We’ve been scouring through the nooks and crannies of the internet to find the best of the best. These links will take you to the websites of great people and companies that are offering all of us moments of joy, peace and strength in this unprecedented time. From Scolio-Pilates, we wish you and yours the very best of health.
Week 1
Eleven journaling prompts for stress relief. Start writing now.
Visit Headspace for free meditations and more. Listen now.
A party might be canceled but hope will not. Read now.
Week 2
A do-it-yourself guide to a counter-top herb garden. Start gardening!
Follow the link to the Met Opera’s streaming schedule. Start singing!
Teacher Jack Kornfield and more for offer meditations for this time we are together in being alone. Listen now.
Week 3
Transcribe. The Library of Congress launched the By The People project in 2018, which allows you to help them transcribe, review, and tag digitized materials from their collection. You—yes, you—can dramatically deepen the historical record, helping to catalog documents by the suffragettes, Red Cross founder, Clara Barton; poet, Walt Whitman or even centuries of Spanish legal documents.
Write. Stretch your writing skills with poetry. But before you start a class, here’s what to consider when choosing a class. Be prepared, it’s going to be a really fun and busy project!
Bald Eagle Web Cam. This is crazy mesmerizing. There are two babies in the nest right now and the parents are in and out. I keep it playing in the browser and stop by to visit from time to time. I looooove it. An added bonus, is that while it’s playing in the background, you can hear all the birdsong of the forest.
Week 4
Batik. Are you doing some sewing these days? Thought about creating your own fabric designs? This is a technique for a no-wax batik technique. Easy-breezy!
The Bird Song Opera! Listen and enjoy. Then share!
Book it! Start an online book club with friends or join an online club today. Use the link to find about 14 online book clubs. My family has started one a club. It’s a great reason to get together and to have a focused topic outside of the “regular topic”.
Week 5
Take a free art class online! From Art Crime to Comics, Psychology of Creativity to Photography basics, you can find art classes at Harvard, MIT, the University of Tokyo and more.
Be inspired by fabric. Are you making masks? Are you making some other creative marvel? These fabrics will inspire you to new heights.
Visit a faraway garden. Take a virtual walk through a castle garden or the garden of Claude Monet. Or how about the Chicago botanic garden? And put it up on your tv screen. It’ll be like you are really there!
Week 6
Volunteer Opportunities. Feeling a bit overwhelmed? Sometimes the very best therapy is helping others in need.
Walk to Meditate. Do you have a hard time being still enough to meditate at home? Try meditating while walking. It’s a mindful way to see your world.
Listen UP! There’s good news to be had out there! And John Krasinski is here to share it with you. This week’s topic? Graduation.
Week 7
Looking for a way to hang out with your family where you don’t have to keep searching for something to talk about or the Zoom session will end? Try watching a movie together! Netflix has set up an app to let us all do just that: Netflix Party.
Swans for Relief. The arts have never been such a precious commodity as they are now. This is a compilation of 32 dancers in 14 countries performing Swan Lake for you. Support the arts however you can. Encouragement, donations or advance ticket purchases.
Have you tried an online game yet? Get your family to join you! And as you know, Uno will be bring all ages together. Enjoy your time with your family and friends!
Week 8
Master Class. Tired of Netflix? Entertain yourself with learning! “Take class from the 80 best minds of our time”, — that’s what the tagline reads on their website. And according to authorities on the subject (my friends), it’s true!
Find a Trail. Ready to get outside? Us too. But we don’t want to get out so badly that we want to be near a hoard of people. Try using this trail site. The reviews will tell you how crowded it is and when is the best time to go. Get outside and enjoy!
Bake Bread. When the stores, quickly emptied of flour and yeast at the beginning of the lockdown, my friend asked with incredulity, “What? We’re all going to stay home and bake bread now?!” Well, apparently, yes. Yes, that’s exactly what we are doing. And you can use this recipe to make bread without yeast. Because that’s in short supply too.
Week 9
Keep “Art”-ing! Ready to look into even more art classes? There are 13 YouTube channels you’ll want to check out. You can learn to paint for free!
Learn to draw Totoro! Do you, or your kids, love this Ghibli studio character as much as I do? Yes? Take this online class class to learn to draw Totoro!
Kayak! One of the troubling things to me about this crisis, is not seeing my son. I actually do get to see him, but not his face. He’s been behind a mask. As a mom, that’s more than a bit disturbing. But…. we went kayaking last weekend. He felt that he was far enough away that he wouldn’t get me sick (his biggest fear). He and his wife, plus me and John, we chatted, laughed and saw each other’s entire faces. We loved every minute of it. I highly recommend. There’s no link here. But just a recommendation to get out and enjoy the water with the ones whose faces you’d love to see.
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