While many of us may be stuck inside, that doesn’t mean our minds can’t travel or expand. And while some of us are finding the social distancing beneficial for our productivity, others  — especially families with kids now home from school — might need a little more structure (or educational silliness) in their day. We’ve put together a list of learning opportunities online for kids of all ages. 

Free courses and classes

• Here’s a full list of education companies putting out free subscriptions due to school closures.
• Scholastic is releasing free daily courses for students at home. 
• For any parents whose kids participate in Accelerated Reading (AR) or are just looking for collections of free books for kids to read online, teachers and librarians can set up free accounts for their students/readers with Epic. 
• Skype a Scientist connects classrooms of all ages with scientists and researchers for awesome science Q&A. Since lots of classrooms are closed, they’ve opened it up to families as well. Science pros from a wide variety of areas and backgrounds volunteer their time to answer kids’ burning questions about their work, science, and the world in general.
• DuoLingo — now there’s no excuse to ignore the daily notifications from the app. Get started learning a new language. Practice during Zoom get-togethers!
• PBS LearningMedia has a whole catalogue of lessons available in a variety of subjects. Their math curriculum consists of interactive games and animations to help bring complicated concepts to life.

Read a book… or several

• Rivet is a reading app with 3,500+ free, leveled books for kids.
• The library can go digital! Many libraries have access to NatGeo Kids subscriptions and InfoBits Kids, and you can rent digital copies of books through apps like Libby.
• You can now download over 300,000 books from the New York Public Library for free. 

Screen time

• For grown-ups and teens (depending on the movie rating) this Twitter account features a (somewhat) daily poll on what movie to watch on streaming services. Users vote and are encouraged to watch the winning movie all at the same time. Hey, not everything has to be educational. Sometimes things can just be fun. 
• For kids and adults of all ages who want to feed their mind, CuriosityStream is a documentary and non-fiction TV streaming service that in some cases is available  for free as part of your cable or internet subscription service. 

Art and creativity

• Mo Willems is doing a daily drawing lesson through the Kennedy Center.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a MetKids page to keep young minds entertained.
• A bunch of people on Instagram are doing story reading and drawing lessons: @Wendymac, @carsonellis, @macbarnett, and @oliverjeffers. And @turshen is doing a writing class for kids.
• Musicians around the world are live streaming concerts for fans. Here is a running list.
• As more schools close, here are some fun projects for kids and parents to make at home.
• Many of the world’s most famous museums offer virtual tours online. Travel + Leisure has them all collected in one spot.

Salesforce Trailhead

(You know we had to.)

• For students of any age, now is a great time to start your Salesforce journey. Salesforce Student Programs help students and career changers learn in-demand job skills and connect to opportunities — from mentorship to employment. 
• For the little ones in your family, try out this Trailmix for kids and get ‘em started young!

Of course, once you and your family are all Salesforce masters well versed in the arts and sciences, feel free to apply at Silverline. We’re hiring.