Ideas for When Housebound - Covid-19 | The Ehlers Danlos Society : The Ehlers Danlos Society

Updated: May 27, 2020

Whether you or members of your family are restricted to home due to health or government quarantines, you will no doubt be looking for activities that you and your family can do together.

In the following pages you will find some ideas that staff at The Ehlers-Danlos Society have put together for all ages with emphasis on Kids and Teens. These include:

Online Activities

The following types of activities may be of interest to you and your family. If you find other examples, share them with your community. Enjoy!

Museum and Other Tours

Enjoy virtual tours of twelve museums.
No need to travel to one of the Smithsonian’s zoos or museums — this website brings everything from live video of the National Zoo to the Smithsonian Learning Lab right to your screen.
This Virtual Tour of the Great Wall of China is beautiful and makes history come to life.
This iconic museum located in the heart of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies.
Travel online to Paris, France to see amazing works of art at The Louvre with this virtual field trip.
Take a live look at Colonial Williamsburg.
Tour England through this 360 video.
Go on a virtual field trip to Ellis Island.

Livestream Performances

The Metropolitan Opera will livestream performances each evening at 7:00pm EDT.

University Courses

450 free university courses from 8 different ivy league schools.

Wildlife and Nature

Tour Yellowstone National Park.
Alaskan Wildlife cams.
This educational website hosted by the Smithsonian Museum takes a deep dive into ocean life.
This Canadian site FarmFood 360 offers 11 Virtual Tours of farms from minks, pigs, and cows, to apples and eggs.
The San Diego Zoo has a website just for kids with amazing videos, activities, and games. Enjoy the tour!
Play games and learn all about animals.
Zoo Atlanta Panda Cam.
Smithsonian’s National Zoo.
Reid Park Zoo Lion Cam in Tuscon, AZ.
Ouwehand Park Polar Bear Cubs Rhenen, Netherlands.
Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Georgia Aquarium.
National Aquarium Virtual Tour.
Virtual Tour of the Seattle Aquarium.

Here is a list of activities that may be of interest to younger children. If you find other examples, share them with your community. Check out the Kitchen Fun, Arts and Crafts, and other activities listed in “Activities To Do From Home” Have fun!

Use all of building toys to create one giant structure
Facetime grandparents a lot, as well as other relatives, friends, and neighbors
Write letters and draw pictures to mail to family, friends, and local senior centers/nursing homes
Card games
Family puzzles
Team up and really clean and organize each kid’s space, making a donation box for each (Parents included!)
Have a massive board game tournament with all the board games you own
Kids can also make their own games! Board games, card games, you name it!
Draw maps of places in the house or yard and then make directions from one place to another to see if someone else could follow them.
Create scavenger hunts, indoor treasure hunts with written or picture clues through the house to a “treasure” at the end (could be candy, a movie,a fun snack, etc.),
Have a glow stick party
Have a popcorn and movie marathon
Listen to podcasts and audiobooks
Have an Olympics with a bunch of event competitions – funny ones like egg tosses, helpful ones like cleaning a room or a car, and fun ones like minute to win games
Design a new spacecraft, draw plans, then create out of Legos or household items
Pretend you’re on different planets with different gravity
Have a shadow show in a tent made from blankets over chairs or a table.
Puzzle races: put several puzzles (20+ piece puzzles) in a paper bag and shake it up. Pour pieces out and give each person the puzzle box they are to put together. Go! (Cooperation tends to be a result as pieces are traded.)
Play with favorite show characters and learn too
Do that thing you’ve been putting off for years, but want to try
Learn how to make maps and cartograph your neighborhood
Learn how to do magic tricks, such as making a coin disappear or knowing which card a person picks
Your child can play games, learn fun facts, and find out how to turn coin collecting into a hobby
Miscellaneous games for all subjects k-8
News and more for kids
Indoor Activities for busy toddlers

Arts and Crafts

Here is a list of activities that may be of interest. If you find other examples, share them with your community. Check out the Kitchen Fun, and other activities listed in “Activities To Do From Home” Happy Creating!

Create stop motion animation with playdough
Sew, using stuff we have on hand, pillows, stuffed animals, clothing, or heating pods
Create card and scrapbooking projects
Collect tape, markers, and cardboard boxes. Use these materials to create anything
Beading
Painting
Drawing
Create self portraits using crayons, pencils, paint, or pasta
Crafts, activities, mazes, dot to dot, etc
A wonderful, endlessly detailed way to get kids engaged in the world of art
Crafts, projects, science, recipes for young children
Crafts, activities, bulletin board designs, and finger plays for early education teachers and parents to use with kids
Kids Think Design explores careers in fashion design, graphic design, interior design, book design, product design, film and theatre, architecture, animation, and environmental design
Online photograph jigsaw puzzles. You can set the pieces from 6-1000+
Online digital coloring pages
Helps kids learn to appreciate the arts by providing them with the opportunity to play games, conduct investigations, and explore different forms of art
A wonderful, endlessly detailed way to get kids engaged in the world of art with “the MET“
NGAkids interactives offer an entertaining and informative introduction to art and art history
Quick & easy at home projects curated for kids 2 and up
Fun games, recipes, crafts, activities
Try these three downloadable coloring books provided by Romero Britto in three different languages: Book 1, Book 2, Book 3

Kitchen Fun

We must look after food stocks but baking bread and cakes etc., can be fun and a great skill to have – have fun with the kids making things. Check out the Arts and Crafts, and other activities listed in “Activities To Do From Home” Happy Cooking!

Cook or bake something you wouldn’t normally have time for or you always wanted to try
There are a few easy “kitchen chemistry” type science experiments that are easy to do, like making slime, baking soda and vinegar reactions, etc.
Put food coloring and then baking soda in a mini muffin pan and drop vinegar in. You can then see the colors!
Experiment to learn what each ingredient does for a cake. Make a cake following the recipe. Make a cake without eggs. Make a cake without milk. Make a cake without vegetable oil. Make a cake without baking powder. Compare and contrast the different cakes. Determine what each ingredient does.
Dig through cabinets and figure out recipes for that thing you got at the grocery store and thought “this is interesting surely it can be used for something!” And then make it!
Illustrated recipes designed to help kids age 2-12 cook with their grown-ups. Recipes encourage culinary skills, literacy, math, and science
Daily free science or cooking experiment to do at home

Physical Activity

We all have our different levels of ability. Don’t over-work your physical activity, but also don’t stop activity that you can do from home. Here is a list of activities that may be of interest. Check out the Kitchen Fun, and other activities listed in “Activities To Do From Home” Happy Moving!

Free at-home kids yoga lesson plans
At home OT, PT, and ST resources designed to build skills in children through movement and play
Kid-friendly workouts — choose from Strength for Kids, Agility for Kids, Flexibility and Balance for Kids, Warm-Up for Kids, Cooldown for Kids, Stand Up and Move for Kids, OR create your own custom kid workout
Educational brain breaks to help students review essential literacy and math skills, while getting in some exercise. Find over 900 videos to help your child keep learning at home and burn off some extra energy. Best for ages 4-8
Movement and mindfulness videos created by child development experts
Guided movement, relaxation exercises, and deep breathing exercises
Zumba or Dance-along videos on YouTube
Hypermobility Movement Therapist, Jeannie Di Bon, has decided to gift her online hypermobility movement program for the next 3 months. The program will now be free of charge to help keep our community moving, pain-free.

Outdoors

Use sidewalk chalk to draw wonderful pictures outside
Go for a walk – if you can and are allowed
Have the kids / family do races of various kinds in the backyard (hopping on one foot, crabwalk, walking backwards, etc.)
Inventory the plants & wildlife (from bugs on up) in your yard / garden / park
Learn the parts of plants/flowers & how they function (bonus if they learn the Latin names)
Have the family help with yardwork, tidying the garden ready for the next season
Guide to gardening for kids

Education for All Ages

Age Group Specific Ideas

Toddler and preschool age ideas
Every course you could possibly want to homeschool preschool
Free printables library with activities for children 0-6
Free Printables for PreK-2nd Grade
Carmen Sandiego videos, stories, and lessons for all subject areas
PreK – 5 games for all subjects
Curricular content hub specifically designed for K-3 students
Education for kids all topics
Tons of games. Some for learning and some just fun
100 free online educational program ideas
Every course you could possibly want to homeschool for high school
New learning activities each day for grades K-9th grade
7,000 free videos in 13 subject areas
Cool Kid Facts gives your child access to educational videos, pictures, quizzes, downloadable worksheets, and infographics. They can use these to learn about geography, history, science, animals, and even the human body
Online homeschool platform & curriculum for Pre-K to 12th grade. All main subjects are covered, plus extra curriculum courses
Life skills curriculum for students in grades K-12. Their resources include strategies for teaching social and emotional skills
Resource section includes free flashcards, coloring pages, worksheets, and other resources for children, teachers, and parents
For students to practice and master whatever they are learning
Free videos from around the world from grade 3-12
PreK-12 digital media service with more than 30,000 learning materials
Daily lessons and educational activities that kids can do on their own
Online education program for toddler through high school
Entertaining & educational videos for all levels and subjects
Day-by-day projects to keep kids reading, thinking, and growing
Science, Math, Social Studies
Education companies offering free subscriptions while schools are closed

Math Exercises

Math games galore
Math Games, Logic Puzzles and Brain Builders
Math as a fun part of your daily family routine
Elementary math through 6th grade
K-8 online math program that looks at how a student is solving problems to adjust accordingly and build a unique learning path for them
Elem math games, logic puzzles and educational resources
Math practice from counting to algebra and geometry
A wide range of math content from middle school through AP Calculus
Math practice
Algebra games for kids
Math and logic problems for ages 5 and up to adult
Adaptive curriculum in Math and Language Arts for Grades K-8
Fractions practice
Enter your math problem or search term, press the button, and they show you the step-by-step work and answer instantly. 2nd grade through college
Website allows students to play basic games to reinforce math skills and compete against the computer or others
Geometry
Math Videos with lessons, real life uses of math, and famous actors
Higher level math series… online video series with detailed solutions to more than a thousand publicly-released College Board SAT Math, Subject Test Math Level 1, and Subject Test Math Level 2 problems
Short videos about numbers that help kids explore complex math topics and make math more fun
K-5 curriculum that builds deep understanding and a love of learning math for all students
Educational brain breaks to help students review essential literacy and math skills, while getting in some exercise. Find over 900 videos to help your child keep learning at home and burn off some extra energy. Best for ages 4-8
Banzai exposes students to real-world financial dilemmas to teach them the importance of smart money management
Scads of free resources, games, learning resources, and lesson plans for teaching personal finance

Science

Science and math labs and simulations
Science podcasts to listen to with your kids
K-5th Science lessons
Amphibian unit studies
Learn all about cells
Tons of science experiments that you can do at home
Learn all about the periodic table
High school chemistry topics
Chemistry
Learn all about earthquakes
Just explore, have fun, and learn some science along the way
Science simulations, scientist profiles, and other digital resources for middle school science and high school biology
Farmer’s almanac for kids… Date, weather, moon phase, etc
An online physics problem and video bank designed for conceptual, standard, honors or AP1 physics
Science projects that can be completed with or without Internet access
A collection of hundreds of free K-12 STEM resources, from standalone models and simulations to short activities and week long sequences of curriculum materials
Innerbody explores the 11 bodily systems in depth. With interactive models and detailed explanations, this website will help them learn more about the internal mechanics of the amazing human body
Biology
A human visualization platform that allows students to explore the human body in really cool ways
80+ do at home science activities
Next Generation Science video game focused on middle school where students directly engage in science phenomena as they solve problems
From rainbows to tornadoes and winter storms to tsunamis, meteorologist Crystal Wicker breaks down the fascinating world of weather
Engineering challenges with things you have at home
Ask Dr. Universe is a science-education project from Washington State University. Kids can send Dr. Universe any question they may have about history, geography, plants, animals, technology, engineering, math, culture, and more
Hands on Elem science videos
Space science for kids
Interactive video earth science based curriculum supplement
Explore the surface of Mars on the Curiosity Rover
This NASA initiative covers a wide range of topics including weather, climate, atmosphere, water, energy, plants, and animals
Do a study on planets, then have the kids create their own planets- how big is it, where in the universe is it located, atmosphere conditions, can it sustain life, how long is a day/year, name it, etc. Spread the “planets” (pillows or balls) out around the house to show approximate distance from each other. But that’s not limited to space- these ideas would work for animals, geography, body systems, historical events/time periods, etc. Beyond that, do some fun physics experiments like making a bridge out of straws, egg drop protectors, paper airplanes, etc.
Learn about the birds near your house, look them up on google and search for their bird calls on YouTube

Reading and Writing

Have each kid pick a topic they’d like to learn about and spend 30 mins each day on that topic
Spend one day reading every single picture book you have in the house
Have each kid write a letter and/or emails to a different friend or family member each day
Create a folding picture story. One person draws a small picture across the top of a paper. The next person writes a sentence that describes that picture and folds over the paper to cover the picture. The 3rd person only sees a sentence and they have to draw a picture. They fold over the sentence. Continue until the paper is completely covered or when each person has had a turn. Unfold the paper and see your picture story.
Write a short story and illustrate it
Learn how to do simple book binding and bind a book of short stories or poems you write and illustrate
Write a story cooperatively. One person picks a character and the other picks a setting or one person starts the story and the other writes what comes next
Math and reading games
Phonics skills
Read, play games, and hang out with Dr. Seuss
300,000+ FREE printable worksheets from toddlers to teens
Math and reading games
Math and language games
Games to get “into the book“
Favorite kids’ books read by famous people
Spelling 1-4 grade
Phonics and learning to read
Phonics worksheets for kids
Free stories online ages 3-12
Course sets (Levels 1–5) that combine phonics, reading, writing, spelling, literature, grammar, punctuation, art, and geography—all in one easy-to-use course
Critical Thinking resources for K-6 students
The Shurley English program for grades K-8 provides a clear, logical, and concrete approach to language arts
Engaging reading games for grades 2-8 that combines strategy, engagement, and imaginative reading passages to create a fun, curriculum-aligned literacy game
Free printable K-8 Reading and Math activity packs (available in English and Spanish)
Grammar practice for middle grades
Reading passages for grades 3-12, with reading comprehension and discussion questions
Printable board games, activities and more for phonics and reading all using evidence-based methods. Can be customized to any student’s needs including creating flashcards for other subjects
Poetry and music
Novel Effect makes storytime a little more fun for kids (and grown-ups too) As you read out loud from print books (or ebooks) music, sound effects, and character voices play at just the right moment, adjusting and responding to your voice
Online curriculum that builds better writers
Teaches students how to write a paragraph through interactive online tutorial
ReadWorks is an online resource of reading passages and lesson plans for students of all levels K-12
Sight reading and sight singing practice exercises
Spellingcity is free right now with code VSCFree90
Interactive games based on the book series
Work on the 8 parts of speech
Magic Spell is a carefully crafted spelling adventure
Randomly generates 356,300,262,144 story starters
Short videos and readings that answer various burning questions for students.
- There are vocabulary challenges and comprehension questions
- Keyboarding practice
Improve your typing skills while competing in fast-paced races with up to 5 typers from around the world
Create a reading tent from blankets over chairs or a table and read books inside
A safe research site for elementary-level readers. They are offering — free 24/7 access
- USERNAME: read (case sensitive)
- PASSWORD: read (case sensitive)

Adaptive curriculum in Math and Language Arts for Grades K-8

History

Allows students to type in any city, state, or country to view an archive of historical photographs and other documents. It’s a unique way to help them learn about history:
An interactive way to learn history
Games, quizzes and fact sheets take kids on a journey through time
This interactive website, hosted by the U.S. Government Publishing Office, allows your child to see the ins and outs of the U.S. government by taking a series of learning adventures with none other than Benjamin Franklin
Online history classes for all ages preteen through adults
35,000 pages of online content on the cultures and countries of the world
Digital archive of history

Geography

National Geographic Young Explorers is a magazine designed specifically for kindergarten and first grade students. Children can listen to the magazine being read to them as they follow along with the highlighted text
Tests kids’ geography skills. Using images from Google’s Street View, it plops players down in the middle of the street and asks them to figure out where they are
All sorts of learning here if you dig into Google Earth
Geography and animals

Computer Science

Coding for ages 4-10
Coding with Star Wars
Scratch draws students of all types into coding and lays a foundation for future learning
Immerse yourself in cryptography
3D printing projects and Coding projects, involving math and other K-12 subjects

Test Preparation

Test Prep for SAT, ACT, etc
Brainscape offers over a million flashcard decks for every subject, entrance exam, and certification imaginable

Advanced Learning for All Ages

450 Ivy League courses that you can take
2,500+ online courses from top institutions
Learn to code
Resources for AP students
Alcumus is specifically designed to provide high-performing students with a challenging curriculum appropriate to their abilities
Resources for AP students including live reviews, live trivia, and study guides
Classes for older teens or adults
Tons of free classes from leading universities and companies

Music