Best of the Week Podcast

This week Ryan spoke to Billy O'Callaghan about his new novel 'Life Sentences'; Principal of Templemary National School, Chuck Dunford; Adrian Dunbar on filming series 6 of 'Line of Duty'; And author Liz Nugent about her awkward encounter with Elvis Costello.

News Round-Up of the Day

The stories and headlines of the day that grabbed Ryan's attention.

Online Resources and Virtual Tours

Ryan mentioned during the week that online resources / virtual tours for kids would be helpful for homeschoolers.

Here's a list of some useful sites - add your own suggestions in the comments if you wish! 

Interactive Tours for Kids:

Dublin Zoo - kids can watch live webcams of the animals and look them up in their Animal Encyclopedia: https://www.dublinzoo.ie/animals/our-animals/

Children's Section of Áras an Uachtaráin - see inside the Áras, learn about the President (Who is He, What Does He Do, Where Does He Live) and then take the quiz and test your knowledge: https://president.ie/en/childrens-section

Dublinia - a fully interactive tour where you can learn all about the Viking and Medieval history of Dublin: https://dublinia.ie/online-learning/

Virtual Tours:

Cork City Gaol - opened in 1824 but now operating as a museum, you can take a tour of the jail here: http://www.storywise.ie/.../Cork_City_Gaol_Virtual_Tour.html

The Cliffs of Moher - you can take a look around the Cliffs here: https://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/google-360-inside-tour/

The Giant's Causeway: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/.../take-a-virtual-tour... 

Enniskillen Castle Museum: https://www.enniskillencastle.co.uk/

Some other online resources:

The RTE Home School Hub is a great resource: https://www.rte.ie/learn/

and 

TG4's Cúla 4: https://www.cula4.com/en/ for both primary and secondary students.

Ask about Ireland - has a dedicated "Learning Zone" for kids to learn about Ireland's history and geography: http://www.askaboutireland.ie/

National Geographic: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

NASA's Kids Club - lots of science and space resources for kids: https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html

Quizzes and Word Searches

Maybe create your own quizzes or get the kids to create them themselves?! If they don't want to do that, there are a few websites that have ready-made quizzes...

EdPuzzle - Free to sign up and you can search through hundreds of quizzes made by teachers (eg. Junior Cert History): https://edpuzzle.com/

Kahoot - another place to find free quizzes on practically any topic - can be used as a learning tool for parents: www.kahoot.com

Another tip for interactive fun is to build your own word search - pick 30 words and the computer will make your own word search: https://thewordsearch.com/maker/

Birdsong

After Ryan played a recording of birds singing outside his house this morning, Niall Hatch of Birdwatch Ireland joined him on the line to help identify the birds and explain why we're hearing them more and more at this time of year.

Mootsy and Me

Mother and daughter, Lindsay Myers and Tara Canniffe, joined Ryan on the line to tell him how they teamed up during lockdown to write and illustrate a very special children's book.

'Mootsy and the Awfully Big Bite!' is available now in local bookshops and online at mootsyandme.com

Kids Know Stuff

Joni joined Ryan on the line to take part in our Kids Know Stuff quiz and share her story of a memorable encounter with Joe Biden.