Free arts, zoos, museum offerings for your learn-from-home time off

ATLANTA - We are on day three for some families whose kitchen tables are now home-school work stations. Boy, teachers make it look easy don’t they? Well, here are ideas for filling out the day that includes museum and zoo tours and much more.

Most schools sent home Chromebooks or have Google Classroom set up. But this is what we’ve discovered, without the distraction of classmates, your child might fly through the material. Here are ways to patch holes.

Let's start with the ARTS. Here are 12 museums that offer wonderful virtual tours. It s ranges from the world-famous Louvre to the Smithsonian Natural Museum of Natural History to NASA and much more. This is just a look; there are so many more. 

-         The Louvre: Egyptian Antiquities, Michelangelo, Venus di Milo, Mona Lisa

-         Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: Hall of Mammals, Insect Zoo and Dinosaurs

-         The Vatican Museums: Sistine Chapel, classical sculptures

-         The National Women’s History Museum: online exhibits and oral histories

-         The Google Art Project: art from the White House, Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar, Sao Paulo, Brazil street art

-         NASA: Langley Research Center, The Space Center Houston

-         The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollock

-         British Museum, London: Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies

-         Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Rembrandt

-         Pergamon Museum, Berlin: Gate of Babylon, Pergamon Alter

-         National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City: archaeology, Mayan culture

-         National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.: clothing from Colonial to Revolutionary eras.  

How about learning a new language? Talk about exercising the brain. CNET, the techie news reviewer, has a list of many options. Babbel seems to be the one it says has a more class-like feel. Some are free. Some aren't.  Some are apps. Some are websites. All sorts of options.

Take a zoo tour. The San Diego Zoo offers great options. Get on the page, go down to its ‘experiences’ section. You’ll find the Brainy Bunch, live cams, and a kids’ section. On the page for children they can learn about bees. Did you know they are smaller than a gummy bear?

Main page: Here you can find Brainy Bunch and live cams

.Kids page: Learn more about arthropods, birds, fish and more.

And finally look at this: iTunes U. Apparently this was on my phone and I didn't even know it. Category after category of class options. They even break them down into pre-k, elementary, middle and high schools. We liked the history offering. We are going to deep dive this section.

This information is constantly changing. If you hear of something to add to the list, drop me a note: dana.fowle@foxtv.com