The products and services mentioned below were selected independent of sales and advertising. However, Don't Waste Your Money may receive a small commission from the purchase of any products or services through an affiliate link to the retailer's website.
Along with the closures of restaurants and stores, many kids are also out of school because of the COVID-19 outbreak. If you are looking for ways to make sure your kids keep learning, a handful of companies are offering free services to help you do just that.
If you have a child in K-12 education or in college who was taking a foreign language course before the closures — or wants to use this time to learn one — learning app Babbel is offering free language learning now through the end of the school term, in mid-June.
The deal is available for all students kindergarten through 12th grade and any students currently enrolled in college courses. The app is designed to help students use their time at home productively to learn a new language with a little bit of practice every day.
Students can learn any of the 14 languages offered by Babbel: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Dutch, Turkish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Indonesian and English.
Students do not have to stick to one language over the course of the free three months, so if they grow tired of one, they are free to switch to another.
There is no purchase necessary for the free three months, but you will need to provide the name of you or your child’s school, along with an email address and a short paragraph saying why your child is interested in learning a new language.
A lot of companies are offering free access for students learning from laptops and tablets right now.
Minecraft has a new education category in their marketplace that is free now through June 2020. The free lessons are the same as those used by students in classrooms across the country. Just some of the resources offered include a tour of the International Space Station or even exploring the inside of a human eye. The worlds include lesson plans like creative writing activities, build challenges and tricky puzzles.
Other programs and services offering free content right now include Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, Outschool and Scholastic. All of the kids’ content on Amazon Prime Video is free right now, even if you are not a Prime member.
How are you keeping your kids busy while they’re home from school?
Kaitlin is a freelance multimedia journalist with a degree in journalism and psychology. Along with Don't Waste Your Money, she also writes for Simplemost, where she covers new product and food launches and overall general news. You can email her at kaitlingateswrites@gmail.com or find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/KaitlinGatesWrites. More.
