These are 9 educational activities you can do free online with the kids - from museum tours to ocean dives

Museums, libraries and other learning centres may temporarily be closed due to the ongoing UK lockdown - but this doesn’t mean that children have to miss out on educational experiences.

Many everyday experiences are now available online, from virtual museum tours to scientific, literary and musical experiences.

Here are some of the educational activities you can do online with the kids for free.

Delve into Shakespeare

There’s a range of classroom activities available from the iconic Shakespeare’s Globe theatre.

Access weekly blogs and a range of other resources, introducing the cast and crew behind a new production of Macbeth created especially for younger audiences.

Dive into the ocean

If you love sea life and the ocean then you can take a virtual tour of marine sanctuaries and ocean habitats, with a collection of dives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Deep dive into coral reefs or explore a shipwreck - all from your laptop or phone.

Visit the butterflies at San Diego Zoo's Hidden Jungle greenhouse

Visit butterflies from Central, South and North America in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park Hidden Jungle greenhouse.

Do so through their butterfly cam livestream, where you can also find instructions for starting your own butterfly garden.

San Francisco's Exploratorium

San Francisco's Exploratorium offers a variety of activities that try to help children to understand the science behind viruses, including how they affect the human body and how we can protect ourselves against infection.

Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall

If you and your children would like to listen to or learn more about classical music, then the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall has a large concert and film archive.

It can be filtered based on conductor, composer, genre and a wide range of other categories.

The Louvre

The famous Louvre in Paris currently has free online tours of three of its popular exhibits, including Egyptian Antiquities.

The website says, “Visit the museum's exhibition rooms and galleries, contemplate the façades of the Louvre…”

The Vatican Museum

The Vatican Museum is offering free virtual tours of famous spots including The Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, and Raphael's Room.

Learn more about the history of Rome from the comfort of your own own home.

British Museum

London’s British Museum is an iconic spot in the country’s capital, and is visited by many every year.

But just because it is temporarily closed, doesn’t mean that children have to necessarily miss out on all that it has to offer educationally.

Both the Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies are educational relics that you can visit on a whilst on a virtual tour of the museum.

NASA

Virginia's Langley Research Center and Ohio's Glenn Research Center both offer online tours for free.

‘Augmented reality experiences’ are also available on The Space Center Houston's app.