A COVID-19 Guide
for Parents on Faculty

By Clare Wallner (@ClareWallner) and Teresa Chan (@TChanMD)
Originally Published, March 22, 2020

COVID-19 has changed the way we are doing work all over the world - with the need to socially distance, all schools and daycares have been shut down in order to prevent the spread of this virus. 

But there is no rest for the academic!  Whether you are an educator, a clinician, a scholar, or a researcher, if you are a parent you are being faced with new “co-workers” (read: children at home) who may be in need of some new “work tasks” (read: homework and activities) themselves. 

While faculty members are all working hard to transition our educational and administrative duties to online formats, many of us are also looking for ways to keep our kids (and ourselves) entertained and engaged.

Here are a few resources for all you academics struggling to find time to "work from home" while your children are right there with you:

1. Ontario Learn at Home Resources

This page contains a summary of a few of the regional resources. The ministry will be updating this with time.  The main resources include TVO Kids in English and TFO in French.  They both also offer a number of apps.

2. Ontario Federation of Teaching Parents

A homeschooling resource list. Some of the resources are currently unavailable, like field trips. There are several options for downloadable worksheets and lesson plans.

3. Lists of virtual tours and field trips, lessons and story times

Check out this list of attractions that offer digital tours! Not quite the same as going on a field trip, but may give you a glimpse into a number of locations you might want to eventually visit with your family.

1. • Virtual Tours of Canadian Museums of Attractions (From Huffington Post) 

   • The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, E-Learning, and Online Collections (from the MCN - Museum Curators Network)

   • Virtual Lessons on Indigenous History (From CBC)

In addition, several folks are doing their own story times. You can find Josh Gad (the voice of Frozen’s Olaf) reading nightly on Twitter, Flamingo Rampant has morning story time on Facebook.  

4. Khan Academy

This legendary and free learning management system has built progressive learning (through interconnected and progressively harder YouTube videos) into a gamified platform. It can be quite addictive because you win points and badges along the way. Math, spelling, grammar, and other topics has never seemed so fun!

5. Potpourri of other Resources

• Many teachers have already set up Google Classrooms and the like with resources your kids have already been using throughout the year.  Here are some additional Resources, some of which they have already been playing at school...

  • • Scholastic Learn At Home - Expanded resources that have been made freely available.

    • Storyline Online - A site where you can find many children’s books being read aloud.

    • Go Noodle - A site with great activity videos to keep your kids (and you) active!

    • Duolingo - An app/site for learning new languages! Do this as a family and pick a new language you always wanted to learn. (NB: This site is highly recommended by our own UGME Dean Dr. Rob Whyte.) 

    • Prodigy Game - This is essentially a traditional Role Playing Game (fantasy adventure) where the “battles” are math problems. Kids can play on their own or meet up with friends and go on math adventures together.

    • Dominick Evans’ Legendary Twitter Thread with Online Resources for K-12 Subjects.

    • Great Schools Worksheets - At this link you will find over 1400 worksheets that you can print out for your children