This is a fabulous list of resources and ideas to inspire and keep you and your family active and entertained while social distancing.
Ideas include free online yoga classes, language learning resources, starting a virtual book club, hosting a virtual hangout or wine tasting with friends, making a family scrapbook or newsletter and SO much more.
Browse inspirational ideas and links to free online resources
Kids Science / Engineering Projects
“Did you know that electricity and magnetism are closely linked? In this project, experiment with the interplay between the two by building your own miniature electromagnetic train that zips down a track all by itself. Be sure to check out the video instructions for an explanation of how it works!”
Ages 9-16
“Explore the power of the wind with this colorful pinwheel craft!
Pinwheels resemble wind turbines, or machines that change the energy in wind into mechanical or electrical energy. A wind turbine, like a pinwheel, has a rotor with blades that is connected to a base. When wind hits the blades, the rotor and the base turn as well. As the base turns, it is able to produce either mechanical or electrical energy. The more wind that hits the blades, the more the rotor can turn, and the more energy the wind turbine produces!
Wind power is a great topic to explore with kids during warm summer days, and can easily be demonstrated with this simple craft. These pinwheels come together fast and spin in the wind even faster! We used recycled tin cans, added 3 coats of spray paint and turned them into the perfect planters for our flowers and a way to display our pinwheels!”
“Make your own mini-sized and portable foosball game with easily found materials. Create a whole set of players to complete your team! Once you are ready to go, grab a friend and start the fun!”
Ages 9-16
“If you’ve ever been near a maple tree in the late summer or early fall, you’ve probably watched their seeds twirl down from high branches and fall near the base of the tree. These seeds are a natural example of how helicopters work by creating lift!”
Ages 5-11
“For a long, long time, people thought that the Sun and all of the other planets revolved around the Earth. This was called the geocentric, or Earth-centered, model of the solar system. Of course, now we know that the Sun is the center of the solar system, not the Earth - the solar system is actually heliocentric, or Sun-centered.”
Ages 9-16
“Your kids will enjoy themselves with the prospect of eating marshmallows while improving their spatial, creative, and geometric skills. Creating these sculptures is an easy activity that allows the kids to learn and have fun!'
Ages 3-8
“My son is fascinated by robotics and AI. While looking into easy projects around the topic, we found this super simple way of mimicking the joints of a finger with a plastic drinking straw! He was immediately intrigued by the project and loved playing with the curling straw. He took this simple mechanism and continued to expand on it to see what other contraptions he could build!”
Ages 3-11
“Make your workspace both more tidy and more fun with this Toy Story 4 Ferris Wheel Desk Organizer! With simple materials, build a Ferris wheel, perfectly sized for tabletop organization. Fill it with small school supplies, and after schoolwork is done, take Woody, Buzz, Forky, and Bo Peep for a spin! Join your friends on an amazing adventure and see the original Ferris wheel in action!”
Ages 9-16
“A pendulum is a hanging weight that swings back and forth, like the swinging arm on a grandfather clock or a swing on a playground. When you pull a swing - or any pendulum - up to one side, gravity tugs it back down. But since the swing is attached by a rope or chain, it doesn’t just drop to the ground. Instead, it swings back and forth, over and over.”
Ages 9-16
“Take your paper airplanes to new heights by making a motorized launcher for them.”
Ages 9-16
“Breathe in. Breathe out. Do you feel your chest expand and shrink when you breathe? That change in size is how you get air into your lungs! It all has to do with the physics of air pressure, which you’ll investigate in this project.”
Ages 7-16
“Can you complete an LED circuit using a graphite pencil? Learn about the conductive properties of graphite and draw your own design to see it light up! This is a super quick and easy science experiment that is entertaining for both kids and adults alike.”
Ages 9-16
"There are lots of muscles that help to move your arm in all the many ways it can move. The bicep and tricep muscles are two of the most noticeable, partly because of how big they get on some bodybuilders. These paired muscles flex and extend the elbow joint, allowing you to bring a fork to your mouth or throw a frisbee. When one flexes, the other relaxes.”
Ages 9-16
“Water squirters work by pressurizing reservoirs of water with air. As you pump the squirter, it gradually adds air to the reservoir, increasing the pressure. When you pull the trigger, the pressure is allowed to release and a stream of water shoots out!”
Ages 9-16
“We’re surrounded by waves! Sound and light travel as waves to our ears and eyes. Ocean waves crash onto the beach. Radio waves broadcast music to our cars. We even use waves to cook our food - in microwaves! Try making this wave machine to see how all different kinds of waves move!”
Ages 5-16
“Cold, lazy days are a perfect time to turn simple household objects into motor-powered toys. Here's a fun project that recycles bottle caps into little robots that dance and scoot in all kinds of surprising ways!”
Ages 5-16
“You don't need high-tech gadgets to make your own hovercraft! This balloon-powered toy is easy to make with household materials and is a ton of fun to send zooming around! We had so much fun passing the hovercraft across a long table. A light push sends it gliding along in a straight path. And, the balloon had enough air in it for a few pushes, which means you can involve a few friends. Keep blowing the balloon up for more and more fun!”
Ages 5-16
“Have you ever ridden a bicycle down a hill and felt the wind on your face? Air is all around you. To move through it, you have to push it out of the way. That means it's pushing back on you, too. That push is called air resistance. Imagine a parachutist jumping out of an airplane and falling to the ground. The opened parachute would use air resistance to slow down its descent. In this experiment, we create a parachute toy using a Ziploc® brand sandwich bag to learn about air resistance and see it in action.”
Ages 9-16
“Did you know that you can create a rainbow with clear nail polish? Try this quick experiment using clear nail polish and black paper to make a swirling mix of colors.”
Ages 9-16
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