Overwhelmed by distance learning? Here are resources that might help
As many local schools begin the year with distance learning, many parents are looking for ways to support their children as they learn from home.
Supporting a student engaged in distance learning can be challenging for parents, particularly those who are juggling working from home, working in essential jobs, or supporting multiple students at the same time.
There are a wide variety of resources online, through the Sacramento Public Library, and through tutoring agencies. Here’s a guide to help parents get started as they support students learning from home this fall.
Mental health
Wide Open School, a free collection of online resources for kids, has a wide variety of resources that both parents and students can use.
They have a collection of resources for emotional wellbeing, which includes videos from the Peer Health Exchange, reflection activities from Facing History and Ourselves, and YouTube yoga classes.
Younger students can practice breathing exercises with Rosita from Sesame Street or learn how to meditate, while older students can write creative letters to their loved ones with Jason Reynolds at the Library of Congress.
Real Talk, a mobile app that teaches teenagers about public health issues including sexual health, has a Teen Mental Health Resource Guide that includes resources for managing stress, anxiety and worry, as well as suggestions for how to stay connected with friends while socially distancing.
The California State Government website provides a list of mental health resources.
Accessing the internet
For families seeking out free and low-cost internet access, Wide Open School has collected a variety of resources that can make learning from home more accessible for every family.
Services like Everyone On and Cox connect families to computers, and digital skills training, and low-cost internet.
Internet Essentials from Comcast connects families to in-home WiFi for under $10 per month.
Online resources for students
Parents can choose from a variety of online resources to supplement their children’s learning.
Khan Academy, a website that offers free online classes, began offering suggested daily schedules and weekly math learning plans (along with a guide to using them) when schools moved to distance learning in the spring.
Their parent quick start guide has tips to get parents and their children up to speed on all of Khan Academy’s resources.
For students interested in going deeper into subjects from artificial intelligence to film studies, Crash Course and Crash Course Kids offer a wide range of free videos for learners looking to supplement their studies.
BrainPop is another website that offers videos for K-12 students. Many
BrainPop videos are free, but to access all of the videos families must pay for a monthly subscription.
Wide Open School also has a page dedicated to virtual field trips, where students can visit the International Space Station, explore the world’s largest cave, and wander around the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
For students with reading barriers like dyslexia, blindness, or cerebral palsy, Bookshare provides more than 800,000 e-books in easy-to-read formats.