Snow days are as dreaded by parents as they are adored by kids. While our children would love to spend their days off in front of the TV, parents know that lazing around only makes the transition back to school harder. At the same time, we don’t want to completely rob snow days of their fun. So how can parents keep their kids’ minds active on dreary winter days without feeling like a drill sergeant? Here are eight online activities that are just as fun as they are educational:

Toddlers and Preschoolers

Learn sign language

Sign language is growing in popularity as a way to help young children communicate. Signing makes communication easier for children with speech difficulties, such as kids with autism, and can be an effective way to decrease frustration and tantrums. Even in neurotypical kids, sign language promotes a larger vocabulary and earlier alphabet mastery. Parents can find age-appropriate sign language videos from WatchKnowLearn.org.

Practice their numbers and ABC’s

All parents want their kids to have a head start on early learning, but we can’t all find time to practice every day. YouTube videos make it easy to keep preschoolers and toddlers engaged in learning with animated videos and songs with fun characters and bright colors.

Discover yoga

Yoga is a powerful tool for restless kids. Through practicing yoga poses, young children learn self-soothing strategies like focused breathing to help them calm down when they’re upset. This, in turn, can promote better concentration and behavior in school. Yoga videos that incorporate storytelling are best for keeping little ones’ attention.

Elementary Schoolers

Experiment with science

There’s no better way to learn about science than through hands-on activities, and thankfully, the internet is full of ideas for fun experiments. Kids can play with foam and learn about exothermic reactions by making elephant toothpaste or come up with their own ideas for a fun experiment.

Explore world history

When classroom history lessons feel like an endless stream of dates and names, it’s hard for kids to connect the dots. Interactive history games and activities make it easier to understand the big picture by letting kids immerse themselves in the story of the world.

Middle and High Schoolers

Try their hand at coding

Coding might seem like a foreign language to you, but it doesn’t take much for tech-savvy kids to pick it up. These five tools recommended by TeacherVision offer free coding lessons that are perfect for beginners, and kids will have fun learning how to develop their own apps.

Discover the world of real estate

Few teens and tweens want to spend a snow day studying. By showing them practical applications of school subjects, parents add a new dynamic to learning and open their kids’ eyes to career possibilities. According to RedFin, “Real estate is a complex field that requires skills in math, science, English, social studies and home economics. By incorporating real estate-based lessons into your curriculum, you can help students gain valuable skills in practical math application, presentation giving, forming a persuasive argument, earth science and so much more.”

Learn Financial Literacy

Too many teens enter adulthood without knowing how to pay bills and balance a budget. Make sure your children are ready to take on the world — and take care of themselves — by introducing them to games designed to teach financial literacy.

 Consecutive snow days can mean forgotten lessons and restless kids. However, there’s no reason to let your chidren’s studies lapse just because the weather is dreary. By finding ways to make learning fun, parents can keep their children’s minds growing no matter what the weather looks like.

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