Parents and Caregivers
This list is not comprehensive, and the Ohio Department of Education does not endorse these products. We are making the list available to support engaging students in learning during the school-building closure period.
Instructional Resources Organized by Content
Computer Science
Code.org - Learning computer science when schools are closed - (Grades 3-12) This site contains several resources to help students learn computer science programming at home.
NOVA Labs - (Grades 3-12) This lesson is designed to allow students to learn about and protect against different cyber threats.
Google - CS First - (Grades 3-12) This page has several programming activities for students using Scratch.
Aggie LIFE - (Grades 6-12) This game teaches students about cyber security issues by asking questions after spinning a wheel and moving your game piece around the board. Created as part of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, “Aggie LIFE” was created by the Division of Information Technology to test your cyber smarts.
Data Ethics - (Grades 7-12) This online course is shared by Neal O’Farrell of www.ethicause.com (approximately 65 minutes) and is divided into eight, easy-to-take lessons. There are worksheets for each video that include open-ended questions students can use for research and discussion.
Ohio Department of Education Computer Science Resources Page - (Grades K-12) This page has links to many resources available for computer science. This resource includes offline activities.
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English Language Arts
Core Knowledge - (Grades PreK-8) This site offers a complete curriculum for English language arts.
Khan Academy - (Grades 9-12) Khan Academy provides lessons and modules for various English language arts content, as well as many other content areas.
LearnZillion English Languages Arts Guidebooks – (Grades 3-12) Comprehensive and high-quality guidebooks for educators, parents and students.
Oxford Owl - (Grades K-5) Visit this site to find free e-books, worksheets and tips for parents on various English and language arts topics.
PBS Kids - (Grades K-2) Visit PBS Kids to find games, stories and learning opportunities with favorite friends from PBS Kids shows.
Scholastic magazines - (Grades K-8) This is a collection of cross-curricular articles, stories and videos that incorporate discussion points, lesson plans and activities.
Storynory - (Grades K-5) This site contains more than 600 audio stories, myths and poems to listen to or download.
Teaching Tolerance - (Grades 3-12) Educators can access ready-to-use lessons and teaching strategies about social justice through a global and historical lens.
Where to get digital books:
- Most local libraries
- Audible (PK-12) is enabling kids to instantly stream a collection of stories, including titles across six languages, for free on their desktops, laptops, phones or tablets. This access will be available as long as schools are closed.
- CommonLit (3-12) is a reading resource program that includes 1500 authentic complex texts, organized by grade level, with comprehension questions, discussion questions, and assessment style questions. It includes a large collection of Spanish texts and texts can be translated into 25 different languages and include a read aloud option.
- Kate Messner: Read, Wonder, Learn! (PK-12) is a collection of resources that includes everything from first-chapter and picture book read-alouds to complementary drawing and writing mini-lessons.
- KidLitTV (PK-5) is a comprehensive website dedicated to children’s literature that includes “Read Out Loud,” a video story time feature with authors reading aloud their own books.
- Overdrive (K-12) enables kids, their families and caregivers to borrow and read free ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines from their local library using a phone or tablet. Depending on the device and operating system being used,
- Libby is a helpful app that provides access to the same content with a different navigation experience.
- Scholastic Learn at Home (PK-8) includes learning experiences, grouped by grade band, built around a children’s book--full text accessible via the website--and including videos and complementary activities (available in both English and Spanish).
- Story Online (K-5) is an award-winning children’s literacy website which streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books aloud alongside illustrations. The website also includes activity guides for parents and caregivers to complete lessons with students at home.
- Teaching Tolerance Text Library (K-12) is a supplemental library of over 500 short nonfiction leveled texts, images, interviews, literary texts, and more that represent a diverse mix of stories and perspectives. Students, families and caregivers can create accounts for free to access the content. Your local library: most libraries offer all books virtually
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Financial Literacy
Econ Low Down – (Grades 3-12) The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis' provides this education portal for financial literacy and economics, featuring high-quality resources for preK-college students.
History in Your Pocket (H.I.P.) - (Grades K-5) The United States Mint provides activities and games that serve as an overview about what money is, how it's used and how it's printed.
Kiddynomics - (Grades K-5) This is the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis' resource for introducing elementary students to financial literacy, basic personal finance and economics concepts.
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Fine Arts
Google Art Project - (Grades K-12) This interactive website provides students, educators and parents with access to more than 40,000 artworks from 250 museums from around the world.
Instrument Cleaning / Sanitation - (K-12) Safe instrument cleaning guidelines in compliance with current CDC guidelines.
The Kennedy Center - (Grades K-12) This interactive arts website has articles, how-to lessons and activities, resource collections and media and interactives.
Making Music Fun - (Grades K-12) This interactive music website provides sheet music, worksheets, lesson plans, an online music library, music theory arcade games and songs.
National Gallery of Art - (Grades K-12) This interactive website provides teaching resources, videos, lessons, activities and student interactives.
Virtual Museum Tours - (Grades K-12) Travel and Leisure has provided virtual tours of museums around the globe. Students will be able to experience artifact exhibits, watch videos and engage in exploration at a museum in a new and exciting way.
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Literacy
The literacy resources are organized to provide parents with easy navigation to their children’s reading levels.
Ohio’s Literacy Toolkits - Ohio’s Literacy Toolkits provide educators and parents with resources to support their children’s literacy achievement.
Pre-K
Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning - This site provides a list of resources and practical strategies for educators and caregivers, including books that support social-emotional learning and guides designed around popular children's books.
Day by Day Ohio Family Literacy Calendar - Day by Day Ohio is a tool families, caregivers, educators and librarians can use at home, on the go and in the classroom.
HOMER Reading and HOMER Stories - HOMER Reading's Personalized Learning Pathway allows educators and families to customize a learning plan that’s just right for every child, based on his or her reading stage and interests. Learning games provide instruction in print knowledge, phonological awareness, letter sounds and more. Always free for educators; free trial for families, then $7.99 per month.
Ohio Governor's Imagination Library - The Ohio Governor’s Imagination Library provides books to children ages 0-5 across Ohio.
Sit Together and Read (STAR) and STAR@Home - This resource provides educators and families with book suggestions and targeted questions to ask children when reading aloud.
Storynory - This site provides free audio stories for all age levels, including fairytales, classic authors and myths.
Vroom - This free app provides opportunities that support the development of literacy through life skills that promote executive function, positive adult-child relationships and back and forth interactions supported by science.
Preschool/Elementary
PBS Learn & Grow - This website provides a variety of activities, videos, literature and games to promote personal growth and learning for children ages 2-8 years.
Reading Tips for Families Website - This site was designed to support Ohio families with reading by providing activities and helpful tips to encourage children to become successful readers. Reading research and resources are included for those looking for more detailed information.
Elementary
INFOhio Bookflix - This site provides paired fiction and popular nonfiction texts that engage readers and support literacy.
Khan Academy Kids - This resource helps parents with instructions and tips for using Khan Academy Kids for remote learning, including personalized learning in various subjects and activities for skills practice.
National Geographic Young Explorers - This resource provides kindergarten and first-grade informational text (available with audio) with accompanying lessons, videos and interactive features.
Oxford Owl - Free e-books, educational activities and games and tips for parents. This resource also includes a phonics guide for parents.
Phonemic Awareness at Home - This resource provides videos of educators providing daily phonemic awareness lessons your child can engage in using the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness curriculum. Each lesson is around 10 minutes.
Scholastic Learn at Home - This free resource provides children with 20 days of exciting articles and stories, videos and fun learning challenges. Children can complete them anytime, in any order. They can work on their own or with their families.
Switch Zoo - This site provides activities for learning with a focus on animals. It includes plenty of opportunities for reading and writing.
Universal Design Home Lesson Plans - Katie Novak provides a Universal Design for Learning lesson plan each day.
Waterford - This site provides nine virtual field trips for elementary school students to build background knowledge and apply their literacy skills.
Middle/High School
Common Lit - This is a free collection of fiction and nonfiction that can be filtered by Lexile, grade, theme genre, literary device or Common Core standard.
Khan Academy: Grammar - This site provides an online course on grammar, including parts of speech, syntax, style and punctuation.
The New York Times Writing Prompts - This site provides authentic writing prompts to spark argumentative and opinion writing, as well as current events discussions.
Project Gutenberg - This site provides more than 61,000 books free to download for online learning.
K-12
Newsela - This resource provides authentic informational texts at various reading levels on relevant topics.
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Math
Dan Meyer’s Three Act Tasks - (Grades 6-12) Dan Meyer’s Three Act Tasks are low floor, high ceiling tasks in three parts: an engaging and perplexing Act 1, an information and solution seeking Act 2, and solution discussion and solution revealing Act 3. The tasks allow students to ask mathematical questions, think critically, and develop estimation and number sense skills. These are presented in the forms of videos or photos and organized by standard.
Exploding Dots - (Grades 4-12) Exploding Dots by Global Math Project a way for elementary and middle school students to see arithmetic algorithms as a beautiful story. Students can see the role they play in advanced high school mathematics. It uses video and interactive resources to help students reason about math. Low-tech options are available as well.
Khan Academy - (Grades K-12) Khan Academy has online math lectures. These lectures may be useful to review math content and practice some skills. It has videos from preschool through Advanced Math topics. It also has links to reinforce EngageNY and Illustrative Mathematics as well as SAT test prep.
The Math Learning Center - (Grades K-8) The Math Learning Center has free math apps, lessons and publications for students to use. They are based on visual models featured in the mathematics program Bridges.
Matific - (Grades K-6) Matific has created a series of games and activities that look at place value and the arithmetic operations.
Statistics Education Web (STEW) - (Grades K-12) Statistics Education Web (STEW) from the American Statistical Society (AMSTAT) has vetted statistics lessons aligned to the GAISE model and the Common Core State Standards. They have printable PDFs and Word documents with student facing worksheets and teacher answer keys for grade bands K-5, 6-8, and high school.
Zearn Mathematics - (Grades K-5) Zearn Mathematics offers a complete curriculum with digital lessons, onscreen teachers and supportive remediation. Their Distance Learning Resource Center has quick-start instructions and parent/caregiver packs in both English and Spanish. Walkthrough webinars are also available for administrators, teachers and parents.
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Physical Education
Go Noodle - (Grades K-5) Students can find engaging content through this interactive video system for physical education and movement for brain breaks, indoor recess or at-home movement.
Les Mills - (Grades 9-12) This site houses a collection of free and for-pay workouts.
OPEN - Online Physical Education Network - (Grades K-12) This site includes physical education and social-emotional learning resources and activities to do at home for K-12.
Pro Football Hall of Fame (HOF) - (Grades K-12) The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Youth and Education Program is based on its mission, vision and values and includes online and offline printable resources.
Shape America - (Grades K-12) This site includes a collection of high-quality, standards-based lessons, daily activities, charts and many other resources for educators and students that focuses on physical education and health.
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Science
COSI Connects - (Grades K-12) COSI Connects is COSI's Digital Doorway for fun at-home science discovery and learning. COSI provides exciting and engaging science through COSI videos and hands-on science you can try with your family at home.
The Cornell Lab - (Grades K-12) Citizen Science Projects created by Cornell University provide opportunities for students to gather data to help scientists understand bird populations across the globe.
Smithsonian - (Grades K-12) The Smithsonian provides access to resources for various subjects. It also contains a specific set of resources for distance learning.
NASA - (Grades K-12) This site focuses on STEM engagement lesson plans, interactive activities and resources.
National Geographic - (Grades K-12) National Geographic has curated collections of activities for students of all ages using minimal supplies and includes engaging, fun and skill-building lessons in social studies, geography, science and more.
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Social Studies
Social studies include four main strands: history, geography, civics and economics. These strands are found in the K-8 social studies standards. High school courses focus more intently on each of these strands. Instructional resources have been provided to support each strand.
History
Big History - (Grades 6-12) This is an online social studies course that emphasizes skills development and making connections across disciplines.
Ohio History Connection - (Grades K-12) Sign up with Ohio History Center to receive their Resource Roundup - a monthly collection of new classroom activities, lesson plans, new program offerings, and educational opportunities for you and your students.
Geography
National Geographic Society's Education Portal - (Grades K-12) This resource provides lessons for educators to share with students about different geography concepts in kindergarten through high school.
Ted Talks about Geography - (Grades 9-12) This site features Ted Talks from people whose professions deal with topics related to geography. No lessons or educator resources included.
Ted Talks for Education: Geography - (Grades K-12) This site features animated Ted Talks specifically for education that have lessons and material to accompany the video.
Economics
History in Your Pocket (H.I.P) - (Grades K-5) The United States Mint provides activities and games that include an overview of what money is, how it's used and how it's printed.
Federal Reserve Bank at St. Louis - (Grades K-3) This site provides introductory lessons about money and economic topics designed specifically for young learners.
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STEM
STEM resources were identified by their focus on the STEM discipline subjects, ability to support interdisciplinary learning, create connections to STEM careers and support STEM practices such as design-cycle thinking and problem-based learning.
Discovery Education Virtual Field Trips - (Grades K-12) Discovery Education has virtual fields where students can explore corners of the world without an airplane. Virtual field trips include the Black and Decker MakerSpace, a trip to the tundra and a nuclear power plant to name a few.
Discover Engineering - (Grades K-12) Discover Engineering has provided a database of activities ranging from games to lesson plans.
Simple STEM Activities at Home - (Grades K-6) Separated into the STEM disciplines, Rasmussen College has provided parents engaging STEM discipline activities that can be done at home.
STEM Teaching Kit for Parents - (Grades PreK) Boston Children's Museum has created a comprehensive document to help parents engage their students in the STEM disciplines. This resource provides activities, explanations of the content areas, questions to ask your child and other resources.
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World Languages and Cultures
FL Teach - Foreign Language Teaching Forum - (Novice, Intermediate, Advanced) Chinese, ESL, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish. Access language websites, news, tv, radio, lessons, etc. It is organized by topics and then by language.
Mary Glasgow Plus - (Novice, Intermediate, Advanced) French, German, Spanish, ESL. Access online news articles from Scholastic Magazine. First choose your teacher language. Then, click the NEWS/ACTUALITES/NOTICIAS link at the top of the page. Each current event article is written and recorded for three (or four) different levels of learners. Scroll to the bottom of the page to access the recording and the different levels of the article. Twelve months of free articles and recordings are in the archives.
News in Slow - Language Learning through Current Events - (Novice, Intermediate, Advanced) French, German, Italian, Spanish (Spain and Latin America). Access news videos, courses with language lessons and a video series. All videos are played at a slightly slower pace. Videos are labeled for different levels of learners.
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Career Exploration and Planning
Bureau of Labor Statistics - (Grades K-12) This site provides students with resources to learn about careers linked to their interests.
Career Connections Teacher Resources - (Grades K-12) This site provides educators with lesson plans and videos for career awareness, exploration and planning.
Create Career Opportunities for Career Exploration - (Grades K-12) INFOhio brings together a variety of high-quality career exploration resources in one place.
Grades K-5
Grades 6-8
Grades 9-12
USA.gov Government Careers Videos - (Grades 9-12) This site provides a video database for students to explore various careers in government.
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English Learners
Bitsboard - (Grades K-5) This site provides educators with flashcards and games with visuals for various contents.
Coronavirus Resource Center - A hub where educators, parents and students will find the latest information, free resources for virtual learning and opportunities to connect online.
EL Education - (Grades K-8) Resources to support remote learning for students during the COVID-19 pandemic. These materials can be used in conjunction with the EL Education curriculum. Additional resources from EL Education:
Khan Academy - (Grades K-12) This is an online database of lessons and practice exercises, including programs for English learners.
Headsprout - (Grades PreK-2) This site provides a reading program geared toward teaching English sounds using well-sequenced curriculum.
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Social-Emotional Learning
Five Social-Emotional Learning Games to Play with Your Children - (Grades K-3) This article offers games parents can play with their children to teach social and emotional skills at home.
Eight Fun Activities to Practice Social Skills with Your Child - (Grades K-8) This site explains eight activities parents can do with children to teach social-emotional skills.
Building social and emotional skills at home - (Grades K-3) This is a resource to assist with building social and emotional skills at home.
Centervention - (Grades K-8) - This website offers free worksheets, games and activities that help build students’ social-emotional skills.
Harmony at Home - This free online toolkit for educators, families and caregivers teaches vital social-emotional learning skills. With the rapid changes brought on by COVID19, educators, families and students need opportunities to connect and practice social-emotional strategies.
How to Talk to Your Kids About Coronavirus - (Early Childhood) This article offers suggestions for how parents can explain the coronavirus and outcomes to their children.
How to Talk to Your Kids About COVID-19 - This article from Nationwide Children’s Hospital offers suggestions for how parents can explain the coronavirus and related news to their children.
Reading Tips for Families - (Grades PreK-3) This website offers resources, informational videos, games and skills to boost a child's language and social-emotional development.
SEL 101 for Parents - This is an informational video to inform parents about social-emotional learning in schools and provide them with insights into their own parenting practices to support their children’s social and emotional development.
Steps to Help Ease Kids’ Fears and Anxieties About COVID-19 - This article from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital offers suggestions for how parents can ease their children’s fears about the coronavirus.
Talking to Children About COVID-19 (Coronavirus): A Parent Resource - This article offers suggestions for how parents can talk with their children about coronavirus.
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Early Childhood
CATCH.org - (Grades PreK-12) This site includes heath, nutrition and physical education resources for families, including activities and materials for things to do at home.
Day by Day Ohio - This is a resource of activities for families to do every day of the year to support literacy with their young children.
INFOhio Early Learning Portal - (Grades PreK) The INFOhio Early Learning Portal is for parents and educators of children ages 3-5. To prepare Ohio’s early learners for school and their futures, INFOhio encourages adults to use the digital resources with children, providing guidance and support.
Ohio Imagination Library - (Early Childhood – Grade 3) Families sign up children from birth to age 5 to receive a new book each month in the mail.
Reading Tips for Families - This site provides reading definitions, activities and resources that engage and educate families, while meeting requirements for disability accessibility and accessibility for non-English speakers.
Scholastic - (Grades PreK-12) Scholastic is providing 20 days of learning projects for children to do independently or with family members.
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Gifted Education
National Association for Gifted Children: Resources for Educators & Parents During COVID-19 - This site offers information provided by the National Association for Gifted Children, including best practices in online learning and a list of free resources for educators, families and students in grades K-12.
The Ohio Association for Gifted Children - This is a list of K-12 resources for gifted intervention specialists and parents curated by the Ohio Association for Gifted Children.
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General Resources to Support Online Learning for Parents
The resources listed in this section provide parents and caregivers options for connecting students with additional resources to enhance and support instruction.
- Four Ways BrainPOP Supports Distance Learning - BrainPop is providing free access and guidance on using its materials for distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Cincinnati Museum Center’s Learning at Home – This initiative helps keep minds sharp, people connected and curiosity stoked – particularly for caregivers home-schooling their children and older adults seeking social interaction. New content is available on demand and released daily at cincymuseum.org, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Join the Cincinnati Museum Center for at-home science, art and history activities, virtual chats and interviews with curators and other experts, as well as virtual story times and more.
- INFOhio - INFOhio provides instructional resources for parents to use with their children that are aligned to Ohio’s Learning Standards and sorted by grade level.
- PBS Kids - (Ages 3-8) Find free educational games, videos, hands-on activities and more from your favorite PBS KIDS programs.
- PBS Apps and Games - (Ages 3-8) Find educational apps from your favorite PBS KIDS programs.
- PBS KIDS for Parents - (Ages 2-8) PBS KIDS for Parents offers information, activities and tips for parents, including this resource on “How to talk to your kids about coronavirus.”
- PBS LearningMedia - PBS LearningMedia is a free service that offers thousands of contextualized learning materials aligned to state and national standards.
- Scholastic Learn at Home - This free resource provides children with 20 days of exciting articles and stories, videos and fun learning challenges. Children can complete them anytime, in any order. They can work on their own or with their families.
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Ohio's Resource Guide to Support Families During School-Building Closure
As parents, family members or caregivers, supporting children during Ohio's ordered school-building closure brings new opportunities as well as unique challenges. Schools are adjusting to students learning at home — also known as remote learning. Now, more than ever, communication, supporting learning at home and connecting with the community are important for students and families.
The Ohio Department of Education recognizes the increased role parents, families and caregivers now play in students' education, and this can be a significant task as families balance multiple changes and challenges, along with their children's educational needs and progress. Between helping students with remote learning, working from home and taking care of other daily needs, parents, families and caregivers are juggling a lot. Parents and caregivers should continue to find ways to manage stress and make self-care part of their daily routines during this time.
Below are tips and resources to support learning, while making sure students stay safe and engaged.
Communicate with students’ teachers and schools.
- Local school districts are communicating in many ways to reach all families. Parents and caregivers can make lists of the ways to stay in touch with their students’ schools and teachers, whether by email, phone, app, newsletter or other means. They also should make sure their students’ schools have their current contact information.
- Understand how to best reach students’ teachers during Ohio’s ordered school-building closure. Parents and caregivers should create partnerships with their children’s teachers. Find out if teachers, including intervention specialists, are holding regular check-ins for students and their parents.
- Seek out important information. Parents and caregivers who have questions or need more information should reach out to their children’s teachers, principals, counselors or other school staff. They also should know and understand the district’s grading policy, as well as graduation, promotion and retention policies during Ohio’s ordered school-building closure. For more frequently asked questions, visit the Ohio Department of Education’s COVID-19 webpage.
- Know the options and ask about resources. If students are having difficulty completing assignments because they do not have access to the internet or computers, parents and caregivers should communicate with the students’ schools and teachers. A list of free or reduced-priced internet service providers is available here (pages 9-10).
- Connect with the school district on social media. Many school districts use Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter to get information out to families. Parents and caregivers should follow their local school districts’ accounts for up-to-date information.
- Ask for support. Some families and students may have specific needs during the ordered school-building closure. If a parent or caregiver is having difficulty understanding or communicating in English, he or she should request that the school provide interpretation or translation services. Parents and caregivers of students with individualized education programs (IEPs) or Section 504 plans should ensure there are open lines of communication with their students’ schools and intervention specialists about how to best assist with remote learning.
Support learning at home.
Create consistency for children while at home.
- Set at-home behavior expectations. Parents and caregivers who are familiar with the behavior expectations at their children’s schools should review these expectations with their children. What does each expectation mean? What do these expectations look like at home? Here is an example of a school district’s expectations.
- Create a positive behavior chart. Parents and caregivers can create behavior charts to show children the behavior expectations at home. Include “school time” as one of the columns in the behavior chart. Use Encouraging Positive Behaviors At Home – A Chart for Families as an example.
- Use positive praise. Praise children when they show appropriate behaviors. This includes efforts to work hard at following set directions.
- Create a routine. Parents and caregivers can make a daily schedule, and try to stick to it, so both parents and children know what to expect. Craft a calendar or checklist together to make it visual! Parents and caregivers should include time for themselves. When scheduling work time, have a plan for how to keep children occupied during that time.
- Stay energized! Establish regular breaks for movement and play. Get outside when possible. Have family talks that are not always focused on school. Engage in some fun conversations about topics of interest to both parents and children. Visit websites like GoNoodle for fun, active and engaging “brain breaks.”
- Take notice of students’ behavior. This time may be stressful for both children and families. If a child is showing signs of stress or anxiety, connect the child with supports to help him or her cope with fears. Visit this resource for more information on supporting children’s social, emotional and behavioral health. If a student is having trouble with schoolwork, feeling sad or scared about being away from friends and teachers, contact the student’s school and teacher for support.
- Anticipate challenges. To help anticipate challenges, look for triggers such as the time of day or a subject the student may find difficult and choose activities where he or she will experience success. Find more information on supporting children through challenges from Positive Behavior Supports: A Resource Collection.
Engage in students’ remote learning.
- Know the district’s approach to learning during ordered the school-building closure. Local schools across Ohio are being innovative as they support remote learning — every district is unique. Some schools are providing paper and pencil assignments to be picked up at common locations. Some teachers are using online methods to teach. Parents and caregivers of students with individualized education programs (IEP) or 504 plans should communicate with their children’s intervention specialists and discuss the teaching approaches and learning interventions their schools are using that can be done at home. Visit the Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities website for family information regarding COVID –19.
- Ask students about their schedules. Many teachers are holding online classes. Parents and caregivers can help their students by knowing the times these are happening and the apps or websites being used. If the school is not providing online lessons, know where to pick up or access schoolwork.
- Help children stay on track. Parents should know how their children’s schoolwork is being turned in so their children can complete it and receive credit. Parents can create calendars of due dates to help their children plan ahead.
- Be creative. Learning can happen anywhere. During unstructured times of a family’s day, like meals, outdoor activity and play time, find opportunities to build in age-appropriate information and conversation. Visit the Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center’s website for more ideas.
- Additional Resources. The Ohio Department of Education published a Remote Learning Resource Guide to connect families and educators with learning resources organized by subject area and grade level.
- Ask for help. If parents and caregivers are having trouble supporting their children’s learning, they should ask their students’ schools or teachers for help. Community organizations also are good sources of help. Connecting with other families over the phone or remotely also can be a positive way to get support. If possible, parents may need to talk with their employers about any flexibility they may allow while they are working from home and supporting their children with remote learning.
Connect with the community.
To best support learning at home, the Ohio Department of Education wants to ensure each child and every family has access to the resources and services they need to be healthy and safe.
- Food Services. Free school meals still are being served across the state during the school-building closure. To find the nearest school meal site, visit this map.
- Local Health Departments. Local health departments protect and improve the health of communities by preventing and controlling the spread of disease and injury, as well as preparing for and responding to emergencies. Ohio has 113 public health departments that can assist families during COVID-19. To find a local health department, click here.
- Local Libraries. Ohio’s State Library System has many at-home learning resources on its webpage. To find the nearest library, click here and discover online access to books, videos, music and other supports.
- Housing Support. Parents and children experiencing housing instability during this time can visit the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio for more information and support.
- Community organizations, businesses and faith-based services. ;Ohio is in this together. To stop the spread of COVID-19 and ensure the safety of& families and children, many local businesses and organizations are providing resources, services and necessary items. Connect with friends, neighbors and the local school to help identify these places in the community.
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Last Modified: 3/16/2022 8:06:05 AM