Looking for online learning resources and activities for kids to do at home? Check out this guide to free, virtual education tool and family-friendly things to do at home, from Austin museums, businesses and organizations.
Start by downloading our free Austin-themed coloring sheet here for kids and adults!
Museum Activities & Education
Austin PBS
PBS and Austin PBS, KLRU-TV have curated free, standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans and more just for teachers and homeschooling parents. Explore the PBS Learning Media website for lessons covering science, history/social studies, english/language arts, math and more.
Austin Public Library
Read, listen and watch books and movies on your computer or mobile device 24/7 with the Austin Public Library’s Virtual Library. You download or stream eBooks, eAudiobooks, magazines, movies and music from the Austin Public Library. Plus, eLearning resources like Brainfuse (Live Homework Help), Great Courses (Online Lectures) and Mango Languages (Language Learning) are also available with your library account.
The Escape Game
The Escape Game offers a host of fun, exciting and educational activities for kids to do at home through their website. Find free, virtual learning games, digital adventures, online scavenger hunts and games for the whole family.
Jourdan-Bachman Pioneer Farms
Pioneer Farms is expanding their online class offerings and setting up online ordering and on-site pickup from the General store. Visit the website for the latest information. The historic sites and trails will re-open for small group tours on May 1, with social distancing rules in effect.
Science Mill
The Science Mill’s new Explorer Zone is a free resource on their website that offers a weekly video/virtual field trip focusing on the science behind different Science Mill exhibits, then an at-home activity led by an educator. Each theme carries over into the website, where there are more activities, games, bonus videos, career connections and more.
Texas Book Festival
The Texas Book Fest is posting regular Instagram Live sessions each week, with a mix of adult and kids’ programming. You can also find past videos on their website, including interviews, activities and storytime with authors and illustrators.
Thinkery
The Thinkery team is regularly posting activity videos and story times to their social media channels. They are also collecting all of this original content, along with links to other resources from around the internet, on their website at thinkeryaustin.org/athome
UMLAUF
Take a virtual walk through the UMLAUF Sculpture Garden & Museum from the comfort of your home. Find the 360 degree tour on their website. You can also purchase coloring books, art supplies and other gifts from their online gift shop. Plus, registration is now open for the monthly Shaping Space after-school outreach program (now online!). Sign up for a monthly membership and receive a curated digital program to help your children explore the intersections of art, sculpture, and nature in your own backyard.
University of Texas College of Natural Science
The College of Natural Sciences at UT Austin has collected a set of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) resources for kids and parents to do at home. Learn more about chemistry, neuroscience, marine sciences, astronomy, nutrition, environmental sciences, geology and more.
Arts & Crafts at Home
Alamo Family at Home
The Alamo Drafthouse is offering curated, kid-friendly print-at-home activity books from major studios. Try out the Frozen II and Toy Story activity books or find many more here.
The Contemporary Austin
The Contemporary has transitioned their Second Saturdays are for Families program into a weekly online experience. Each week, they post a supply list and a step-by-step activity guide to make an artistic creation with materials found in your own home. They are also offering online Art School classes for kids and adults and more activities.
Keep Texas Beautiful
Participate in the Don’t mess with Texas® K-12 Art Contest, open through May 29, 2020. Keep Texas Beautiful and the Texas Department of Transportation invite Texas students in K-12th grades to submit their best litter prevention-inspired artwork to be considered for the Don’t mess with Texas Calendar. Students with the top 14 designs will win prizes and have their work featured in the calendar.
Music & Performing Arts
The Hideout Theater
The Hideout is offering virtual improv games and classes for kids. Sign up for age-specific classes, from age 5- teens, or get the whole gang involved with a weekly family class, led by the Hideout’s teachers.
The Musicians Woodshed
The Lake Travis and Cedar Park-area music school has expanded its online music classes and has launched the “Homework Helper” tutoring program. Sign up for lessons in a variety of instruments, lead muby local musicians.
Paramount Theater
The Paramount is hosting a virtual learning experience for children, called Literacy to Life: Story Wranglers online classes. Every Monday, the Paramount will broadcast live lessons on Facebook where kids can learn to write their own original stories.
Outdoors & Exercise Activities
Austin Parks and Recreation
The Austin Parks Department has collected virtual kids activities on their website. Categories include kids exercises like One With Nature Yoga, an Outdoor Chalk Obstacle Course and Basketball Drills, plus virtual tours of the Zilker Botanical Garden and Zilker Nature Preserves, nature activities like Go Grow tutorials and an iNaturalist Demo, and crafts like Making Nature Journals, the Junior Ranger Activity Guide and more.
Camacho Activity Center
Austin Parks’ Camacho Activity Center is posting weekly nature challenges on their Instagram account. Select participants from each week’s challenge will be invited to a guided kayak or climbing event at a later date, hosted by the Camacho Activity Center
The Little Yoga House
The kid-friendly studio is hosting virtual yoga classes for all ages and experience levels. Expectant moms can sign up for a prenatal yoga class or parents can sign their kids up for classes like Family Yoga, Girls Empowerment, Baby and Me and more. Find the full schedule online.
