There is likely no substitute for leaving the house and taking the kids places, but now that this is all but impossible, many museum and cultural organization websites offer the next best thing: Online activities for children.
Most feature experiments with objects one is likely to have around the house, but I have often found that these call for items I do not have on hand, so one might want to take a quick look at some of these websites before making up a shopping list.
The Family Experience section of the Israel Museum offers a range of videos that guide children through craft activities. Even if you don’t have everything at home that the creators assumed you would, there are workarounds, and you can always ask around the next time you’re in the shelter to see if anyone has what is needed.
The craft projects include making a lampshade from pasta, creating a memory card game, and making a chest of drawers from old cereal boxes. There is an animated video about the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and clips about many exhibits in the museum.
There is also a virtual tour of the museum and specific exhibits, including antiquities and fashion, such as one about how Israelis dress.
Virtual art, science, and history fun for kids in Israel
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art features pages that can be printed and colored, based on pictures from the museum’s collection, and videos that guide one through various craft activities.
One of the best depicts how to make a Van Gogh-style painting by using a fork to move the paint around. In another, people can learn how to create an origami peace dove. And if you ever wanted to make cookies that look like statues, you’re in luck.
The Haifa Museum website relays information on all the museums in Haifa, including the Haifa Museum of Art, the National Maritime Museum, the City Museum, and the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art.
Due to the war, to name a few, it offers virtual gallery tours, a dreamcatcher-making workshop, a workshop on creating Pablo Picasso-style masks, and a project called Small Sea from the Maritime Museum. This pertains to creating a model of sea life in a bottle.
Madatech, the National Science Museum in Haifa, has many videos featuring children’s activities, including games that test kids’ knowledge of the solar system, experiments with water, and a guide to making a lava lamp.
The Davidson Institute of Science Education, the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science, has videos that guide children through scientific experiments. These cover a wide range of topics, including one that attempts to prove that coffee has no taste, another that tries to identify where sounds originate, and another that attempts to mix oil with water.
The Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem has a page of home experiments. These encompass the likes of creating invisible ink, building rockets out of drinking straws, or getting a pine cone inside a bottle.
Games that children played in ancient times, which can be much simpler than most games kids play today, can be downloaded from the Israel Antiquities Association website.
The National Library of Israel has a page on its website with games for children that include a short video that asks kids to play along to foil a robbery at the library, and quizzes about how well you know Jerusalem, the works of poet Lea Goldberg (many of whose poems have been made into children’s books and songs), and places from children’s books.
The Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem features a game where you use clues to move through history.
Although the zoo is closed right now, one can look at pictures of animals on the website of The Tisch Family Zoological Gardens in Jerusalem.
The zoo’s Noah’s Ark exhibit features an excellent 12-minute movie about the compound, and your children can watch it on YouTube. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the zoo, showing how the zookeepers care for the animals, and spotlighting coexistence among staff members from different religions.