The Covid-19 pandemic has altered lives around the globe in unprecedented manners, and unpredictably, might continue to do so for a while. At the heart of our goal at OneAfricanChild foundation is the drive to better the lives of Children on the African continent, especially marginalized and difficult to access children.
We have put together these resources from different parts of the world for families to facilitate, and encourage learning and entertainment even through these challenging times and beyond. We will keep updating the resource list. Also, kindly share recommendations in the comment section if there are specific resources you would like us to curate.
PARENTS AND YOUNG ADULTS
Learning
100 Novels that shaped our world: this is a book list curated by British Broadcasting Corporation. The books are classified according to the following themes: Identity, Love, Sex & Romance, Adventure, Life, Death & Other Worlds, Politics, Power & Protest, Class & Society, Coming of Age, Family & Friendship, Crime & Conflict, and Rule Breakers. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/494P41NCbVYHlY319VwGbxp/explore-the-list-of-100-novels-that-shaped-our-world
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Computer Science Academy: Carnegie Mellon University is offering daily online webinars for middle and high school students in the wake of Covid-19. https://academy.cs.cmu.edu/coronavirus2020
Khan Academy: The Khan Academy is a non-profit organization that has a long list of remote learning resources for Schools, teachers, and parentshttps://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/611770255064350720/remote-learning-with-khan-academy-during-school. They also provide 100% free Khan Academy Kids app with no in-app purchases that can be downloaded on digital here: devices https://learn.khanacademy.org/khan-academy-kids/.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Education for Justice (E4J): the organization offers teaching and learning activities, and other resources that are tailored to quality dissemination of knowledge about Global Peace and Justice. The resources are offered in Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese, English, Russian, and Spanish. There are also Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Education materials accessible on the website http://www.unodc.org/e4j/.
Kolibri: Kolibri is an application developed by Learning Equality, an organisation committed to enabling every individual realise their right to quality education. Kolibri makes high quality education technology available in low-resource communities. The app is designed for offline learning so that learning with low or no data connection can continue to learn. Download link: https://learningequality.org/kolibri/
Common Sense: Common Sense is an independent nonprofit organisation dedicated to helping kids thrive in a rapidly changing world. Common Sense Education is providing free digital literacy materials to support families through this pandemic. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/resources-for-families-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic
CHILDREN LEARNING
BBC Bitesize: this website is curated by the BBC with activities for children from ages 5 – 16+. It is a free, useful resource for planning and effecting home schooling, cutting across a wide range of school subjects. Available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize
Fun Palaces: provides offline resources that can be downloaded. This can also be printed, and shared across communities with limited access to constant internet, or to facilitate traditional learning, away from digital devices. Available at https://funpalaces.co.uk/news/tiny-revolutions-of-connection/ Download the activities list here: https://funpalaces.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Tiny-Revolutions-PDFs.pdf.
BrainPOP: This is an online platform that offers a wide range of home-schooling kid activities classing including media literacy and personal hygiene. It is free, and offers resources for both online and offline learning. https://www.brainpop.com/health/diseasesinjuriesandconditions/coronavirus/.
Storytelling
Storyline Online: Is your child missing school reading time? Play videos that read books to your children, keeping them entertained while learning. Accessible here: https://www.storylineonline.net
Geography
Countries and Continents of the world: A colourful PDF document of the countries and continents of the world useful as a teaching guide for children and adults. It also has an accessible fact list for each of the regions in the picture. http://www.hrwstf.org/mobile_library/r2etoolkit/country_project.pdf .
List of countries of the world and their capitals: this PDF document is a list of the countries of the world, along with their capitals. It is all word format, with no image. It can be a useful resource for young adults interested in global geography. https://1.cdn.edl.io/Lg36JpHun9dYx6RxHTZAa44iID4mcTnmgVTfWIfN7XhQqdLm.pdf
Countries list by region: This is a PDF document that lists countries around the world by region and continent. It is a useful document to promote getting familiar with the geographical classification of our planet. https://cies2018.org/wp-content/uploads/List-of-Countries-by-Region-UN-Annex-II.pdf
Colouring books
We have also curated a number of colouring books with interesting ready-to-paint images
National Geographic animals for children: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/kids/photos/articles/Other%20Explore%20Photos/A-G/Coloring%20Book/coloring-book-animals.pdf
African orientated colouring book: https://africaimports.com/Content/files/FreePrintableProducts/coloringbook.pdf
Denver Kid’s health and safety colouring book: https://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/771/documents/PHI/Coloring%20Book%20-%20Final.pdf
Crayola printable images: https://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/world-map-coloring-page/
MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES
Tate Museum: this is the online website for the Tate Museum, London, United Kingdom for children activities https://www.tate.org.uk/kids. It even has an online gallery that showcases artworks by young people.https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/gallery.
Smithsonian National Museum of African Arts: this is a collated list of engaging activities for children and young adults. It is a useful resource to further learning about the African historical, and contemporary landscape. https://africa.si.edu/education/online-resources/ten-at-home-activities-for-k-12/.
Africa Server virtual exhibition: This is a curated virtual exhibition that allows you to visit the gallery in the comfort of your personal space. It provides exhibitions in the English, Portuguese, French and Dutch languages. This resource particularly caters to young adults, and adults. https://www.africaserver.nl/virtual/index_uk.html.
The Louvre: Visit The Louvre in your comfort zone, taking a guided online tour, exploring some of the popular artworks around the world. https://www.louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne#tabs
National Museum of Natural History: Take a virtual tour of the National Museum of Natural History without leaving the walls of your home. https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) tours: Are you a NASA fan or you have children who fancy airplanes and space related activities, take a virtual tour of the Langley Research Center https://oh.larc.nasa.gov/oh/ or the Glenn Research Center https://www.nasa.gov/glennvirtualtours.
The Google Art project: This is a one stop resource to explore museums, galleries, and art related activities around the world https://artsandculture.google.com. Take virtual tours of famous museums including Guggenheim Museum New York, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Musèe d’Orsay Paris, the British Museum, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Pergamon Museum, Berlin, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, MASP, São Paulo, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City here : https://artsandculture.google.com/story/10-museums-you-can-explore-right-here-right-now/igKSKBBnEBSGKg. You can also view the collections of several museums on different continents around the world: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner. You can also download arts and culture activity book here: https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/googleartsandculture_activitybook.pdf