A new year of COVID parenting starts this week. These virtual amusements can help.

New years always seem to bring new resolutions, including the unspoken so-as-not-to-jinx-yourself kind. As we silently strive to resist bread and beer, to read more with our kids, and to all get in some kind of exercise, somehow, there’s one thing for sure:

You don’t have to speak a resolution aloud to make it happen, but it does help if you put it on the calendar. Here are a few reliable sources of online educational fun that happen with enough regularity that you can schedule them, in Sharpie.

4 p.m. Thursday, RSVP on Facebook @outschool, free, event is for parents & guardians, classes for ages 4–18

If the virtual school Outschool has popped up on your feed in an endless loop, well, that means you probably have someone school age in your home — and that the internet is watching you. Newbies are invited to a virtual open house to learn more about the courses hosted by the fast-growing, quick-responding, trend-oriented San Francisco-based company that has hosted upward of 100,000 live online classes in its young life. Meet instructors and ask other parents about Outschool’s one-time book clubs, Hamilton trivia games, and longer-term courses in phonics, the stock market, multiplication, Minecraft, and hundreds more subjects. Prices from $10 per class.

6–7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Jan. 5–Feb. 9, register online at offmiccomedyschool.com, $225 (ages 7–12)

Actor, singer, dancer, and rapper Jay Ellis leads a six-week improvisation workshop for kids who could use more creativity, confidence, and laughter in their lives. Off Mic, a Philadelphia-based virtual comedy school, hosts the course and others, including pro comic Lamarr Todd’s Standup for Teens, for kids ages 12 through 17 (Jan. 10–Feb. 28, $295).

Posts 2 p.m. Wednesdays on Facebook @philadelphiazoo, free (ages 3 & up)

Since March, the Philadelphia Zoo has kept its social media game strong. In 2021, their clever educators plan to keep up the polished posting to Facebook weekly, with a promise to keep us feeling like we’re there for the big moments, like when sloth bear cub Kematee had her first birthday party, or the new giraffe made her big zoo debut.

10:30–11:15 a.m. Fridays through March 26, day-before registration required via philamuseum.org/calendar, under “Hands-On Activities,” free (ages 4–7)

It’s time to get the kids off the iPads and back into art-making, even if it’s still happening … on their iPads. Kids join a Zoom meeting to talk and sketch, based on a monthly theme dreamed up by the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s education department. This month’s inspiration: “All that Jazz.” Space is limited.