BENTON, Ark. — Some businesses are stepping up virtually to keep kids busy while they are stuck at home.
"You can either give in or give it all you got, and we are a business that gives it all we’ve got,” said Brooke Plack, owner of Benton’s Connect Academy for Children and Empire Cheerleading.
"We started doing 'how to' tutorials,” said Plack. “We did a 'How to Tie your Shoe' this week."
Plack believes keeping kids busy is important for their mental health.
She's offering not only 'how to' tutorials, but free community live gym lessons online.
"Kids can get active together and get moving,” said Plack. “Just because we are home doesn't mean we have to be stuck on the couch the whole time."
In Conway, Jim Skelton is doing the same. But instead, using his Conway Institute of Music to keep kids learning and becoming creative.
"All of our teachers are teaching from home, we are using Zoom,” said Skelton. “We teach lessons on what we call the popular instruments, the guitar, voice, piano, drums."
Skelton is providing students and the community with free music lessons online with one-on-one time with an instructor.
"We have over 40 hours a week of free lessons,” said Skelton. “We basically have a closed Facebook group where these lessons take place.
For both, it’s not just about a business, but passion, too.
“We do this to create bonds and develop these children into the adults they'll be one day,” said Plack.
To find out more about free story times at Connect, gym lessons at Empire, or music lessons at Conway Institute of Music, you can find a contact for each business on their Facebook pages.