Online Educational Resources for Children During COVID-19 Lockdown

Even as you are reading this, globally about 1.25 billion school and college-going children are home-struck due to the raging pandemic. In fact, it’s estimated that almost two-thirds of the world’s students are home now due to early closure of schools. Making life worse for students is the fact that all modes of entertainment are inaccessible right now.

In fact, in India, all schools and most colleges closed by early March and since then children have been totally zoned in. They can’t go out and play with friends. They can’t even go to libraries because they are shut.

However, in times like these, there are several online resources that your child can explore during the lockdown.

National Gallery of Modern Art, India

NGMA is a premier government-owned gallery that houses an amazing array of artwork from 1857 onwards. Thousands of tourists visit the gallery each year to look at artistic marvels of the present and bygone era.  The gallery has made its treasure available online for people to see. Visit Ministry of Culture to look at several virtual galleries that have been broken down into themes, artists, and styles such as International Women’s Day 2020, miniature painting, Tanjore and Mysore, company period (East India Company), European traveler artists, and many others. Visit the website and show your child art that has made India proud.

• Google Arts and Culture

The Google Arts and Culture website Google Arts and Culture features an ensemble of paintings and art forms like photos and pictures from across the world. It has featured them based on artists, movements, historical events, mediums, and places. You can also explore by time and color as well as by collections at the White House in Washington, Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Palazzo Te of Italy, National Palace Museum of Taiwan, The Surabhi Foundation for Research and Cultural Exchange of India, and many more.  This website is exhaustive and will help your child explore the world of international art.

• National Museum of Natural History, U.S.A.

Also called as Smithsonian Institution or Smithsonian Museum, this world-famous museum has everything an art enthusiast can look for. Visit National Museum of Natural History and take a look at permanent exhibits, past exhibits, current exhibits, and many other exhibits, all assembled from across the world and made accessible to people to enjoy.

• Sangeet Natak Akademy

The academy has made hundreds of videos of native performing arts available on its website. They have a beautiful collection of native songs and dance.

• Audible

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Amazon has made its children’s section free for all so that children can listen to free audiobooks. There are also other books that you can listen to for free.

• National Geographic Kids

National Geographic is one of the world’s most popular broadcasters airing non-fiction TV programs. Their YouTube page Natgeo Kids contains several hundreds of kid-specific videos that are bound to increase your child’s knowledge by miles.

There are other notable mentions such as World Music Achieve by BBC that has a huge collection of music from around the world. Explore the music collection here on BBC World Music Archive 

History TV India or History TV  Both the YouTube channels of the TV stations show an amazing array of programs both from Indian and global perspective.