Science
- Space
- Sports
- Transport
There are 20 years of free educational games on here, made by a UK teacher. They offer English and Maths games for children in years one, two, and three.
Maths
The White Rose Maths Team has prepared a series of five maths lessons for each year group from Year 1-8. They will be adding five more each week for the next few weeks.
Every lesson comes with a short video showing you clearly and simply how to help your child to complete the activity successfully.
They are hosting daily home maths lessons – they are in the morning but will be able to viewed later on if you miss them. This is amazing!
This is a huge resource full of lesson starters, mini-maths lessons, learning packs and more.
Maths Chase is a website that has maths games, ranging from Reception level to Year 4.
There are free printable times tables, printed maths tests and more.
The original A Maths Dictionary for Kids is an animated, interactive online math dictionary for students which explains over 630 common mathematical terms and math words in simple language with definitions, examples, activities, practice and calculators.
English
This website is fab – it’s a passion project by the owner and I for one, am so grateful that they have put together these fantastic resources.
The idea behind the site is that they have picture prompts. There are images (shared with permission from the artists) and underneath she has written out some prompts for the children to answer.
This will be really helpful for the English side of learning, and I think it’s a really interactive thing to do. As a parent it’s not always easy to know which questions to ask in relation to a story.
This is another great resource which has lesson plans, activities, stories and poems for primary school age – for English. There are also additional sections for teens and adults.
All of their practical materials are written by experts in English Language Teaching and are free to download.
This is an award winning game which is available as an app, but the web version is free.
The game has been funded by the Usborne Foundation, a charity set up to support initiatives to develop early literacy. The game is for children in the first stages of learning to read, or for older children who need a bit more practice.
This specific link will take you to a list of children’s authors who are doing online read alouds and activities.
Science
Sublime Science
This is the popular birthday party site which was seen on Dragons Den. They have a free section on the site which you can do with stuff that you already have around the house.
Inspire your child through the power of STEM with BP’s Educational Service. There is free Science, Design and Technology and Geography resources to inspire pupils aged 4 to 11. They also have resources for secondary.
These are games which are for computer programming skills.
This is a good site for kids who want to learn more about the world! There are sections on each continent, and then when you click within each one there are additional sections such as oceans, capitals, flags etc.
Your child can apply for a Blue Peter badge by doing a variety of different things which are listed on the site.
This is a website which has a ton of free teaching resources for teachers. This is perfect because you can print them out or get inspiration from them!
Free Virtual Tours of World Museums, Educational Sites & Galleries For Children
This is a round up of all of the free virtual tours of museums etc, which are perfect for when you can’t get out of the house.
Webcam Zoo
This is a list of zoos that have webcams so that you can see the animals! There are both UK and US so you can look at pretty much any time of day.
Art for Kids Hub – Youtube channel
This is a Youtube channel full of tutorials on how to draw and paint. It’s all aimed at kids and there are SO many ideas.
Looking for craft and art activities for your little ones? This site has a ton of different fun, creative ideas for them to do.
The BBC have provided live lessons for both primary and secondary children. I especially love that they have Blue Planet on there!
You can use BBC Teach for free. The website is home to thousands of free curriculum-mapped videos, arranged by age-group and subject.
I know that my daughter loves doing brain breaks in school, and here is a list of 50 brain break ideas for kids.
If you know of any more resources please let me know below and I will get them added!