In Pennsylvania the governor announced a couple of weeks ago that the schools will closed for the remainder of the school year. Many other states have already made similar decisions. While the teachers in most school districts have most likely already provided resources or assignments for their students, there may be some parents who would like to access some additional resources for their children.

There are many bloggers, educators, politicians, news sites and others sharing these online resources but I thought I’d help consolidate them here for any of my followers who have missed these announcements. I shared two similar posts HERE and HERE.

I currently homeschool my son but someday we may move him back to public school. Having homeschooled him, though, has helped us prepare if something like this happens again while he is enrolled in public school. I have to say that one of the only good things about the schools being closed is I get a reprieve from people in my life who don’t agree with me homeschooling my children. Now I get to tell them to stuff it because I don’t have a choice. Ha! (Sorry, I just had to add that little joke in there. I’m not really telling them to ‘stuff it.’ Well, yet anyhow. And no one has been super vocal about my choice to homeschool, so I really am just teasing!)

Our local U.S. Rep. shared this link to the Library of Congress, which is offering a variety of resources online for free.

Included in that list is the Library of Congress Youtube Channel.

A friend of ours who is a local elementary art teacher (and amazing artist) just yesterday announced that he is hosting a live art class each Thursday from 4 to 5 p.m. EST. Wayne Beeman is a talented artist who has provided images for Marvel and also has a list of degrees in art education and education in general.

He created this cartoon recently based on all the toilet paper hoarding:

You can find out more about the classes and other features he is offering for children on his site and on Facebook where he details what the class will entail and how it will be run, as well as his full qualifications. Here is the page to register your student (ages 8 to 15) for the class.

He also offers drawing guides, art activities, and various art courses, including one to create comics or cartoons.

Simply because I enjoy his work, I thought I’d share one of his paintings below:

National Geographic is offering three months free of a digital subscription to their magazine (normally about $2.99 a month) and also various educational resources for free.

The National Park Service is offering virtual tours of the parks within their system (something I learned from Erin at Still Life with Cracker Crumbs.

The Penn State Extension is offering a variety of courses for free for a limited time. The courses range from topics such as beekeeping, partial budgeting, learning about your local government, and beef production and management.

School Choice Week’s website has a huge list of resources for parents who are suddenly homeschooling.

Brain Pop is currently offering free access (I’m not sure for what time frame) on their site. The site seems to offer videos, text and other resources on a variety of subjects for all ages. I’ll check it out more and get back to you on what it is all about.

Abeka, which offers Christian-based education is currently offering 25-free hours of their courses.

If you have any more links or resources parents can use, let me know in the comment section so I can share it in a future post!