Stuck at Home Guide – Educational Resources & Natural “Crunchy” Survival Tips

If you’re stuck at home with kiddos due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, here are some ways you can stay healthy, avoid boredom, and use natural and sustainable living tips to survive!

I have homeschooled my son since birth, and I believe that homeschooling goes beyond those of us who choose to do it full time. Whenever you engage in educational activities with your child at home, around town, or while traveling, that counts as homeschool to me! We are all capable of homeschooling. Luckily, there are several resources that help with this.

Also, as a sustainable and natural blogger, I have a few tips that are helpful (but they are not medical advice, I am not a doctor). There are a lot of tips here, and I would love if you leave any tips/advice in the comments below!

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Educational Resources

People from all over are creating helpful resources as well as sharing resources that already exist to help kids learn and parents teach from home. I’ve been homeschooling since birth because I believe that learning never ends. Tiny Green Earthling, another website/blog that I write, is getting a makeover and changing from a natural baby website to a place to share our homeschooling adventures. We currently have some educational items listed on Teachers Pay Teachers that you can purchase and print right at home.

My homeschooled child is still young, but it is important to note that we have a lot of down time throughout the day. We do NOT follow a strict schedule, sometimes we save some fun projects for when my husband gets home from work, we watch tv (sometimes educational, sometimes not),

Here are even more educational resources – from tips to make your own learning fun, to help being offered online from experts:

Learn Together as a Family

• Read books together
• Practice on subjects/concepts that have been difficult for your child this year
• Refresh on subjects they’ve learned already this year 
• Practice a new language! Sign language (ASL) is especially important – I have more info on how we practice learning sign language below.

Educational Resources Offered Online During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Virtual museum tours from home with the Google Arts & Culture Website and App
• Virtual field trips that you can take online
• Free homeschool platform subscriptions
• Activities for kids while parents work from home
• “Stuck Inside Guide” by Melissa & Doug
• Scholastic brought us book fairs when we were young, and they still do for kids today! They are offering Scholastic Learn At Home resources now to adapt to the evolution of learning.
• Khan Academy is a free online homeschooling platform that is also creating daily tips for schools experiencing closures due to the coronavirus.
• Outschool is an online educational platform that is led by professionals in their respective fields. You can even request classes! Classes range from learning about chemistry with a Harry Potter spin to learning about math with mythical are. Classes are as affordable as $5/class.

Print Your Own Lessons

If you have access to a printer, you can purchase lessons online and print them to use at home. Here are a few of my favorite platforms, lessons, and fun printables. You can also search Pinterest to find printables. Follow Old World New on Pinterest and search for helpful content on my Homeschool & Montessori board!

I completely understand that having access to a printer is a privilege, and that not everyone can access one. Some of these lessons can be modified to use your screen and regular sheets of paper at home. This is why being resourceful and creative is so helpful!

• Teachers Pay Teachers – an online educational marketplace. For teachers, by teachers. Remember: you are your child’s first and most important teacher!
• Home Ed Printables is one of my favorite creators for, well, home ed printable haha!
• Melissa and Doug sends out free printables of a new theme each week when you sign up for their newsletter and they have some basic printables on their blog, as well.
• Nature Nate’s offers bee themed printables to learn about the importance of bees and more info about bees when you sign up for their email list
• Museums offer free coloring books that you can print.

My Favorite Kids Educational Apps

• PBS KIDS Video – they have a lot of fun and educational shows and they don’t venture into questionable content like YouTube which is less controllable. PBS Kids also has an app for almost all of their shows!
• Endless Reader from Orignator Kids. They also have created apps such as Endless Numbers, MathTango, Endless Spanish, and Endless Learning Academy.

My Favorite Kids YouTube Channels & Podcasts

I love to listen to and watch these with my son so that I know what he’s learning and can help him learn, as well. My absolute favorite is learning ASL / American Sign Language with Rachel of Signing Time & TreeSchool. It is teaching him a second language early on in life, and it is making it so that when (not if, because it WILL happen) he encounters someone who is hearing impaired, he will be able to communicate with them. I believe we all should know at least a little sign language, so I’m happy to be learning it with him, too!

• A Reading Bug Adventure Podcast
• Story Pirates Podcast
• Baby Signing Time / Signing Time (you can also search this title and find videos uploaded by different users)
• Rachel and the Treeschoolers – TreeSchool – Preschool and Kids Songs
• Have Fun Teaching (the ABC song goes hard!)
• Serie TV Per Bambini because I’m trying to Greyson Italian. Maya the Bee is the English language version.
• National Geographic Kids

Library Resources

Most libraries have a connection to some form of online resources. Check with your local library to learn how to access free books, ebooks, movies, classes, etc online though platforms like Hoopla, Lynda.com (now called LinkedIn Learning), Axis360, OverDrive (now called Rakuten OverDrive), etc. If you don’t already have a library card, check to see if you can apply for a library card online.

Don’t forget to recheck your books and items that you already have out via the library website or by calling your library.

Activities

• Cook together!
  • Step Stool Chef
  • VeggieBuds Club
  • Watch kid cooking channels on YouTube
• PLAY together! Complete puzzles, play pretend, play board games, make up your own games, dress up and have a fashion show, and more. Crunchy Mama DFW has more ideas for what to do while you’re at home with your little one.

Everyday Alternatives

You can shop for many of these items through the links in my Sustainable Shop. You can also get creative and make some of these from items you may already have at home.

• Cloth towels instead of paper towels. If you don’t already own cloth towels, use old shirts or old bath towels and cut them to make your own hand towels.
• Cloth wipes if you run out of toilet paper. I used to think it was gross too but he’ll it’s just cloth and you wipe your butt all the time, just wash it and go on about your business.
• Bidet – we took our diaper sprayer off of the toilet and put the bidet right on – it’s so easy!
• Cloth diapers instead of disposable diapers (borrow, barter, then buy if you can’t do the either of the former).
• DO NOT flush paper towels, baby wipes, or wet wipes.
• Learn about composting and create your own composting bin since you’ll probably be cooking and creating meals at home all day long.

Don’t forget your CIVIC DUTY!

You can both vote and fill out the census from the comfort of your own home.

• Complete the CENSUS – you can fill it out online, call in to complete it, or mail in a form to complete it.
• Absentee Ballot – vote via snail mail to have your voice heard!

Stay Healthy!

These immune-boosting recipes could be beneficial! Especially since some of the ingredients are antivirals, and the coronavirus is a virus. DRINK PLENTY OF WATER!

Final Thoughts on the Coronavirus Self-Distancing Mandates

• The importance of learning homesteading and permaculture skills seems so real right now.
• This is a VIRUS, not a bacteria. Anti-bacterial stuff does not work against it.Wash your hands with soap and warm water because hand sanitizer is anti-bacterial, not antiviral.
• The self-isolation requirements are proving to be helpful by reducing carbon emissions. Hopefully we can learn from that.
• Walmart canceled my grocery order (I didn’t want to go inside of the store), and I’m expecting the basics to be missing from the shelves when I make it to the store, so I’m looking up recipes to help make the basics! I have a bread maker that was given to me, so I’ll be buying what I need to make bread, and a few more essentials that I don’t already have.
• Check with your school district to see if they will still be serving food that you can pick up for your children.
• I’ll be reading my homesteading book to learn how to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle.
• Stay creative! Be resourceful. I’ve learned the importance of the qualities out of necessity and due to my elders teaching it to me because they learned it out of necessity, as well.

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How are you making it through the self-isolation? Leave your tips in the comments below! I’ll be updating this post with more helpful information as I learn about it.