Coding and computing

Parents do not need to know how to code. Asking a child to explain what their project does, and what went wrong along the way, is enough to keep the work purposeful.

A good routine is to agree a small goal before each session, such as adding a score counter to a game, and to look at the result together at the end. Short, regular sessions tend to work better than one long one at the weekend.

• Scratch lets students build games and animations with code blocks and share them with an online community.

• Code Club, run by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, provides free project guides that students can follow step by step.

• Code.org offers short courses and Hour of Code activities suitable for beginners.

Science and space

These tools are most useful when a student comes with a question. A child who has just learned about planets in school might use NASA Space Place to find out why some are rocky and others are made of gas, then explain the answer at dinner. Zooniverse suits older students who enjoy careful, patient work, and it shows them that real research depends on many people checking data closely.

• PhET Interactive Simulations lets students experiment with circuits, forces and chemical reactions in a browser.

• NASA Space Place explains Earth and space science for younger students with games and activities.

• Zooniverse invites the public, including students, to help real research projects by classifying images and data.

Mathematics

For UK students, BBC Bitesize covers the school curriculum in STEM subjects with short explanations and quizzes.

• Khan Academy provides free practice and videos, organised by topic and level.

• NRICH, from the University of Cambridge, has puzzles and problems that reward thinking rather than speed.

• Desmos lets students draw and explore graphs, which is useful from the early secondary years.

A weekend activity for families

This suits children aged 10 to 13 and takes about an hour. You need a laptop or tablet, a notebook and a pencil.

Open the PhET Circuit Construction Kit: DC simulation. Ask your child to build a circuit with a battery and one bulb, then predict what will happen when a second bulb is added in a row and then side by side. They test each prediction, note what changes in the notebook and explain the difference to you in their own words. Keep screen sessions short and set clear times, and check that any site requiring an account suits your child's age before signing up.

Key points

• Start with free resources from universities, museums and space agencies.

• Ask children to explain their work rather than checking answers.

• Pair screen activities with a notebook for predictions and results.

• Check age requirements before creating accounts.

Photos: Vitaly Gariev / Unsplash