Free Resources to Keep Active and Engaged During Social Distancing

[Lee Cruz]

Thank you Fair Haven Community Healthcare for this list of FREE Resources to Keep Active and Engaged During Social Distancing , Includes Art & Culture, Fitness and Sports, Education including learning another language, Mediation and Mindfulness, Hobbies and many other resources. 

 

Affordable Internet & Phone Access 

• The state website provides comprehensive information about obtaining internet during COVID-19. In the state of CT, all privately-operatedWifihotspots are now public and free to use. Verizon, Comcast, AT&T and T-Mobile have either waived overage charges or are offering free unlimited data for patients with existing plans for 60 days. CT.gov COVID-19 Internet Resources  

 

Arts & Culture 

Museums 

• The Louvre: You don't have to book a ticket to Paris to check out some of the famous pieces in the world's largest art museum. The Louvre has free online tours of three famous exhibits, including Egyptian Antiquities. 
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: The works of Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Jeff Koons, and Franz Marc are just some of the 625 artists whose work are a part of the Guggenheim's Collection Online. 
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: Move at your own pace through the 360-degree room-by-room tour of every exhibit in the museum. 

• Van Gogh Museum: You can get up close and personal with the impressionist painter's most famous work thanks to Google Arts & Culture. 
• Getty Museum: Los Angeles's premiere gallery has two virtual tours, including "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry," which is a closer look at food in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. 
• The Vatican Museum: The Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, and Raphael's Room, are just some of the sites you can see on the Vatican's virtual tour. 
• Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum: Madrid's must-see art museum has the works of some of the continent's most celebrated artists like Rembrandt and Dali available online. 
• Georgia O’Keeffe Museum: Six virtual exhibits are available online from this museum named for the "Mother of American modernism." 

• National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City: Dive into the pre-Hispanic history of Mexico with 23 exhibit rooms full of Mayan artifacts. 
• British Museum, London: The Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies are just a couple of things that you're able to see on a virtual tour of the museum. 
• NASA: Both Virginia's Langley Research Center and Ohio's Glenn Research Center offer online tours for free. Also, you can try some "augmented reality experiences" via The Space Center Houston's app. 
• National Women's History Museum: Have a late International Women's Day celebration with online exhibits and oral histories from the Virginia museum. 
• Metropolitan Museum of Art: Though the Met Gala was cancelled this year, you can still have a peak at the The Costume Institute Conversation Lab, which is one of the institution's 26 online exhibits. 

• High Museum of Art, Atlanta: This museum's popular online exhibits include "Civil Rights Photography" — photos that capture moments of social protest like the Freedom Rides and Rosa Park's arrest. 
• Detroit Institute of Arts: Mexican art icon Frida Kahlo is the focal point of two of the four available online exhibits. 
• Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: The Golden Age of Dutch art is highlighted in this museum which includes the work of Vermeer and Rembrandt. 
• National Museum of the United States Air Force: You can't take a ride in Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidential airplane, but you can check it out, in addition to other military weapons and aircraft, online in the Air Force's official museum. 
• MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art): New York's extensive collection is available for view online. 

• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: The 16 virtual exhibits include a special section on 21st Century Designer Fashion. 

Art Classes 

• Deb’s Virtual Art Class: Mon-Fri 2:00 PM EST- If your kids are at home and you are looking for ways to tap into their creativity, build their artistic skills or give them a way to de-stress and manage their anxiety then these daily classes are a perfect way to do that. If you have wanted to tap into your creativity and learn new skills and build your brain in new ways or manage your stress this is perfect for you as well. If you are a family looking for ways to connect and be together these classes will offer new ways to use art as a way to grow and learn together. Find at: https://www.facebook.com/TheDrawingMind/ 
• Carson Ellis: Illustrator Carson Ellis is leading art classes for adults and kids alike with her Quarantine Art Club. Every day will have a different drawing prompt to get the creative juices flowing, so after watching a couple quick step-by-step video clips, you can take your eyes off a screen for a change and put pen to paper. Find at: https://www.instagram.com/carsonellis/ 
• Wendy MacNaughton: Wendy MacNaughton, the well-known San Francisco illustrator who did the art for Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, launched a daily drawing class on Instagram for “kids of all ages, parents of kids, parents of parents, aunties/uncles, friends and pets.” MacNaughton is offering the classes via Instagram Live, but if you can’t make the set time, it will be on her Instagram story for 24 hours. Be sure to use the hashtag #drawtogether. Find at: https://www.instagram.com/wendymac/ 

• Trisha Zemp: Designer Trisha Zemp has made her stop-motion kids camp free. You need to take a few steps in order to access it: share her post announcing the free service in your Instagram stories and tag her account. If your account is private, DM her a screenshot of your story. She’ll then DM you a code to access the camp at no cost. Zemp notes that the class is for kids of all ages—which means grownups are welcome too. Find at: https://www.instagram.com/trishazemp/ 
• Jarrett Lerner: Comic book illustrator Jarrett Lerner is releasing a series of illustrated activities each day, including blank comic book pages, a “character-maker,” blank clothes your kids can help design, and a “Finish This Comic” Activity, which is like MadLibs for artists. The activities will be archived on his site so you can access them whenever your kid needs some brain stimulation and you need what one mom called #creativesilence. Find at: https://jarrettlerner.com/activities/ 
• E.B. Goodale: Children’s book author and illustrator E.B. Goodale is launching a drawing class for toddlers aptly called “Drawing with toddlers.” This one has a looser structure: Goodale will take requests for what to draw live, “or you can just sit back and watch the chaos.” It’s specifically geared toward toddlers “because that’s what I’ve got on my hands,” she says in the post, “and their attention span is short. It will be a messy experiment!” Find at: https://www.instagram.com/ebgoodale/ 
• Thyra Heder: Heder is breaking out of the 2D with all sorts of creative projects on her Instagram feed and stories: You can make animal costumes inspired by her book Fraidyzoo out of cardboard and Scotch tape, or even simpler animal masks out of cereal boxes with step-by-step instructions. The best part is you don’t need to leave the house—all of her projects use basic supplies and kitchen staples. Find at: https://www.instagram.com/thyraheder/ 

Concerts 

• Nightly Met Opera Streams: During this extraordinary and difficult time, the Met hopes to brighten the lives of our audience members even while our stage is dark. Each day, a different encore presentation from the company’s Live in HD series is being made available for free streaming on the Met website, with each performance available for a period of 23 hours, from 7:30 p.m. EDT until 6:30 p.m. the following day. The schedule will include outstanding complete performances from the past 14 years of cinema transmissions, starring all of opera’s greatest singers. https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/ 
• Wigmore Hall: Reaching new audiences around the world, Wigmore Hall’s past live streamed events are now available to view on demand. https://wigmore-hall.org.uk/wigmore-hall-live/past-live-streams 
• List of Live Virtual Concerts: As more festivals, performances and concerts are canceled due to the coronavirus shutdown, musicians of all stripes and sizes are taking to social and streaming platforms to play live for their fans. NPR Music is compiling a list of live audio and video streams from around the world, categorized by date and genre, with links out to streaming platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Some will require registration or a subscription, but most will be free, often with digital tip jars and opportunities to directly support artists by buying music and merchandise. https://www.npr.org/2020/03/17/816504058/a-list-of-live-virtual-concerts-to-watch-during-the-coronavirus-shutdown 

 

Fitness & Sports 

• At-home workout videos from Gold’s Gym through May 31. 
• Nightly workouts on the Planet Fitness Facebook page. 

• Online yoga classes from Core Power Yoga. 
• Yoga, HIIT, and barre classes via Down Dog fitness mobile apps through July 1. 
• Best online workout resources: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/reviewedcom/2020/04/02/best-online-fitness-classes-working-out-home/5067270002/ 
• Peloton: Peloton offers thousands of strength, yoga, stretching, boot camp and cardio workouts on its app, as well as meditation exercises and outdoor running coaching. Peloton has extended its 30-day free trial period to 90 days, which you can sign up for through April 30. https://www.onepeloton.com/app?mod=article_inline 
• Daily Burn: Stream thousands of yoga, barre, pilates, cardio, strength training and high intensity workouts. Daily Burn is currently extending its 30-day free trial to 60 days, with premium access to all new members to boot. https://dailyburn.com/landing?mod=article_inline 

• CorePower YOGA: The country’s largest yoga studio chain is giving everyone free access to a collection of online classes while its 200 locations are closed. https://www.corepoweryogaondemand.com/keep-up-your-practice?mod=article_inline 
• The 7-Minute Workout: Inspired by the 7-minute workouts featured in the New York Times, this app provides brief high-intensity interval training (HIIT) exercises that can be done from home. From the NYT article, “even a few minutes of training at an intensity approaching your maximum capacity produces molecular changes within muscles comparable to those of several hours of running or bike riding.”  

 

Meditation/Mindfulness 

• Yoga with Adriene: When it comes to online yoga classes, over 6 million people trust Adriene. In the playlists, you’ll find 30-day challenges for regular yoga practice, which work equally well for complete beginners and people who love sweating at gyms. Plus, Adriene and her doggie are super cute — so you’ll definitely enjoy their company.  

https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene 

• Be Focused: The chances are your mind is wandering a lot more when you’re working or studying at home. Too many distractions, a fridge being the most cruel of all. Be Focused is the best utility to keep those distractions away. The app helps you bring every small task into a to-do list and tracks how much time you spend on each of them.  
• Guided Meditations: Guided meditations are offered freely by Tara Brach, Ph.D. https://www.tarabrach.com/guided-meditations/ 
• InsightTimer: InsightTimer has over 10,000 free meditations to search from. You can find these meditations in the app or just use the links below. 

• Coronavirus Anxiety (14 min) - https://insighttimer.com/giovanni/guided-meditations/releasing-coronavirus-anxiety 

• Brief Body Scan by Happiness Insight (4 min) - https://insighttimer.com/happinessinsight/guided-meditations/brief-body-scan 
• Short Body Scan by Dzung Vo (4 min)-  https://insighttimer.com/dzungvo/guided-meditations/short-body-scan 
• Grounding Meditation by Susan Sweetwater (5 min)- https://insighttimer.com/susansweetwater/guided-meditations/grounding-meditation-6 
• Sacred Pause by Happiness Insight (3 min)- https://insighttimer.com/happinessinsight/guided-meditations/sacred-pause 
• Soothing Breath by Happiness Insight (6 min) - https://insighttimer.com/happinessinsight/guided-meditations/soothing-breath 

• Loving-Kindness Meditation by Dzung Vo (5 min) - https://insighttimer.com/dzungvo/guided-meditations/loving-kindness-meditation-5 
• Breathing Space by Happiness Insight (3 min)- https://insighttimer.com/happinessinsight/guided-meditations/breathing-space-4 

• UCLA Mindful: Created by the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, the app offers basic meditations, meditation for people suffering from chronic disease, and a podcast. The app is also available in Spanish.  
• Smiling Mind: Not-for-profit mindfulness app that offers meditation programs tailored to different issues, including sleep, workplace stress, etc. Also offers multiple programs tailored to children/adolescents. Also developed by researchers/health professionals.  
• Stop, Breath & Think: Offers a more structured experience for those interested in mindfulness. Daily check-ins regarding mood. Also offers meditation walks and acupressure videos. The premium subscription offers longer meditations and costs $59/year.   

Educational 

Educational Resources 

• Free Internet Service: If you’re worried about how you’ll access your online classes without public hotspots, Comcast is offering free internet service to new customers who qualify as “low-income” for 60 days. They’re also providing unlimited data and higher internet speed to their customers during the pandemic. If you don’t fall within this qualification or aren’t within the Comcast service area, Charter Communications is also offering free internet service to households with K-12 or college students. 

• Audio books: https://stories.audible.com/discovery 
• Adobe Creative Suite and Portfolio: Adobe is providing free at-home access to its Creative Suite to students whose schools (both K-12 and higher education) provide lab access on campus. This resource is available through May 31 and can be accessed by requesting it from your school. If you are an APU student who would like to request access, fill out an Adobe Request form. College students can also take advantage of Adobe Portfolio, the website-building software designed for creating online portfolios. This offer is separate from the Creative Suite, includes unlimited pages and hosting, and is available for 60 days. 
• Video Conferencing: While you may already be using a video conferencing platform, it’s worth recognizing that there are multiple software available, and many are giving complimentary access to premium services as students are required to go digital. As you start setting up virtual meetings for group projects, or if you just want to check in with friends and family, look into Google Hangouts Meet, Zoom, and Adobe Connect, which is offering free access through July 1. 
• Online Library Resources: Although many public libraries are closed temporarily, their online options are still active and accessible. Don’t have a library card? Use the Libby by Overdrive mobile app to get an instant library card and access thousands of free ebooks and audiobooks. You can also access free books, movies, software, and more from libraries around the world through Internet Archive. 
• SoftMaker Productivity Suite: SoftMaker Office is essentially a Microsoft Office alternative, and for the next six months, they’re offering free access to their entire suite to students of all ages. Plus, they’ve made it clear that this resource will be maintained throughout the length of the pandemic, so the offer may be extended if needed. 

• RightNow Media: This Bible study streaming service is offering free access to a limited video library to support the spiritual development of those affected by the Coronavirus. You can also check with your church or school to see if they offer full access to the RightNow Media complete library. 

Free Online Courses 

• Free Ivy League online courses: The Ivy League schools are highly selective and extremely hard to get into. But the good news is that all these universities now offer free online courses across multiple online course platforms. So far, they’ve created over 500 courses, of which around 450 are still active. Class Central has made a collection of all these, which you can explore below. https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/ivy-league-free-online-courses-a0d7ae675869/ 
• edX: This website offers you a range of courses in a number of areas, one of which is history. Through it, you can learn world history and topics include everything from ancient Greece to recent history, European art history, the history of religions and more. 
• Class Central: Learn history with free online courses from Wesleyan University, Tel Aviv University, the University of Virginia and other top universities around the world. 

• Coursera: This site also offers a variety of courses, with history courses exploring ancient and modern events and social trends. Explore topics like war, imperialism, and globalization, or explore the history of particular groups or periods through numerous courses. 
• Open Culture: This website offers free history courses from leading universities in the world. You can download audio and video contests directly to your computer, mobile phone or mp3 player. 
• Acadoceo: Many universities and colleges offer their online history courses. There are 110 free online history courses on this page for you to go through. 
• SchoolYourself:  Learning math online doesn't have to be boring - this site offers free interactive lessons from award-winning Harvard professors. 
• Alison: The website offers courses in a wide range of math subjects. Beginners can start with basic level courses, but everyone can find lessons based on their own level of knowledge. 

• Codecademy: An interactive free programming course used by 45 million people in seven years. Through this course you can learn how to create a website or learn how to analyze data. 
• Platzi: Professional courses with live lectures and expert lecturers in the fields of programming, marketing, design and business. 
• Bit Degree - Bit Degree offers a bunch of free courses that range from programming to game development. There are several programming languages, but the most popular are HTML, PHP, Javascript and SQL. 
• FreeCodeCamp - The website offers courses and the opportunity to learn programming by participating in a variety of challenges. Some of the programming languages ​​you can learn are HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, Node.js, React.js. 
• Data Camp - Provides tutorials and courses on working with data. These skills are very useful in many fields of work. 

• Dataquest - Learn Python, R, SQL, Data Visualization, Data Analysis. The website offers 60 free lessons. 
• Metis - This course serves as an introduction to knowing how to work with data. You can learn all about data collection, cleaning and consolidation, exploratory analysis and data visualization. 
• GCF LearnFree - A free guide offers access to 10 basic lessons and five extras, including a quiz that lets you test your skills. These modules are designed for beginners and make it easy to learn Photoshop from the beginning. 
• Photoshop Essentials - You can find a Photoshop guide on their website or their YouTube channel. Some lessons are basic, while others focus on modifying images, such as changing the eye color or hairstyle of the person in the photo. 
• Learn out Loud - The website offers a variety of free lectures. You can renew or expand your knowledge in sociology, philosophy, psychology, and lectures are available on audio and video. 

Learn a Foreign Language 

• Duolingo: On this website you can learn many world languages ​​from English, German, Italian, French, Spanish to Polish, Russian, Chinese and many more. Research has shown that with 34 hours of study on this site, you can achieve the same level of knowledge to a full semester language course at a foreign language school. 
• Rosetta Stone: The grandfather of language companies is offering free three-month subscriptions to learn any of 22 languages. 
• Babbel: The course hub just opened up three months of free classes in a dozen languages. 
• Fable Cottage: These fun audio and video stories in French, German, Spanish, and Italian are usually locked under subscription, but are now freely accessible. 

• Conjuguemos: This teachers’ mecca of games, activities, and worksheets in seven languages (including Latin and Korean) is perfect for building an awesome curriculum of the nuts and bolts—verbs, grammar, and vocab. Free during the outbreak. 
• iCulture: Don’t miss Carnegie Learning’s immersion package of videos, articles, and songs in French, Spanish, or German, which are free through June. 
• Mango: The company provides high-speed learning in 70 languages for companies and schools. Its online language portal is freely accessible. 
• Memrise: Users who have learned a language through this website write about how the site helped them learn the language and have fun. They also won the Google Play Awards for Best App. 
• Linguist: Through this website you can learn foreign languages ​​or things you need. You can progress quickly because you can skip material that you do not need to study or practice, and the app is available over the web as well as Android and iOS. 

• HelloTalk: This website offers you free courses in over 150 languages ​​and has over 15 million users and learn the language in contact with native speakers. You can talk to them via SMS, voice messaging and calls or video calls. 

 

Other Hobbies 

Theme Parks 

• Walt Disney World: Set aside some time, because there's plenty to see here. Virtual tours you can take include Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot, just to name a few. There are also unofficial YouTube videos that feel just like you're on famous rides like the Frozen Ever After ride, It's a Small World, Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!, and Pirates of the Caribbean. 

• LEGOLAND Florida Resort: The Great Lego Race and Miniland USA are just two of the attractions you can check out in a virtual tour of the park. 
• SeaWorld Orlando: The virtual tour of Seaworld includes a tour of Discovery Cove and the option to "ride" the steel roller coaster Mako. 

Cooking Classes 

• Online cooking classes from Michelin-starred chef: Even if you hate cooking, when else will you have the chance to learn from a Michelin chef? Massimo Bottura, whose name is associated with one of Italy’s finest restaurants, Osteria Francescana, recently announced the launch of his Instagram cooking course. It’s called Kitchen Quarantine and it’s a fun video guide to cooking basic stuff at home. https://www.instagram.com/massimobottura/ 
• Instructables: If you've ever wanted to learn how to cook, this is the class for you! By following along, you'll learn all the fundamentals of cooking you need to create delicious meals. https://www.instructables.com/class/Cooking-Class/ 

• The Culinary Cook: Are you looking for resources on how to cook online that will help you in your quest in the culinary arts? Maybe you are hoping to find some information on where to begin your culinary journey. There are several resources to help you get started. https://theculinarycook.com/learning-to-cook-online/ 

Nature 

• Explore Live Cams: Explore live cams of nature including the Northern Lights, Santa Monica Beach, Redwood Forest River, Lake Tahoe, etc. https://explore.org/livecams/zen-den/northern-lights-cam?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8r3n3ofN6AIVDYiGCh1NqwYzEAAYASAAEgIdWvD_BwE 
• The Cincinnati Zoo: Check in around 3 p.m., because that's the time the Zoo holds a daily Home Safari on its Facebook Live Feed. 
• Atlanta Zoo: The Georgia zoo keeps a "Panda Cam" livestream on its website. 

• Georgia Aquarium: Sea-dwellers like African penguins and Beluga Whales are the stars of this aquarium's live cam. 
• Houston Zoo: There are plenty of different animals you can check in on with this zoo's live cam, but we highly recommend watching the playful elephants. 
• The Shedd Aquarium: This Chicago aquarium shares some pretty adorable behind-the-scenes footage of their residents on Facebook. 
• San Diego Zoo: With what may be the most live cam options, this zoo lets you switch between koalas, polar bears, and tigers in one sitting. 
• Monterey Bay Aquarium: It can be Shark Week every week thanks to live online footage of Monterey Bay's Habitat exhibit. 

• National Aquarium: Walk through tropical waters to the icy tundra in this floor-by-floor tour of the famous, Baltimore-based aquarium.