---

FREE ONLINE ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS

Do some yoga or visit the Antarctic. Here are a bunch of FREE online activities for the kids and you to do.

With everything going on at the moment, we may need extra help keeping the kids busy while we take a moment to regain our sanity. Here are a few online activities for kids that can keep them entertained while you sit in the bathroom on a conference call or eat an entire slab of chocolate. Or both!

My kids are now staying home from tomorrow so I’m trying to get all my ducks in a row. Wish me luck, I love my children very very much but they are also mini me versions of me which is not necessarily a good thing. I’m planning on breaking the day into three – morning, midday and afternoon and in each one of those I’ll do some school work and then one of these online activities for kids and then throw in a house chore. But that’s highly optimistic, we’ll see how it plays out.

I’ll keep updating these online activities for kids as and when I get more information. If you have any to add, just drop me an email at michal@allthingsmomsydney.com.

I’ve tried to break it up into categories so that you can vary things during the day.

Good luck to all of us!

Online Activities For Kids

I’ve broken this down into:

• Active activities
• Mindful activities
• Creative activities;
• Explorative discovery; and
• Educational activities.

Sounds cool, doesn’t it. Hopefully the ideas will be as cool. Each activity has a link to where you’ll find it online.

If you want a specific activity just skip through the table of contents below.

Active Activities

This list of online activities for kids is about jumping, dancing and being active.

Family Fun Cardio Workout

This is a lively family workout with Class FitSugar host, Anna Renderer. it focuses on cardio moves that feel like games and challenges.

You can access the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5if4cjO5nxo.

Fitness Blender Kids Workout

This is a longer workout for the kids – 25 minutes. I’m not sure I would even make that length of exercise without shortness of breath.

You can access the the video at: https://www.fitnessblender.com/videos/fitness-blender-kids-workout-25-minute-fun-workout-for-kids-at-home.

GoNoodle

I feel like I could watch this channel at night and my son would wake up in the morning thinking I’m cool – I could learn how to dab do Fortnite celebrations (I think they’re not trendy anymore but he would think I’m cool).

It’s where exercise meets exercise, meets music meets pop culture. This is great form of exercise.

You can find the channel at: https://www.youtube.com/user/GoNoodleGames and some of the good ones are:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4DnPhR9_mo&list=PLwmXCUz8Ze5OzzJlzS-AMVQHuPlaDgN1s
• My daughter loves loves the Pop See Ko ones. You’ll find one of her favourites at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwn4beja1QE
• Do some Frozen 2 moves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W387m-ved6o (this is a weird one though).
• Dance to the trolls at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhfkYzUwYFk
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etYhiq9hM8A

Kidz Bop

34 Minutes of bopping to kids tunes. There are three teens dancing and they do go quickly sometimes but maybe pause it or play it a few times over a couple of days to learn the moves.

Some of the videos are showing you how to do the moves and breaks down each move teaching you as you go others are just performed for you.

You can access one of their video at: https://youtu.be/sHd2s_saYsQ.

PE with Joe

Joe has become famous, more famous! You can find his live videos on YouTube 9am UK time or you can catch up on a previous day’s one.

The link to PE with Joe is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz0go1pTda8.

Mo Jones

Another favourite is Mo Jones. You’ll also find his tiny bods workout video on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QseYFhYnxmU and the kids beginner video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_A_HjHZxfI.

Saskia’s Dance School

Saskia’s Dansschool is a teacher of a dance school who films her students doing warm ups and routines which you can follow along to. They came with really catchy songs that your kids may already know.

You can access these videos on YouTube, some examples are:

• Better when I’m dancing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6PmB6tMBOc&feature=youtu.be&list=PLL7beOYvKrnd-Kj8dR3QuxQS54jCwSZ6L
• Can’t stop the feeling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seg8bLgxV1g&list=PLL7beOYvKrnd-Kj8dR3QuxQS54jCwSZ6L&index=2

Newly Added Active Activities

Learn to do a Plie with the Australian Ballet

Artistic Director of the Australian Ballet is teaching 5 simple ballet exercises. The first of these is the plie.

You can find the short short video at: https://australianballet.com.au/tv/dancing-with-david-how-to-do-a-plie?utm_source=BB&utm_medium=EDM&utm_campaign=TAB&utm_term=20MKBEHINDBALLET236EM&utm_content=version_A&sourceNumber=89417

Mindful activities

Calming down when the kids are going crazy indoors is not going to be easy. Especially if you have a super active child like mind who has no outdoor space to play on.

This list of online activities for kids is about taking their brain to a calm place.

Children’s Yoga Class with Ally Ford

Ally Ford teaches the kids non harmful yoga based on her book.

You can find it, also on Youtube, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLBNX3QFZHo

Cosmic Kids Yoga

Yoga for Kids! By Yoga Today

A lovely source reflecting the kids doing the yoga with the teacher. Also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X655B4ISakg.

This instructor works very slowly through things with the kids.

Newly Added Mindful activities

The Karma Class

Beth Borowsky is the founder of The Karma Class and is the leading expert in working with schools to create programs that bring calm into the classroom through yoga-based movement, breath and mindfulness while helping to reduce anxiety in both kids and teachers.

Beth has launched an online platform that is designed to bring these tools into the home.

There will be breathing exercises, mindfulness activities and yoga classes designed for kids from 1.5 y/o and family tips to remain calm, healthy and strong.

The program is free for as long as it needs to be given the current climate.

You can find it at: https://thekarmaclass.com

Breathe Meditation for Kids

This meditation focuses on the breath, teaching your child to turn their attention inward and creating good habits for future meditation.

 It is a 6 minute video and teaches kids to focus on their breathe. It’s really quite interesting. I may try this after dinner before my kids get into their bedtime routine.

You can find the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvF9AEe-ozc&feature=youtu.be

Peace Out Guided Relaxation for Kids

As the name suggests this is a guided relaxation activity for kids. Essentially a “meditation” and it comes from ol’ Jamie from Cosmic Kids.

You can find it on YouTube (of course) at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBnPlqQFPKs&feature=youtu.be

Rainbow Breath – Flow

This mediation video for kids has been watched over a million times.

You can find it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvF9AEe-ozc&feature=youtu.be.

Creative activities

Drawing, painting and the like. This list of online activities for kids is opening up those creative little brains.

The Artful Parent

You can find the Artful Parent at www.artfulparent.com and she has loads of great free art activities.

One of her great posts includes 500 activities. You can find that post at https://artfulparent.com/kids-arts-crafts-activities-500-fun-artful-things-kids/

I’m hoping that even if I did 2 a day I wouldn’t run out of activities during this lockdown.

Digital Cooking Classes for Parents and Kids

While the videos are live at 1pm EST, they are then available for 24 hours afterwards so you can watch them from anywhere around the globe.

You can find them on Instagram at instagram.com/delish but the shopping list is put up in advance on the Delish website so you can get everything you need before you start out.

Draw a Dinosaur

Learn how to draw a cartoon dinosaur with the help of a professional artist courtesy of the UK Natural History Museum.

You can find the video at: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-to-draw-a-dinosaur.html

This is a great video that also comes with written instructions and both are broken up into sections. I can’t draw at all but could maybe follow this.

Twinkl

https://www.twinkl.co.uk

This where you can go for printouts. While it usually costs, they are offering a month of free access to parents in the event of school closures.

Newly Added Creative Activity Sites

All Kids Network Crafts

This is a site that has lots and lots of creative and educational based activities for kids. You can search according to age group or whether you want crafts or activities.

I’ve added a link to some of my favourite education stuff down at the bottom under that section.

For this purpose, the creative side, their craft section is pretty good. With Easter coming up, here is a link to the Easter Craft section of their website, https://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/easter/ .

Baking with the BBC

The BBC Good Food site has a list of 64 recipes to make with the kids. It has recipes for a lot of different levels of bakes and levels of ease. I may give some of these a go but until then. I’m going to try bake bread with the kids over the next few days, if my patience can handle it.

The site to access for these specific kids baking recipes is at: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/kids-baking.

To be honest, I’ll normally use a box mix (White Wings for chocolate and Greens for lemon cake or anything vanilla) are my go to mixes when making with kids.

Highlights Kids Crafts and Recipes

This is another good site for recipes for kids, there are some really basic things here.

You can access this part of their website, under the activities tab, at: https://www.highlightskids.com/activities.

Nomster Chef – the best cooking resource for kids

This bright and bold, easy to follow website is great for trying to cook with kids.

You start by choosing which meal you want to cook: breakfast, snack, dinner or dessert. There is a separate category for “holiday” recipes.

Once you’ve selected a meal, then you choose a dish that you want to make. From there its broken down even further so you can select grocery list or recipe overview or the picture recipe.

This site is fantastic!!!

You can find it at: https://www.nomsterchef.com/nomster-recipe-library.

I am so unbelievably grateful to all the people who have helped to get these FREE online activities for kids going. Being stuck inside is no fun when you have kids desperate to discover and explore. This is just going to have to be how we do it from now on.

Explorative Discovery

This list of online activities for kids is about discovering new places that we would maybe never be able to get to in real life. This has to be one positive of the by-products of this situation. Incredible things are being brought online for the whole world to enjoy.

The Antarctic

Step aboard the James Clark Ross research ship with Dr Adrian Glover and experience a 360° view of the sights as the vessel ploughs through Antarctic sea ice.

You can access this video through the UK’s Natural History Museum at:  https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/360-panorama-of-antarctica.html.

Farming Virtual Style

Want to take the kids to the farm but you don’t actually live on a farm!?

Well let’s take them all the way to Canada!!

You can visit a bunch of different farms online at Farm Food 360: https://www.farmfood360.ca/.

This is really cool, I’m taking my kids to the grain farm tomorrow – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyF6RW0vY7I.

Georgia Aquarium

The Georgia Aquarium has some incredible webcams operating. The Ocean Voyager is much loved and I like the African Penguins.

You can access this site at: https://www.georgiaaquarium.org/webcam/ocean-voyager/.

Houston Zoo Live Cams

The Houston Zoo has managed to get 6 animal cams up and going from Rhinos to Leaf Cutters (so cute).

You can find the link to all live cams at: https://www.houstonzoo.org/explore/webcams/.

San Diego Zoo

This Zoo has set up a portion of its website specifically for the kids. There are videos and stories and even activities which you can find it at https://kids.sandiegozoo.org/

This is a really great site.

Alternatively head over to their live cams of the animals on another of their sites. You can find the live cams at https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/live-cams.

Mars Exploration

Chances are slim that you’ll actually get to see Mars any closer than from where you are right now so check it out online.

You can find this at https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/take-a-walk-on-mars-in-your-own-living-room courtesy of NASA.

Yellowstone National Park Virtual Field Trip

You can start exploring some of the main attractions around the park: The Mammoth Hot Springs, the mud volcano and a geyser.

You can find the list of virtual tours at the NPS website: https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/photosmultimedia/virtualtours.htm

Zoo Atlanta Panda Cam

Zoo Atlanta has a panda cam going. You can access it here: https://zooatlanta.org/panda-cam/

Zoos Victoria Live Cams

Zoos Victoria have set up live cams at Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo so you can watch some of their animals. There are snow leopards and cubs, penguins, giraffes and more.

You can find the Zoos Victoria site at https://www.zoo.org.au/animal-house/.

More Explorative Discovery type sites

Safari Live

Go on a genuine African safari. There are two sessions – a sunrise safari and a sunset safari. Just remember this is South African time so for those of us in Australia, the sunrise safari is during our afternoon.

This is just awesome! Such an awesome “activity” for the whole family. I just love how authentic this is. Well done to the team at WildEarth TV, they have done a stellar job portraying real life and the real African Wildlife.

Warning: if you’re South African or African this WILL make you homesick! 100%.

You can find the team of WildEarth TV at: https://wildearth.tv/safarilive/.

A to Z of En Pointe

This 4 minute video courtesy of the Australian Ballet is all about pointe shoes is amazing. If you or your child is interested in ballet just watching this is visually appealing. I stumbled across it and couldn’t stop watching it.

You can find the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDCMUCqm4v0BLEyKnbY874F1h7fA&v=iappqIblCcI&feature=emb_rel_end

I’m currently debating whether my 5 year old would love it or if she is too young.

1900s Living

Go back in time in this short video from Sydney Living Museums and see how they lived in the 1900s. Its really an interesting video and you can easily watch it more than once.

You can find the video at: https://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/growing-up-early-1900s

Smithsonian’s National Zoo Live Cams

The Smithsonian has 4 live cams that are operating. These include:

• Giant Panda Cam
• Elephant Cam
• Lion Cam
• Naked Mole-Rat Cam (I have never ever heard of a naked mole-rat!!) (I’ve just checked – they are NOT the most attractive animals I’ve ever seen.

You can find links to these live cams at https://nationalzoo.si.edu/webcams .

Smithsonian Ocean

This Smithsonian website is dedicated to the ocean (as you can tell from the name). There is a ton of stuff on its website but for kids who you are trying to entertain but educate at the same time, the videos may be the best resource.

Some of the videos that I found were:

• Sea Creatures from the Deep (https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/fish/sea-creatures-deep-video-national-geographic-and-census-marine-life) it is 2 minutes long and has some writing so you will need to read it to your child or your child needs to be able to read.
• Squid loses arm – my son would love this – https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/squid-loses-arm-defense-strategy
• Porpoising Penguins https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/seabirds/porpoising-penguins this video is even shorter than the others

Stories from space

Yes its a story but it’s being read from SPACE. Do their voices sound the same? What happens to their hair? How do they hold the book? Those are the things that are running through your mind watching this. You’ll have to listen to it twice just to hear the story.

Here is a link to the site: https://storytimefromspace.com/library/

Educational

Art Galleries and Museums

Art Galleries may not be at the top of the list of to visit with kids, have to been to one of the really fancy ones with little kids in tow? Some people react so poorly! I witnessed a guy with a dog shout at a woman with a baby at the Guggenheim in NYC. To say I was amazed was an understatement.

Anyway, there are now a list of art galleries to look through online. Here are some ideas:

• Boston Children’s Museum: take a virtual tour of all three floors at https://www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/museum-virtual-tour
• The MET for kids. There is a whole section of their website dedicated to kids with videos and a time machine. You can access this part of the MET website at: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/online-features/metkids/ [ ADULTS or older kids may be interested in the 6 short tour at https://www.metmuseum.org/art/online-features/met-360-project
• Musee d’Orsay in Paris has a few videos and a live tour. You can access them at: https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/tools/video-gallery/video-gallery.html.
• Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. You can see their collection at https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/the-rijksmuseum-is-open-online
• the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Korea, you can take a live gallery tour at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmV7G7dPNuI&feature=youtu.be

Bill Nye

Do you remember Bill Nye, Bill Nye the Science Guy!? Well he’s online and he has experiments that you can do at home.

You can find this section under home demos on his website at: https://www.billnye.com/home-demos.

Echidna Love

Want 10 reasons to love Echidnas, I already do but will gladly add 10 more reasons.

Watch a video on these quirky little guys at: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/ten-reasons-to-love-echidnas.html

What if World

This podcast is especially for kids. Each week a question is taken from a child and is answered for the audience.

They’re the standard questions you’ll expect from kids like: “What if clocks were bananas and monkeys ate time”. How funny is that!

You can find the links to the episodes at: http://www.whatifworldpodcast.com/episodes

Newly Added Educational Resources

Australian Reptile Park

We love the Australian Reptile Park and now it’s coming to us!

There are two sessions that run, one in the morning and one early afternoon. Just note that these are NOT on their website and the morning one is hosted by Tim and the other by the Park itself. I’ve put all the links below though.

10am Educational Videos: Can be found on Tim Faulkner’s Facebook, Instagram pages and on the Australian Reptile Park’s YouTube Channel

2pm Live Streams: Can be found on the Australian Reptile Park’s Facebook and Instagram

Taronga TV

Another one of our places – Taronga!!! Also now coming to us.

This is different to the Reptile Park because there are a number of things happening online:

• Live Animal Cams – aim to watch the Tiger Cam at 9:30 am and 2:15. Maybe you’ll even get to see the cubs.
• Keeper Chats
• Shows (like the famous Seal Show)
• Feeds (watch the penguins get fed).

There is a main page dedicated to online activities on the Taronga website and from there you can decide which you want to watch.

All Kids Network Letter Activities

This is a site that has lots and lots of creative and educational based activities for kids. You can search according to age group or whether you want crafts or activities.

I like the letter activities for my 5 year old. You can find the best of the letter activities at https://www.allkidsnetwork.com/best/top-by-letter-kids-activities.

Bedtime Math

This is a website dedicated to making people love maths. My favourite is the short bedtime math question which is a quick an easy question to answer every night.

It starts with a fun fact and then has a maths question for different levels of the family starting with a math question aimed at really young kids.

You can find the nightly fun fact and bedtime math at: http://bedtimemath.org (for the bedtime math just click on the appropriate block).

It’s a great way to have the whole family involved in a single educational activity because it covers all abilities.

Bounce O’Rama Play Sheets

One of my favourite kids party people here in Sydney has put up some activity sheets on her website. You can download one or the whole pack. There is an I-SPy, Solar System Word Search and others.

You can find them at: https://bounceorama.com.au/pages/free-downloads.

Kids Should See This

If your child is like mine, they ask thousands of questions a day. This site goes some way to encourage but also preoccupy the minds (and in turn the mouths) of kids.

There are 4 500 kid friendly videos answering some unusual questions and navigating some interesting topics.

You can find it at: https://thekidshouldseethis.com/

Maths Games

Maths, Maths and more maths.

If you’re looking for a site you can call up and let your child just explore various maths games then Education.com’s math section is for you. There is so much available on this site and it covers a broad range of mathematical areas.

You can find the site at: https://www.education.com/games/math/?referral_url=kidsnumbers.com.

National Geographic Explorer Magazines

The Nat Geo Young Explorer website has some magazines about all different animals. You select Listen & Read on the magazine you want to hear then click on the audio button on each page to listen to the magazine being read to you.

This is a great resource for young kids who can work out which button to click on.

The link to the full selection is at: https://ngexplorer.cengage.com/ngyoungexplorer/moreissues.html.

Unfortunately this site is a bit outdated so not all the issues work. We tried a few and were able to access:

• Busy Bugs
• Tongue Tales
• A tiger tale
• Cool Colours
• Winter Weather
• Frog Parents
• Getting Around

Science Fun

I thought I had seen every home science experiment for kids until I came across this website.

Science fun has experiments I can try at home without having to go out and find weird and wonderful ingredients and they don’t take hours and hours to make.

You can find the home experiments at: http://www.sciencefun.org/kidszone/experiments/.

♦