Due to the ebbs and flows of Covid-19 transmission levels, many find themselves tucked away at home due to illness or avoidance of public space during high Covid-19 transmission periods.

We’ve compiled below some items of interest to keep you busy –

Ways to stay busy while social distancing

• Write in your journal or start a blog
• Catch up on TV shows
• Learn a new language
• Read a book (or three)
• Take a walk (fresh air is allowed)
• Organize
• Create a collage
• Listen to music
• Gather clothes to donate
• Face-time family & friends
• Take time to reflect
• Donate to charity
• Start a garden
• Listen to podcasts
• Create something
• Fix things around the house that have been neglected
• Make a photo album
• Play with your pets
• Learn calligraphy
• Meditate, stretch, do yoga
• Catch up on sleep

Things to do with kids at home

• Use online school resources for educational purposes
• Limit electronics. Implement studying, journaling, reading, etc
• A puzzle
• Make a bird feeder
• Have a tea party
• Make slime
• Learn some magic tricks
• Play outside (flashlights, tents, etc)
• Dance parties
• Teach them to cook
• Have a tea party
• Play dress-up
• Draw with sidewalk chalk
• Write letters to family and friends
• Play board games

Links and such for kids

• They can watch the beluga whale webcam set up at the Georgia Aquarium
• The Cincinnati Zoo is highlighting different animals on their live-stream each day at 3pm EDT
• NASA astronauts read kids stories from space here
• ABCMouse Learning Academy has many lessons and educational resources that kids can use
• Music to Your Home is the spot for online music lessons
• Teach them to bird watch. Use the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (birds.cornell.edu) to identify what you see
• Artist Jarrett J. Krosoczka hosts a “Draw Every Day with JJK” daily at 2 p.m. on YouTube
• Hour Of Code has free 1-hour coding tutorials and activities for all ages, interests and skill levels
• Try Cosmic Kids Yoga to get them moving
• The Metropolitan Opera is streaming operas for free
• Always wanted to see some of the USA’s National Parks? Check out a full list of the ones you can tour virtually here.
• Check out the view from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France here
• Virtual roller coaster ride, anyone? TheCoasterViews has rides from Disney, Six Flags, Cedar Point and more. 

Links We Love

Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

Mental Floss – A Destination for Curious People – you’ll discover amazing things like: why Paraguay loves Rutherford B. Hayes; hilarious Victorian slang you can incorporate into current conversations; the 100 best movies to stream right now; why both ravens and crows form—and hold—grudges; and how a famous board game was used to bust soldiers out of POW camps in World War II.

Smithsonian magazine places a Smithsonian lens on the world, looking at the topics and subject matters researched, studied and exhibited by the Smithsonian Institution—science, history, art, popular culture and innovation—and chronicling them every day for our diverse readership.

Roadside America – Your Online Guide to Offbeat Tourist Attractions