Ways to stay happy and engaged at home
Whilst many of our regular social activities have been ruled out by Covid-19, there are still plenty of things we can do from home.
Wellbeing – things to do
We’ve put together a long list of things to do at home, whether you’re feeling cultural, looking for a flight of fantasy or you want to learn something new. Who knows? You could be speaking French by Tuesday!
ENTERTAINMENT
THEATRE
National Theatre – Free full length plays every Thursday on YouTube
The BBC has announced a number of theatre productions as part of Culture in Quarantine, its “virtual festival of the arts”, including new filmed recordings of Mike Bartlett’s play Albion, Emma Rice’s Wise Children, and six Royal Shakespeare Company productions including its 2016 Hamlet and 2018 Macbeth.
From Broadway – free plays and musicals you can stream. http://filmedonstage.com
OPERA AND BALLET
The Royal Opera House is offering free online broadcasts that you can access anywhere, at any time A range of ROH productions can be accessed for free via its Facebook and YouTube channels. It is also offering a free 30-day trial on Marquee TV, an arts streaming service.
Each day the Metropolitan Opera in New York is making a different presentation available for free on its website. The performances will go live at 7:30 p.m. ET and will remain active for 20 hours. MetOpera.org
ART
For 10 of the world’s best virtual art gallery tours see list and links at here
For a list of 500 museums with virtual tours:
The list defaults to listing some of the most popular options first, but you can also sort them in alphabetic order or look at where they all are on a map.
Some of the most prestigious institutions in the world put collections online for you to view, including:
- The Getty Museum– Los Angeles
- Musée d’Orsay– Paris
- The British Museum– London
CONCERTS
The Montreux jazz festival has just made more than 50 festival concerts available to stream for free, including performances by Ray Charles, Wu-Tang Clan, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Deep Purple and Carlos Santana. You can access them for free for 30 days. Go to stingray.com/FREEMJF1M and enter the code FREEMJF1M.
BOOKS AND AUDIO BOOKS
Audible, part of Amazon.com, has released a collection of hundreds of free audiobooks for children.
stories.audible.com/start-listen
Cambridge Uni has provided free access here to more than 700 book in it library till end of May.
MOVIES
View the top 10 from Atlantic.com here
View the best family movies from around the world plus lesson plans for kids here
EDUCATIONAL
LEARN SOMETHING NEW
Free taster courses aimed at those considering Open University (UK), but everyone can access it. Adult level, but some e.g. nature and environment courses could be of interest to young people.
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become a growing trend in online. http://www.mooc-list.com has a complete listing of online courses including from Harvard, Yale, etc. If your interests are more specific see below:
Coursera is one of the most well-known sites for online education. It has over 400 courses in more than 20 categories, created by 85 Universities from 16 countries. Their courses are available in 12 different languages.
EdX is another non-profit course site created by founding partners Harvard and MIT and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. EdX offers MOOCs and interactive online classes in subjects including law, history, science, engineering, business, social sciences, computer science, public health, and artificial intelligence (AI). It has partnerships with institutions in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, China and Korea.
MIT has their own open courseware site and most of the materials used in the teaching of almost all of MIT’s subjects are available on the Web, free of charge. They have more than 2,000 courses available.
Stanford has online and open courses. It offers many self-paced courses which may be easier for some.
CodeAcademy teaches programming and coding in online, free and interactive lessons.
BROADENING THE MIND
Khan Academy
Especially good for maths and computing for all ages but other subjects at Secondary level. Note this uses the U.S. grade system but it’s mostly common material.
Futurelearn
Free to access 100s of courses, only pay to upgrade if you need a certificate in your name (own account from age 14+ but younger learners can use a parent account).
Aimed at Year 10 upwards. Tons of free revision content. Paid access to higher-level material.
Blockly
Learn computer programming skills – fun and free.
Scratch
Creative computer programming
Ted Ed
All sorts of engaging educational videos
National Geographic Kids
Activities and quizzes for younger kids.
Duolingo
Learn languages for free. Web or app.
Mystery Science
Free science lessons
Crash Course
YouTube videos on many subjects
FOR THE KIDS
The Kids Should See This
Wide range of cool educational videos:
Crash Course Kids
As above for a younger audience
Crest Awards
Science awards you can complete from home.
Paw Print Badges
Free challenge packs and other downloads. Many activities can be completed indoors. Badges cost but are optional.
Tinkercad
All kinds of making.
Prodigy Maths
Is in U.S. grades, but good for UK Primary age.
CBeebies Radio
Listening activities for the younger ones.
Nature Detectives
A lot of these can be done in a garden, or if you can get to a remote forest location!
Oxford Owl for Home
Lots of free resources for Primary age
Big History Project
Aimed at Secondary age. Multidisciplinary activities.
Geography Games
Geography gaming!
Blue Peter Badges
If you have a stamp and a nearby post box.
The Artful Parent
Good, free art activities
Red Ted Art
Easy arts and crafts for little ones
The Imagination Tree
Creative art and craft activities for the very youngest.
Toy Theatre
Educational online games
DK Find Out
Activities and quizzes
Twinkl
This is more for printouts, and usually at a fee, but they are offering a month of free access.
Free language lessons: Rosetta Stone is giving free access for schoolchildren to use its language courses for the next three months, saving parents the usual £50 fee.
Go to rosettastone.co.uk/lp/freeforkids/
Home safari Facebook live from http://cincinnatizoo.org
Wow in the World – Bored Out Of Your Bonkerballs? – Why Having Nothing To Do Can Be Good For You! | Listen via Stitcher for Podcasts here
- Maths for ages 4-12 with Carol Vorderman
- English with David Walliams
- Music with Myleene Klass
- Dance with Darcey Bussel
- History with Dan Snow (free for 30-days)
