And you thought summer vacation was bad… At least then you could take your kids to the pool or play dates! Being shut inside the house with them 24/7 and having the expectation that at least some of their time will be spent constructively is a new experience for most parents. Fortunately, many agencies and community groups offer resources to help.

Coronavirus: What You Need To Know

First, the basics — Where do you find out what’s open, what’s closed, when it will reopen, and generally what’s going on with schools? Here’s a list of various institutions’ sites.

• The Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas’ links to local Catholic schools (note that not all have coronavirus/COVID-19 information, but they do have contact information):

http://dioceseoflasvegas.org/SchoolWebsiteLinks.shtml

• Clark County School District’s coronavirus COVID-19 information and updates page: https://sites.google.com/nv.ccsd.net/covid-19updates/home
• The CDC’s school closure recommendations:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/considerations-for-school-closure.pdf

• Nevada Department of Education letter to parents, with facts about what’s going on and advice for social interaction, hygiene, coping, talking to kids about the crisis, and family activities, as well as an exhaustive list of links to further resources: file:///C:/Users/hgeno/Downloads/2020-03-19-10-47-49_COVID-19%20Family%20Resources_English.pdf
• Nevada System of Higher Education coronavirus page, with links to each individual college or university’s special coronavirus page:https://nshe.nevada.edu/2020/03/covid-19-information/

Besides the facts, you’ll be looking for stuff to do. A range of local businesses and organizations offer these ideas…

• Math activities: No Time for Flashcards has all kinds of interactive exercises, games, and videos for kindergarten through twelfth-grade students.
• Public TV: Through its education portal, Vegas PBS offers many online, interactive programs, such as Ready-to-Learn for pre-K through third grade literacy, and REACH, a self-paced reading program.
• Recycling games: Republic Service’s Recycling Simplified page has several downloadable activities for kids, such as coloring pages and word searches. Bonus: They teach what is (and isn’t) recyclable!
• Reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic: This list has dozens of K-12 resources, divided by subject matter.

Also note that some schools are already using Google Classroom for remote instruction, according to news reports. If you’re not sure whether this applies to your child’s school, contact the school directly.