With the official guidance to stay home, finding things to keep us entertained indoors is crucial for keeping us sane. Luckily, there are literally thousands of free resources online
Whether it’s learning a new skill or having a bit of fun, here’s a list of free, online isolation activities. These could be a lifesaver for busy parents too.
Go to the Zoo?
Loads of zoos have started to film virtual tours. So we can get up close with red pandas and penguins from the comfort of our own homes.
- Chester Zoo does regular online tours through its facebook page
- Edinburgh zoo has live streams in different animal enclosures, from koalas to tigers
- For those of us who are aquatic animal lovers, Georgia Aquariam in the US has livestreams of its fishy friends running every day.
Get crafty!
Getting involved in a craft activity can help reduce stress. There are loads of free craft resources online. Origami Way have twenty free basic origami tutorials, where we can learn everything from how to make a bird to a walrus.
Bluprint is a website packed full of video lessons with step by step instructions on how to make loads of different crafty things. They’ve made all content free until the 17th April.
If you’re more of a musical person, guitar makers Fender are offering three months free on the fender play site. It’s loaded with vids for beginners and experts alike, and has sections for guitar, bass and even ukulele.
Take a Virtual Tour?
Ever wanted to go to the Met Museum in New York? Or maybe, staying closer to home, going on a tour of the Victoria & Albert Museum? Well, now we can (sort of). Arts and Culture (made by Google) has a database of galleries and museums that we can take a virtual tour of. There are hundreds of collections to choose from.
Learn a Language?
The Open Culture website has thousands of free online courses. In among the courses are forty-eight different language courses. As well as popular European languages like French and Spanish, they also have courses on everything from Bulgarian to Sign Language.
The BBC also has a dedicated language section on its website, with forty different languages to choose from.
Keep fit!
Keeping as mentally and physically healthy as we can when staying indoors is crucial. Government advice is that we can exercise for up to an hour outside each day as long as we observe social distancing.
- The NHS have fourteen different gym-free workouts
- There are loads of home workout and yoga videos on youtube, and Joe Wicks has been doing a daily workout for kids (and adults)
- We ran an article recently, called Get fit for Free. You can read that here
PS – Keep the mind fit by reading any of the 60,000 free online books at the Project Gutenberg website. The ebooks are all free to read, and the site has loads of old classics, from Shakespeare to Charles Dickens.
Listening Books have thousands of audio books online for free, too. Membership is required, but it’s free and takes a minute to sign up. Audible have also made loads of audiobooks free.
For more ideas and activities, have a look at this page on the chatterpack website, featuring hundreds of free resources.
For more tips on getting through self-isolation, keep an eye on the Self-Isolation and Wellbeing section of our Corona-Finance guidance service. There are a growing number of frequently asked questions.
If you have a question you can’t see the answer to, use the online form to ask us. We’ll get back to you within forty-eight hours: https://quidsinmagazine.com/coronafinance/corona-finance-self-isolation-wellbeing/
