Embedded Files
Resources are lists of totally or partially free tools (websites, software, tutorials) that you can use to meet different needs. The goal is to give easy access to culture, leisure and learning tools, in a legal way!
Want resources on a topic not listed here? Do you have other suggestions? Do not hesitate to contact us at info@mcl-bjm.ca
Tools to learn how to draw
Tools to learn how to draw
Are your children interested in drawing but are not sure where to go for resources and tutorials? The following resources contain tutorials and lessons for kids interested in learning to draw from more general subjects to more specific areas such as comics and manga. You will also find some free programs for those who want to go further!
Language: English and French
Age: 8 years old and plus
An application for android that you can get through the Play Store. The app allows you to draw on your smartphone with either your fingers, or a touchscreen pen if you have one. Most of the brushes are free, but four of the more complex brushes are paid features.
Language: English
Age: 10 years old and plus
Interested in drawing anime and manga but not sure how to start? This website has more than 80 tutorials teaching you how to draw anime and manga. Not sure how your character turned into a stickman? Tired of your faces showing no emotion? Your characters always look the same? Visit this webpage and follow their tutorials!
Language: French
Age: 13 years old and plus
This youtube channel has many tutorials on drawing comics. While the artist is drawing on a tablet, his explanations are quite clear and children can follow along and do the drawings with pencils and paper. Very nice tutorials, and his video series ‘’Correction de dessin’’ will take drawings that people send him and he will give some suggestions on how to make them better!
LanguageL English
Age: 13 years old and plus
In this site you will find explanations and tutorials of how to draw animals, objects, in anime and cartoon style, and many other things. The explanations are given by professional artists who break them into clear steps. The basics section shows how to draw parts of the body and hair. It is a great way to learn the basics if you are a beginner!
Language: French, English, German, and Portuguese
Age: 8 years old and plus
This site offers many different activities for children. It has craft activities, games, movies, coloring pages, and drawing tutorials for kids. The drawing tutorials come in either instructions on the site, or in video format and teach children how to draw things such as famous kid characters (like minions, Dora, Barbie), facial expressions, animals, and many others.
Drawing 4 Kids and Cartooning Club - How to Draw youtube channels
Language: English
Age: 8 years old and plus
These two youtube channels are run by the same person. The "Drawing 4 kids" channel has content that is easier for children to follow. For those who have more experience drawing and want something more challenging, the second channel "Cartooning Club - How to Draw" has videos that teach how to draw more detailed chibi characters from comics, shows, and games.
Language: Multilingual
Age: 10 years old and plus
This is a free open source program for digital painting and animation. Best used by coupling it with a drawing tablet, it has many useful features and a big selection of brushes for your art. In addition it is often used by artists and there are a lot of tutorials and plugins available online to tailor the software to your needs and tastes. It also has many page templates depending on what you want to use it for (like comics, manga, etc). If you were using photoshop for painting, then you should definitely try Krita!
Language: program multilingual, site only in English, but its manual is also in multiple languages.
Age: 10 years old and plus
Another open source program, this one is for image editing. It has many useful tools to edit your pictures, and images. Since it is open source you can also find many plugins and extra tools online. You can use to edit your photos, or images for projects (homework, work, *wink wink* scratch projects *wink wink*). You can also use its layers to make simple animations.
MAgazines
MAgazines
Free resources from magazine publishers
Free resources from magazine publishers
Love magazines but can’t get access to one right now? Check the sites below for articles, videos, activities, and other resources from different magazine publishers!
Age: 14-17
Language: French
Curium is a magazine for teenagers that specializes in science, technology, and society. You can visit their website and read selected articles from their magazines. They also have many videos, and a section specially for videos dedicated to artificial intelligence. You can also find pedagogical materials in their teacher section.
Age: 5 to 10 years old
Language: main site is in French and English, but magazines are only in English
You can get a free magazine subscription for Lego Club Magazine and receive magazines 4 times a year if your child is between the ages of 5 to 9 years old. You can access digital copies of the english magazines here. You can also subscribe to get a paper copy delivered to your home. The magazine has games, activities with legos, lego short comics, and more. You can also access lego games and videos through the “Kids Zone” (only in English).
Age: 9-14
Language: French
Les Débrouillards is a science magazine for children. While also a paid magazine, their website has many videos and experiments available that you can watch and try out. In the teacher section you can find pedagogical materials for children. There is also the section '’espace debs'', that has many fun quizzes and tests.
Age: 6 years old and plus
Language: English
The website for the magazine National Geographic Kids. On the website you can find articles about many different animals (and dinosaurs!), videos, and quizzes. The video section includes videos of animals, strange facts, and even experiments.
Age: 7 to 12 years old
Language: Site is available in both French and English, but the magazines are only available in French
Kayak is a magazine for children that focuses on Canadian history. Well designed, it presents history in many ways that will interest children: it has short comics and stories, games, and many other things. You can download some of their previous magazines on their website for free.
Age: Resources for 3 to 13 years old, and parents
Language: English
Owl has many magazines for kids of different ages. Their website has many resources for parents and children. For children there are things such as a blogs for different age categories, and a site for news, science and cooking videos, and stories to listen to. For parents, the website offers learning resources, a family blog, and more
Age: Parents
Language: French, but some pages also in English
Website for the magazine Naître et grandir. The website offers parents many tools and information to help them in their children’s development. It contains articles, resources, a blog, and activities shared by health professionals. The site is divided by the age of the child to make navigation easier. The magazine is free, you can pick it up a copy in many locations.
Age: 13-19
Language: English
This magazine is made with works from teenagers! Teens can submit their work (writing, photos, and art) to the website and once screened by the magazine, it will appear on the website and/on the magazine. It is a great website for teens who want to improve their writing skills and show their work. You can check works from others directly on the website, or read their monthly magazine. The latest number is available on the site. Truly a magazine made by teens for teens!
Note
The magazines mentioned before are all paid magazines. However, many of their websites have extracts or full versions of some of their articles, videos, games, and pedagogical materials for the parents. A few of the magazines also offer some, or all, of their previous issues to read online.
Music editing softwares
Music editing softwares
Do you like music, and want to create or mix your favourite songs? Here are some perfect programs to start a great musical career!
Age: 12 years and older
Language: Multilingual
Although the interface is a bit chaotic and poorly organized, Audacity allows a wide range of options. Audacity is free in its integrity. The software is more difficult to access than average but, due to its great popularity, a large number of tutorials exist on the internet.
Age: 10 years and over
Language: Multilingual
Simple and easy to understand sound software. The options are rather limited but sufficient for beginners. The software is surprisingly fast and stable.
Age: 12 years and older
Language: Multilingual
FilmoraPro is both a video and audio editing software. It allows you to make simple adjustments to sound and has more options for video editing. On the other hand, the program offers users some sound effects to modify the audio. The interface is sometimes frustrating to navigate especially concerning video editing. In the free version, the video contains a watermark.
Age: 10 years and older
Language: English
YOU.DJ is a program available for free on the cloud (and also a paid download version). It allows you to mix songs through Soundcloud and Youtube, offering an almost unlimited amount of songs. Moreover, it allows you to add live effects. Its interface is very simple and intuitive.
Age: All ages
Language: Site in English but application does not contain any language.
The software is very simple and intuitive. To create music, all you have to do is drag and drop a block on a character. Several types of sounds are available, you can make electronic or even hip-hop songs.Only the online version of the application is free.
Age: 10 years and over
Language: English
Mixxx is an open source program, which means that it is totally free and modifiable by anyone. It even contains an auto-DJ function, which allows the computer to mix your playlist for you. Mixxx is available for Windows, Mac and even Linux.
Age: 10 years and over
Language: Multilingual
Virtual DJ is a free program to mix music. The software is very simple and offers a lot of easy to use options. The program also has a large online community (both in French and in English), the forums contain a lot of tutorials and advice. The free version contains all the tools included in the paid version. The only difference for the paid version is that it allows commercial use.
Note
Note
Some resources are aimed at an older audience because it offers greater complexity. You are advised to start with the simplest ones regardless of your age to better understand how these programs generally work.
Videos : movies, shows, anime
Videos : movies, shows, anime
Videos for every taste!
Videos for every taste!
Watch videos for free on these different platforms! You'll find TV series, short and feature films, anime and animated films, shows and documentaries... Something for everyone in the family!
Note
Note
These websites offer free and legal streaming of videos, TV shows, or/and movies. You will find that many of the sites have either a paying premium option to access more videos, or/and show ads during the videos.
Parents may want to verify content on the sites since some shows and videos are more mature than others. Some sites also offer some type of parental control that can be turned on to limit access for children.
Age: 13 years old and plus, need supervision of parents to create an account if you are 13 to 18 years old.
Language: English
Site that offers many movies and television shows completely free. It partners up with studios to offer their content legally. It has content for different ages but the sections ''kids shows'', ''family movies'', and ''preschool'' may be especially interesting to children and families. You don’t need an account to watch videos, but if you make one you have access to parental controls to limit the content your children have access to on the site.
Age: 10 ans et plus.
Language: French and English
Thanks to the Montreal Science Centre, you can watch some of their documentaries IMAX for free on their website. You can subscribe to their newsletter for more activities and to get notified when they release new movies online.
Age: 16 years old and plus
Language: multiple
Site for watching anime, and a few Asian dramas with subtitles in other languages. Unfortunately, for Canada, without a premium paying account, shows and episodes you can watch are limited to the newest episodes of an anime presently on air. You can see these free episodes and series by going to the Simulcast option under Videos. Videos with a crown icon are only accessible with a premium account.
Age: made for children 12 years old and under
Language: English
App that can be accessed through the App Store, Google play, Roku, and Amazon Fire Tv. Once installed the app can be used to watch many fun educational videos and shows. It has content that is considered safe for younger children. Making a free account allows parents to set up parental controls.
Age: videos for different ages. Kids section has videos for children, tweens, and teens.
Language: site only in english, but if you go to the video section for kids, you can select language to get some videos that are in french.
One of the sites for CBC, can stream some of their shows online. They also have a section for kid shows. If you create a free account you have access to more channels and can see past seasons.
Age: children and teens
Language: French
Another site from CBC/Radio Canada. Under the menu option ''Parcourir'', you can find the sections ''zone jeunesse'', and ''zone des petits'' for content for children. While many of the videos require a paid account to view, many of them can also be watched for free.
Age: intended for children between 2-13 years old
Language: site in french, but videos don’t have dialogues so all children can enjoy.
This site is a great resource for finding animation videos for the family. They update often with new videos to check out. Recently, they shared the site for the school ESMA École d'Animation 3d et Effets Spéciaux, which made available 150 short animation films for children.
Age: 3 years old and plus
Language: French, English, Japanese, Portuguese
Another wonderful site that offers many short films for children. The site is intended as a resource for parents and teachers. You can browse its selection by age (from 3, 5, 7, 9, or older). You can also browse their whole video collection; each video will indicate the recommended age, and the themes. If you hover over the video, you can see a description of what it is about.
Enjoy!
Online board games
Online board games
Free Board games & party games
Free Board games & party games
To access from home
To access from home
You will find here many resources to play board games with your family, from the comfort of your home!
Board games and society games online
Board games and society games online
Language : Multilingual
Great website to play board games with other people online. Has a great selection of games. You can play all games with a free account. Premium paid accounts are for extra features as no wait time, starting a table for a game, and playing with friends. After creating an account you can select your preferred language under account preferences. The rules and the video explanations are often offered in different languages depending on your language preferences. Contains games such as Sushi Go!, Les Loups-Garous de Thiercelieux, Terra Mystica, and many many more.
Language: English interface, but game rooms in multiple languages.
Great website to play Skribll: a drawing and guessing game. Players join a room and take turns drawing things for others to guess. You can choose the language of the room which will determine the language of the words to draw. Players can join games randomly or create a private room to play with their own friends.
Language: English and German interface, some games are in different languages.
Site that offers many board games. It has a very useful search function that finds games by age, player number, language, and playing time. The site gives the players 3D versions of the board games. There is no rule enforcement for the games (the game won’t tell you when you move a piece incorrectly), so it is up to the player to know the rules and make sure that they are playing the game correctly.
Language: English, French, Chinese, Spanish and Russian
Nice site to play classic paper games such as Connect 4, Battleship, Gomoku, and Tic toc. Can play against others online, or create a room to play with friends. You can make an account to save your points, but it is not needed. With an account the user can also collect game coins to purchase things like monster and emoji images to customize their account.
Language: English, French, and German
A site for online games. You can join others, or start your own game party. The wait tines can be long if you are not playing with a friend. Once you join a game, you can not leave until the game is finished which is why players have a long time to make a game move (1-7 days). You will receive an email when a game you joined starts to let you know.
Language: English
Site that offers a few classic board games such as chess, reversi, go, and others. You can play with friends or against the computer.
Board games and society games to print
Board games and society games to print
Language: Multilingual
The game publisher Asmodee has made available a few games so that families can print them out and play them at home. Has a great selection of games such as Story Cubes, DixIt, Doable, Corinth, and more. They also mention that new games may be coming so you may want to bookmark the website for future visits.
Note
Note
Many of these sites require making an account to play online. While making an account is free, some features are paid (like access to premium games), but most of the content can be accessed with a free account. While the sites have games for people of all ages, to create accounts on the websites you need to be at least 13 years old (and sometimes 18 in certain sites), younger children need the supervision of their parents or an adult to use the websites.
After checking the site, parents can make an account for their children if they like the site. In addition, some websites have an online chat tool for players to find other players interested in certain board games, or to communicate for a game. Please make sure that your children do not share personal information on the chats.
Have fun!
Learn to code
Learn to code
Learn coding and programming
Learn coding and programming
Curious to learn coding? Start here!
For 4 to 99 years old!
While many of the following sites do offer pages in both English and French (and other languages!), the coding languages seen often use phrases and words in English.
Age: 4 years old +
Language: Multiple, but some there are more ressources in English
Educational site that offers many different videos and exercises for children of different ages. They also have a wonderful activity on their website: use coding to program a dancing night with sprites!
Age: 6 years old +
Language: Multiple
Educational game for children or beginners that teaches basic coding in a graphically interesting way. Good introduction to coding. The coding does not rely too much on writing (just some explanations), which makes it easier for children to learn.
Age: 8-16
Language: Multiple
Easy programming language that people can use by either visiting the website or downloading a desktop version. Can be used to create projects like short games, and animations. Easy to use and learn for children interested in coding.
Age: 8 to 12 years old and +
Language: While the site is offered in multiple languages, only some videos are subtitled in French, most of them are in English.
Khan Academy is a website that offers videos on many different subjects, one of which is coding. After watching their videos, try some of the challenges on the webpage!
Age: 9 years old and +
Language: Multiple, but some pages or levels may only be in english.
CodeCombat teaches coding principles from Javascrip, Python languages. CodeCombat teaches coding through a game, making the experience innovative and fun for children. The first levels are free, but after a point you will have to pay to continue playing. However, with the free part you should have many many hours of entertainment and learning.
Age: teenagers and +
Language: Multiple, but some sections are only available in English.
Offers many lessons, exercises, and quizzes on different programming languages. A bit more advanced than the other ressources. Does not depend so much on visuals, but more on syntax and writing out coding commands.
Age: teenagers and +
Language: English
Only available through steam, but free. Limited functions (like only being able to make 20 maps, and 10 events), but lets users experiment with making a simple RPG maker. Uses some principles of coding. A bit more complicated than Scratch, since you must know some basics to use it. Once familiarized with it, easy to use to create your own small RPG game.
free Ebooks
free Ebooks
Website offered in: English (and French for the Canadian version)
During the crisis, Audible, a site that collects audio books, provides free access to books for children and teenagers. Find among others the first volume of the Harry Potter saga, or classics such as Peter Pan and The Three Musketeers. The books are available in several languages, including English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Mandarin.
Website offered in: English and Hindi.
Books for children of 3 to 14 years old.
The website offers many ebooks and stories for children learning how to read. Many books in different languages and wonderful drawings, it is sure to please both children and parents. The books are divided by reading level. While the website is not offered in French, many of the books are translated to multiple languages, one of which is French. Need to make a free account to access more than one book.
Website offered in: French.
Books for youth of 6 to 18 years old.
The website offers many classics of French literature: stories, works of philosophy, novels, poems, essays, and even theater pieces. The school year for the books is indicated.
Website offered in: French.
Books for children of 10 to 14 years old.
Website offers ebooks in french, there is also a section for english books but the links are unfortunately dead. Many classics and works from authors who have decided to share their works with the public.
Website offered in: English.
Books for children of 3 to 12 years old.
Website that offers books in english and spanish. Some books also have audio recordings.
Website offered in: English.
Books for young children.
BookTrust offers some free English ebooks for young children. They are accompanied by sound recordings and some also come with videos in sign language.
International Children's Digital Library
Website offered in: French, English, Spanish, Russian, and Mongolian.
Books for children of 3 to 13 years old.
Has many ebooks for children in many different languages.
Website offered in: English.
Books for children of 4 to 8 years old.
Website that offers a few classic books for children. While the site is offered only in English, there are books in 12 languages.
Website offered in: French.
Books for children and teenagers.
Dargaud is offering ten comic books that can be read online free of charge for children and teenagers.
Website offered in: French.
Books for all ages.
Website to loan ebooks. There is a great selection of books. You need to create an online free account and confirm that you live in America to loan books. You can either read them online, or download them and open the books with Adobe Digital Editions (but you will need to make an account with Adobe too).
Réseau des bibliothèques de Montréal
Website offered in: French and English. Some pages are only offered in French.
Books for everyone.
Ebook loan site for English books of Montreal’s city libraries. You need to be a member of the Montreal city libraries to borrow ebooks, or you can register online.
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Website offered in: French and English. Some pages are only offered in French.
Books for everyone.
Ebook loan site for the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (Banq). It has a big selection of ebooks and audiobooks. You have to have a library card, or register online for their online services.
Tips and tricks on managing anxiety
Tips and tricks on managing anxiety
Reliable sources of information
Reliable sources of information
With everything that is happening right now with the COVID-19 it is important to find reliable sources of information and to avoid panic.
Check our infographic for reliable sources and sites of information.
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