Please enjoy this curated and crowdsourced list of ideas to help entertain and educate our families - and ourselves - while we socially distance and flatten the curve! Are we missing something? Submit your ideas here.

Activity Ideas

  • Virtual Video Chats (consider scheduling weekly friend/family hangouts)
  • Have a “Meme-Off” at dinner each night to help keep the conversation light and spread some love/laugher.
  • Plan a virtual “Family Reunion”
  • Yard Work / Garden Planning / Outdoor activities
  • Host a NetflixParty with your friends.
  • Find a penpal from another country to write letters to (email or snail mail is even better!)
  • Learn a new instrument
  • Cooking/Baking project (or even better, make a family cookbook and share with others)
  • Art projects (learn a new craft, knit, crochet, paint)
  • Music (learn a new instrument, write a song)
  • COVID-19 Living History Project (please see details here)
  • Scavenger Hunt (around house and yard)
  • Museum Field Trip & Scavenger Hunt (please see details here)
  • Family Game Night
  • Rename the rooms in your home, e.g., The bathroom is the spa and your closet is the department store. Your kitchen is a cafe in the morning and a pub or tavern at night. As you refer to these names, every room you visit feels way more exotic. Try it out.
  • Movie Night with fun popcorn flavors (check out this cookbook for ideas!)
  • Building Forts (fun for all ages!)
  • Write a play where the family plays each character and then make a movie
  • Duolingo Language Classes (Free): Pick a language as a family and then have a language night where all practice speaking the language!
  • Learn / Teach a new card game
  • Organize closets, cabinets, etc.
  • House projects (paint, rearrange furniture, decorate, spring cleaning)
  • Change a Habit! Everyone picks one habit a week to work on. Each family member can report back on how they did that week and what they learned. Or, blog about it!
  • Creative Cooking: Find two+ ingredients in your home that need to be used, and make something edible out of it! Then, enjoy!
  • Take Your Child to (Remote) Work Day! Create an office day where your child can participate and learn more about your work.
  • Go on a Virtual Double-Date!
  • Cook with Friends, virtually
  • Start a virtual book club (Feel free to use our book suggestions!)
  • Start a virtual dinner cooking club (e.g., each week, a new member provides ingredient lists and then virtually leads cooking club members though making a special dinner).
  • Do you have a talent? Help educate! Start a virtual class and share with others near and far. You can use zoom or post your classes on YouTube. Classes could be things like learning how to…
  • Knit, crochet, sew
  • Speak Spanish
  • Cook a specific cuisine
  • Build a bat house
  • Paint with watercolors
  • Play an instrument
  • Start a garden
  • And so many, many possibilities!
  • Create a board game exchange: Swap board games by mail with a group of friends near and far.
  • Kids help Kids: Who wants to spearhead a blog featuring kids who talk about how they successfully school from home? We could have schoolers of all ages talk about their experience, connect with other students and even help each other with obstacles.
  • Classmate Lunch Hours: Create regular virtual (video) lunch breaks with your peers. Use Zoom through your school, because it’s free!
  • Students: Work with your school district to find a reading buddy. Read to each other, discuss the books you are reading. Or, even better, read to a younger student once per week.
  • Experiment with new hairstyles and/or make-up
  • Set up a virtual coffee/tea date with a colleague
  • Set up a virtual fitness challenge with your own rules and rewards (bragging rights?). Example:
  • Our goal: Burn enough calories to surpass the number of people that have been infected with the Coronavirus.As of March 18th, more than 215,000 people around the world have been infected with Coronavirus. Let's band together (virtually of course) and burn enough calories in the next 30 days to surpass that amount, in a state of gratitude for our health, and holding every person who has been impacted in our hearts, one calorie at a time.
  • Check out this sample form to capture participants' progress.
  • Go to the movies, with your friend! Hop on a Zoom, Skype or Google Hangout and play a movie together!

Books to Read

Please double-check reading level

Children

  • Luna-Tikes: LUNA-TIKES is a five book series designed to entertain and educate kids. Although the books are geared for kids 0-9 years old, everyone can enjoy these wonderful and whimsical books. They are high-paced rhyming books with amazing messages and lovable characters.
  • Mensa for Kids Reading List: To encourage the joy of reading, the Foundation has developed the Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Program. Earn a commemorative certificate in recognition of your outstanding achievement and get an Excellence in Reading T-shirt, too!
  • Time for Kids: As the world asks more of families and teachers, TIME for Kids salutes you, and we're here to support you! TIME for Kids is in the unique position to help kids understand this unprecedented moment. TIME is providing free access to a library of four grade-specific digital editions of TIME for Kids and Your $ financial literacy magazine. Turnkey teaching tools, with worksheets and quizzes for families or teachers, available at timeforkids.com (K-5)
  • We need ideas! Please submit your ideas here.

Fiction (General)

  • A G-d in Ruins by Leon Uris: Set between the 1940s and 2008, the book follows the life of Quinn Patrick O'Connell, the fictional Democratic candidate for the 2008 United States Presidency, his family, and the life of his opponent, Thornton Tomtree. The book climaxes with the election campaign and its results.
  • A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles: The novel concerns Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, a man ordered by a Bolshevik tribunal to spend the rest of his life in a luxury hotel in the heart of Moscow.
  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: The Alchemist follows the journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who is seeking a treasure.
  • American Dirt by Jeanine Cummis: About the ordeal of a Mexican woman who had to leave behind her life and escape as an undocumented immigrant to the United States with her son.
  • The Dinner by Herman Koch: A slow burn story about a dinner among friends and the secrets which they hold.
  • Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: The novel is about a mixed-race Chinese-American family whose middle daughter Lydia is found drowned in a lake.
  • Heft: A Novel by Liz Moore: Heft is a novel about love and family found in the most unexpected places. A heartwarming novel about larger-than-life characters and second chances.
  • The Help by Kathryn Stockett: The story is about African Americans working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi, during the early 1960s.
  • Life After Life by Kate Atkinson: Life After Life is the first of two novels about the Todd family. The second, A God in Ruins, was published in 2015. Its heroine, Ursula Todd, keeps dying, then dying again.
  • Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng: The novel is about two families living in 1990s Shaker Heights who are brought together through their children.
  • My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh: A literary novel that reads like a memoir and incorporates a healthy dose of mystery. The unnamed protagonist and narrator tells the story of his difficult teen years as he struggles to understand love, responsibility and what it means to grow into a good man.
  • The Pearl that Broke Its Shell by by Nadia Hashimi: Literary debut novel that tells a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See.
  • Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett: Rabbit Cake is a quirky, original, and poignant story of 10 year-old Elvis Babbit as she tries to make sense of her mother's sudden death.
  • Remember Me Like This by Bret Anthony Johnston: Saga that follows a family's agonizing journey toward a sense of unity after Justin, the first-born son, miraculously returns home four years after his kidnapping.
  • Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho: It tells the story of 24-year-old Slovenian Veronika, who appears to have everything in life going for her, but who decides to kill herself.

Historical Fiction

  • All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: Set in occupied France during World War II, the novel centers on a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths eventually cross.
  • The Blood of Flower by Anita Amirrezvani: A sensuous and richly-imagined historical novel that centers on a skilled young carpet weaver, her arranged marriage, and her quest for self-determination in 17th-century Persia.
  • The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor: Inspired by true events, the New York Times bestselling novel The Girl Who Came Home is the poignant story of a group of Irish emigrants aboard RMS Titanic—a seamless blend of fact and fiction that explores the tragedy's impact and its lasting repercussions on survivors and their descendants.
  • Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier: Set in 17th-century Delft, Holland, the novel was inspired by local painter Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring. Chevalier presents a fictional account of Vermeer, the model and the painting.
  • Memories of Violets by Hazel Gaynor: The author of the USA Today and New York Times bestselling novel The Girl Who Came Home has once again created an unforgettable historical novel. Step into the world of Victorian London, where the wealth and poverty exist side by side. This is the story of two long-lost sisters, whose lives take different paths, and the young woman who will be transformed by their experiences.
  • The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah: Tells the story of two French sisters who resist the occupying Nazi forces during World War II
  • The Red Tent by Anita Diamant: It is a first-person narrative that tells the story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah, sister of Joseph. She is a minor character in the Bible, but the author has broadened her story.
  • Secrets of A Charmed Life by Susan Meissner: During World War II England, two sisters are separated by the chaos of wartime. She stood at a crossroads, half-aware that her choice would send her down a path from which there could be no turning back.
  • There, There by Tommy Orange: Tommy Orange writes of the plight of the urban Native American, the Native American in the city, in a stunning novel that grapples with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and profound spirituality, and with a plague of addiction, abuse, and suicide.
  • War Brides by Helen Bryan: War Brides is the story of five young women who come together in a small Sussex village in 1939. From divergent backgrounds they will face pain, hardship, passion and danger, forming a friendship that will last through their lives.
  • The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates: It is a surrealist story set in the pre–Civil War South, concerning a superhuman protagonist named Hiram Walker who possesses photographic memory, but who cannot remember his mother, and is able to transport people over long distances by using a power known as "conduction" which can fold the Earth like fabric and allows him to travel across large areas via waterways.
  • The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden: The plot is based on the real-life story of an Alabama slave owner who sued his wife for divorce in 1840, alleging that the child she had given birth to was not his. All the wife's property was awarded to her husband, including the slave she had been given as a wedding gift.
  • What is the What by Dave Eggers: An autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, but authored by the American writer, Dave Eggers. Mixing fictional and non-fictional elements, Eggers tells the story of Valentino's long and arduous journey from his hometown in Southern Sudan to his present home in Atlanta, Georgia in the USA.

Love/Romance

  • Easy Virtue by Mia Asher: Love is selfish...My name is Blaire.I'm the bad girl.The other woman.The one who never gets the guy in the end.I'm the gold digger.The bitch.The one no one roots for.The one you love to hate.I hate myself too...Everyone has a story. Are you ready for mine?
  • The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan: An American girl finds her prince in this "fun and dishy" (People) royal romance inspired by Prince William and Kate Middleton.
  • We need ideas! Please submit your ideas here.

Mystery/Thriller

  • Before I Sleep by S.J. Watson: The novel is a psychological thriller about a woman suffering from anterograde amnesia. She wakes up every day with no knowledge of who she is and the novel follows her as she tries to reconstruct her memories from a journal she has been keeping.
  • The Dead Key by D.M. Pulley: This superb mystery novel tells the story of two heroines separated by 20 years: 1978’s Beatrice Baker and 1998’s Iris Latch, both of whom become perilously embroiled in the behind-the-scenes dirty dealings at the First Bank of Cleveland.
  • Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline: A visceral thriller, which brings you into the grip of a true sociopath and shows you how, in the quest to survive such ruthlessness, every minute counts.
  • The Girl on a Train by Paul Hawkins: The Girl on the Train is a 2015 psychological thriller novel by British author Paula Hawkins that gives narratives from three different women about relationship troubles and binge drinking
  • Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: On their fifth wedding anniversary, writing teacher Nick Dunne returns home to find his wife Amy missing. Her disappearance receives press coverage, as Amy was the inspiration for her parents' popular Amazing Amy children's books. Detective Rhonda Boney finds poorly concealed evidence of a struggle in the house.
  • The Good Girl by Mary Kubica: An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller that reveals how even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems.
  • Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll: As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she's this close to living the perfect life she's worked so hard to achieve.
  • The Magician's Lie by Greer Macallister: The country’s most notorious female illusionist stands accused of her husband's murder --and she has only one night to convince a small-town policeman of her innocence
  • The Memory Man by David Baldacci: A mystery story of a man who has lost the ability to forget.
  • Missing You by Harlan Coben: In “Missing You,” Coben presents Kat Donovan, a third-generation New York City cop who looks “cute and perky” and “damaged,” as described by her best friend and wing-woman Stacy . Kat's grandfather committed suicide and her father was prone to benders, disappearing from the family home for days at a time.
  • Mud Vein by Tarryn Fisher: When reclusive novelist Senna Richards wakes up on her thirty-third birthday, everything has changed. Caged behind an electrical fence, locked in a house in the middle of the snow, Senna is left to decode the clues to find out why she was taken. If she wants her freedom, she has to take a close look at her past.
  • Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger: "Ordinary Grace" by William Kent Krueger is an exceptionally well-written novel of coming-of-age in a small town in Minnesota during the summer of 1961. This book holds a mystery when one of the five deaths is a murder, but it also speaks of wisdom, secrets, forgiveness, the love of family, faith and miracles.
  • Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight: Reconstructing Amelia is about secret first loves, old friendships, and an all-girls club steeped in tradition. But, most of all, it's the story of how far a mother will go to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she couldn't save.
  • The Stranger by Harlan Coben: Harlan Coben's most shocking thriller yet, proving that a well-placed lie can help build a wonderful life—and a secret has the same explosive power to destroy it. The Stranger appears out of nowhere, perhaps in a bar, or a parking lot, or at the grocery store. His identity is unknown. His motives are unclear.
  • Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight: Harrowing, gripping novel that marries psychological suspense with an emotionally powerful story about a community struggling with the consequences of a devastating discovery.

Nonfiction

  • The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict by The Arbinger Institute: This phenomenal bestseller—over 525,000 copies sold—explores how we often misunderstand the causes of our conflicts and shows us the paths to achieving true peace within ourselves and our relationships.
  • Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow: Farrow recounts the challenges he faced chasing the stories of Harvey Weinstein's decades of alleged rape, sexual assault, and sexual abuse of women, and the case against him.
  • The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp: Creativity is learned, nourished and maintained; for inspiration to flow through us and spring forth from the mind, you must prepare, have rituals that invoke it, to know our creative DNA to the very end.
  • The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living is a daily devotional book of stoic philosophy.
  • Wild by Cheryl Strayed: Cheryl Strayed's memoir of her 1,100-mile solo hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, beginning in the Mojave Desert and hiking through California and Oregon to the Bridge of the Gods into Washington.
  • Zero to One by Peter Thiel: The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.

Science Fiction/Fantasy

  • The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, A Rún by Nagabe, Adrienne Beck (Translator): In a land far away, there were two kingdoms: the Outside, where twisted beasts roamed that could curse with a touch, and the Inside, where humans lived in safety and peace. The girl and the beast should never have met, but when they do, a quiet fairytale begins.
  • The Municipalists: A Novel by Seth Fried: A novel about an unlikely pair of lonely outsiders--one human, one AI--on an adventure to save the great American city of Metropolis.
  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: This science fiction story, set in a dystopia in 2045, follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality game, the discovery of which would lead him to inherit the game creator's fortune.
  • Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente: Valente's science fiction spectacle, where sentient races compete for glory in a galactic musical contest…and the stakes are as high as the fate of planet Earth. A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life.
  • We need ideas! Please submit your ideas here.

Short Stories

  • The Great Frustration by Seth Fried: Channeling Steven Millhauser by way of George Saunders, The Great Frustration is a sparkling debut, equal parts fable and wry satire.
  • We need ideas! Please submit your ideas here.

Young Adult

  • Arson by Estevan Vega: Arson Gable feels like a freak. He can create fire. He never asked for it. He never wanted it. But he can't shut it off. Before now, three things were true: he both loved and despised his grandmother; his life was going nowhere; and he was alone.
  • In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume: The story follows fifteen year old Miri Ammerman and her family and friends as they cope with three plane crashes from December 1951 to February 1952 in their home of Elizabeth, New Jersey.
  • My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult: My Sister’s Keeper tells the story of thirteen-year-old Anna Fitzgerald, who sues her parents for medical emancipation when she discovers she was supposed to donate a kidney to her elder sister Kate, who is gradually dying from acute leukemia.
  • Take Me with You by Catherine Ryan Hyde: Seth and his little brother Henry haven’t had the most stable of upbringings. Their father has been in and out of jail; their mother took off years ago and hasn't been seen since. Life is constantly uncertain - but a twist of fate could be just what they need.
  • Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt: It follows the life of June Elbus, a 14-year-old girl, whose gay uncle had died of AIDS in the 1980s, and the subsequent friendship she develops with his boyfriend.
  • We Were Liars by E. Lockhart: We Were Liars focuses on the theme of self-acceptance, family morals, and the possibly-deadly consequences of one's mistakes. It is centered on the wealthy, seemingly perfect Sinclair family, who spend every summer gathered on their private island.

Educational Resources:

Art

  • The Art Sherpa: Live streaming and previously recorded videos that teach a variety of painting techniques and projects.
  • Art with Everyone: Drawing and painting tutorials for all ages and skill levels.
  • Artsology: Art Games for Kids, Arts Education Resources for Teachers, and much more!
  • Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity: They took their Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival online.
  • Bob Ross: Learn to Paint (Hulu)
  • BrainPop Arts & Music (K-5) resources available free due to COVID-19 crisis
  • Brit.co Classes: Free online creative classes through the end of March. Use code SELFCARE at checkout.
  • Center for Puppetry Arts, Atlanta: Workshops, Museum Tours & Puppet Shows — All FREE from Your Own Home! We’re expanding our Digital Learning platform to include live streaming, and it’s all for FREE. Now you can enjoy curriculum-based workshops and Digital Learning interactive puppet shows from the safety and comfort of home. All you need is an internet connection to join us in our Zoom room. .
  • The Color: Digital coloring pages.
  • Let’s Make Art: The hardest part of learning something new is knowing where to start, but we make it simple. We’ve created some amazing products and tutorials just for you, so you can focus on the good part: learning and making art.
  • MetKids: Met Museum Activities
  • NGAkids Art Zone: National Gallery of Art interactive art & art history
  • Smithsonian Art & Design: Discover the transformative power of art with Smithsonian.
  • Wild, Free and Crafty: Free Online Art Classes with Wild Free and Crafty
  • Copy Means Compliment: Choose a favorite painting or sculpture and create a copycat piece of art.
  • Artist Research: Research an artist and learn about their background, art style and explore some of their famous works of art.
  • Artwork Exploration: Choose a piece of art to focus on. Describe it, tell why you chose it and how it makes you feel.
  • Artwork Comparison: Choose 2 works of art and then, compare.

Cooking

Let’s face it! We all are going to be doing more cooking. Here are some resources!

Coronavirus Specials

  • Brightside: Learn the importance of hand washing.
  • BrainPop: Lessons on the coronavirus.
  • COVID-19 Home Education Resources: Facebook group with nearly 50,000 members sharing resources, stories and open for collaboration.
  • The Dr. Bionic Show: Did you know that almost every ecosystem on Earth contains viruses? Join Dr. Binocs as he gives you a joyride of information about the most spectacular organism of this world, a VIRUS!
  • Harvard Medical: Students put together this medical student covid-19 curriculum.
  • Mask-Making: Many hospitals are looking for people who can sew to make homemade masks. Check out the following links, or see if a hospital near you needs your support. Promedica (Toledo, OH), Providence (Seattle, WA), Deaconess (Evansville, IN). Here is a link for patterns, the most hospitals are providing their preferred patterns.
  • Medical Medium: Antiviral tips and cleansing information
  • NextDoor: Stay in contact with your neighbors, build up your community and stay informed.
  • NeuroLeadership Institute: What Science Says Leaders Should Do. The gist: do things that increase people's sense of 1) certainty, 2) autonomy and 3) connection to help  them operate from a higher mental and emotional state and reduce their sense of panic. Recording available here.
  • QuarantineChat: Talk on the phone with someone else stuck at home. We simulate the magic of having a surprise conversation with someone—something that is becoming increasingly rare during the times of a viral epidemic. Get calls at random times and get paired with another person in a one-on-one. Talk about anything: what you're cooking for dinner, your dreams, or the global economy. QuarantineChat calls happen over the internet through the app Dialup instead of the phone system, so they’re entirely toll-free. That's how we keep our costs low.
  • TinyHabits: Webinars with experts help with coronavirus challenges on a variety of topics including staying upbeat, developing new habits, strengthening immune system, and so on.

Home & Garden

Language

Foreign Language & ESL

  • Campus Difusión: Resources for Spanish practice
  • CHALK Academy: Chinese learning activities
  • Conjuguemos: Vocabulary, grammar, listening activities and games in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Korean, and Latin
  • Italki.com: Learn a language from a native speaker by video call. Choose from over 10,000 teachers for 1-on-1 lessons based on your goals and interests.
  • Memrise: 22 languages to learn
  • Rockalingua: Music Based Spanish Learning
  • Dream English: Music Based Program for Learning English (PreK-2)
  • Rosetta Stone: Offering 3 months free for students

Language Arts

  • Classroom Cereal: Grammar practice for middle grades
  • The Shurley English program for grades K-8
  • Magic Spell by BrainboxGames: Magic Spell is a fun and engaging spelling adventure that supports children learn difficult phonic patterns, spelling rules and common words.
  • Spelling Training: Online spelling practice and games (grades 1 - 4)
  • Spellingcity: Build Literacy Skills with Vocabulary & Spelling. Spelling City is free right now with code VSCFree90.
  • New York Times Spelling Bee (Free)
  • Night Zoo Keeper: Online writing tool and library of interactive lessons. Fun, engaging games that increase vocabulary and improve spelling. Puzzles and challenges that develop grammar and structure skills. Inspiring prompts and story creation lessons that spark imaginations.

Phonics

Reading

  • Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity: They took their Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival online.
  • Reading Eggs: Learn to read with online games and activities.
  • The Book Case: Private group on Facebook. Join for live readings and book fun!
  • Wonderopolis: Short videos and readings with vocabulary and comprehension questions
  • Into the Book: Games to get "into the book"
  • Free Children’s Stories: Free stories for ages 3 - 12 years
  • Novel Effect Story Time: Music, sound effects, and character voices play at just the right moment, adjusting and responding to your voice as you read your favorite titles together. Promote language development, increase engagement, and make storytime a little more fun for kids (and grown-ups too!). As you navigate remote learning and school closures, stay up-to-date with our Remote Learning Resources and our always free Educator Resources with at home and online read aloud activities and worksheets.
  • ReadWorks (K-12): ReadWorks is here to support educators and families facing the unprecedented challenge of remote learning due to COVID-19. Please find remote learning resources for educators here, families here, and our updates & policies here. As always, as part of our nonprofit mission, ReadWorks platform and materials are completely free.
  • COMMONLIT: Reading passages for grades 3-12, with reading comprehension and discussion questions
  • SquigglePark: The most engaging reading game for Grades 2-8, and all for FREE!
  • Starfall: K-3 reading and educational games platform. Stories, songs, and other activities
  • Story Pirates: Podcast of stories by children and story writing inspiration.
  • Storyline Online: Videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations.
  • Teach Your Monster to Read: Even if you know how to read - you should visit this site. Teach Your Monster to Read is a fun, adventure-based game that teaches phonics and reading along the way. Help your monster rescue a friend from the goblin king as you travel through the galaxy.

Speech

Writing

  • NoRedInk: Online curriculum that builds better writers
  • ParagraphPunch: Teaches students how to write a paragraph through interactive online tutorial
  • Story Starter: Randomly generates 356,300,262,144 story starters

Mathematics

Algebra

  • DragonBox: Algebra games for kids. Math apps developed by educational experts, dedicated teachers, game developers, designers, cognitive scientists, writers and artists who are passionate about creating innovative and engaging game based learning tools.
  • MathScore: Math practice from counting to algebra and geometry

General

  • Dr. Roger's Math Neighborhood: Higher level math video series
  • Freddy's Fractions (Math Chimp): Fractions practice. Solve fractions to find the hidden treasure off the coast of the island Decimalious. Can you make it through all 10 levels?
  • Beast Academy: Online math and problem solving for ages 8-13. Fun, comic-book style format.
  • Numberphile: Short videos about numbers that help kids explore complex math topics
  • Boddle Learning: Elementary Math through 6th grade
  • ABCya: Math and reading games.
  • Arcademic Skill Builders: Math and language games
  • A+ Click: Math and logic problems for ages 5 and up to adult
  • Bedtime Math: Daily routine math.
  • Dreambox Learning: K-8 online math program (free for 90 days)
  • DeltaMath: A wide range of math content from middle school through AP Calculus
  • Global Math Project: Join students from around the world on a global math project (Exploding Dots) that is mathematical story that starts at the very beginning of mathematics, assuming nothing, and swiftly takes you on a “wondrous journey” through grade school arithmetic, high-school polynomials algebra, infinite sums, and advanced mathematics and unsolved research problems baffling mathematicians still to this day.
  • Prodigy Math: Engaging, curriculum-aligned math platform for grades 1-8. Game-based, adaptive, and personalized. Free.
  • Math Celebrity - Online Math Tutor: Enter your math problem or search term, press the button, and they show you the step-by-step work and answer instantly. 2nd grade through college.
  • Math Playground: Elementary Math games, logic puzzles and educational resources
  • Mangahigh: Math skill games vs. computer or other players
  • Grid Club Math Games: Online learning adventure games for math learning
  • Xtra Math: For practice to master basic facts
  • Zearn Math: These are unprecedented times. Thanks to donations, our K-5 curriculum – including 400 hours of digital lessons with on-screen teachers and supportive remediation – is available for free during this time through no-cost individual accounts. Kids, teachers, parents, and caregivers can access all our top-rated content 24/7, including paper-based materials that can be used without a device. (K-5)

Geometry

  • CanFigureIt Geometry: Encourages students to pursue their own path by reinforcing the understanding that there are multiple ways to reach a solution. Breaks down proofs into manageable chunks and fosters forward and backward reasoning. Promotes an understanding of the logical if-then relationship of theorems. Gives continuous feedback and guidance as students progress toward a goal in a safe environment where mistakes are part of the process.
  • Math@Work - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Show students that the path to their career aspirations is paved with an understanding of key mathematical skills. In our Math@Work web series, industry leaders work with real students to demonstrate the importance of learning math. Engage your classroom as you watch students discover the possibilities math presents.

Music

  • JAMaROO: Kids Online Resources for Children and Families! JAMaROO Kids are proud to provide weekly dance, music and yoga classes to over 100 schools, childcare centers, and community venues. The staff at JAMaROO Kids would like to share these free online resources with you to do at home:
    -Every Tuesday-Friday Morning at 9am JAMaROO Kids will be providing a Facebook Live Morning Circle Time via their Facebook Page: JAMaROO Kids
    -Every Day a new post of songs, stories or activities will be posted on their YouTube channel at     https://www.youtube.com/jamarookids. This is a free channel that has over 330 videos that range from sing-a-longs to dance, yoga, art, cooking and mindfulness activities.
    -For any of you looking for new children's music, our new album is currently available with 15 original songs written and performed by the team at JAMaROO Kids. Click here to purchase: https://jamarookidsonlinestore.square.site/
  • Fionta Weekly Performance: Need a little music in your life? Join, Fíonta & Friends! Each week, they will feature a different artist and provide an opportunity for audience members to support that artist. Donations are optional, but suggested at $5 via Venmo, to support the artist who can no longer perform due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Tune in weekly on Thursdays at 4pm PT / 7pm ET.  See you on Zoom!
  • Fans Be Brave: Baseball & Music Show available on YouTube, Anchor and Spotify.
  • Rockalingua: Music Based Spanish Learning
  • MusicTheory.net: Introductory and intermediate music theory lessons, exercises, ear trainers, and calculators. (4 - 12th grade)
  • SmartMusic: SmartMusic is a web-based suite of music education tools that support efficient practice, helping musicians to develop and grow. We are committed to helping you maintain your students’ education in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. For schools impacted by COVID-19 closures who do not already have a SmartMusic subscription, we are offering free access through June 30, 2020.
  • Sight Reading Factory: Sight reading and sight singing practice exercises
  • BrainPop Arts & Music (K-5) resources available free due to COVID-19 crisis
  • Classics for Kids: Hey there, parents and caregivers: you've suddenly all become deputy music teachers! With classes dismissed, music lessons and rehearsals canceled, and concerts postponed indefinitely, many of our students are missing out on an essential part of their education (we might say the most essential part, but then we're biased): music. Time to call in the cavalry–Classics for Kids (All Ages)
  • Prodigies: Prodigies is a colorful music curriculum for kids 1-12 that will teach your kids how to play their first instrument, how to sing in tune & how to understand the language of music!
  • QuaverMusic: QuaverMusic is offering free access to general music activities to all impacted schools, including free student access at-home.
  • Virtual Musical Instruments: Play guitar, piano, pan flute, drums, and bongos online
  • Theta Music Trainer: Theta Music Trainer offers a series of online courses and games for ear training and music theory.
  • Chrome Music Labs: Chrome Music Lab is a website that makes learning music more accessible through fun, hands-on experiments. (For any age)
  • PBS Music: Make music with the Read family characters in their garage. (K-2)
  • DreamEnglish: Music Based Program for Learning English (PreK-2)

Preschool - 1st Grade

  • Preschool Express: Preschool Crafts, activities, bulletin board designs, and fingerplays.
  • Songs for Teaching: Songs that Teach Elementary Concepts to Young Children
  • Super Simple: The educational resource section includes free flashcards, coloring pages, worksheets, and other resources for children.
  • Preschool Inspirations: A veteran preschool teacher, child development research junkie, and mom of three shares best practices, play recipes, teacher tips and learning activities.
  • Pebblego: Curricular content hub specifically designed for K-3 students
  • PBS Kids: Get daily activities & tips emailed to help kids play and learn at home.
  • Funology: Crafts, projects, science, recipes for young children
  • Teachers Pay Teachers: Free Printables for PreK-2nd Grade
  • Little Spark Company: Free printables library with activities for children 0-6
  • Kiwico: Quick & easy at home projects curated for kids 2 and up
  • TurtleDiary: PreK - 5 games for all subjects
  • BrainPop: BrainPOP is here to help you and your curious learners stay informed and on-track with free access during school closures.
  • National Geographic Young Explorers: Teachers Guide provides lesson plans refreshed according to issues. The Young Explorer App helps engages students like never before. It includes: Videos and audio, Additional photos, captions, and information, Interactive diagrams and graphics, Expanded Words to Explore glossaries, and more.
  • Suessville: Dr. Seuss Games
  • Switch Zoo: Play games and learn all about animals

Science & Technology

Anatomy & Physiology (Human)

  • Biodigital: Human anatomy and disease interactive visualization
  • Innerbody: Innerbody explores the 11 body systems in depth

Astronomy

  • Cosmos4Kids: Universe, galaxy, stars, systems, solar system, and exploration.
  • NASA Kids Club: NASA.gov brings kids the latest images, videos and news from America's space agency.
  • Apps for Stargazing: Stargaze with the support of the apps listed in this article.
  • NASA Climate Kids: Learn about weather, climate, atmosphere, water, energy, plants, and animals.

Biology

  • CELLS Alive: Learn all about cells
  • Biology 4 Kids: Cell structure and function, microorganisms, plants, animals and animal systems.
  • Biology Simulations: Biology Simulations helps students to learn about biology and practice data analysis skills. These simulations allow students to experiment with concepts that may take too much time or too many resources to complete in a traditional science lab setting. While simulations cannot replace real-world experiences, they are a useful tool in both scientific research and education.

Chemistry

  • Playmada Games: Collisions helps high school students visualize and interact with chemistry concepts through fun and challenging games
  • Chemicool: Learn all about the Periodic Table
  • ACS Chemistry for Life: High school chemistry topics and learning adventures.
  • Rader’s CHEM4KIDS: Matter, atoms, periodic table, elements, reactions, biochemistry.
  • Minecraft Chemistry: Discover the building blocks of matter, combine elements into useful compounds and Minecraft items, and conduct amazing experiments with new lessons and a downloadable world.
  • Tyler DeWitt: Research scientist and educator who creates chemistry and micro-biology videos shared on his personal site and YouTube.

Coding

  • Trailhead: Trailhead is a fun way to learn Salesforce.
  • Instructables: 3D printing projects and coding projects, involving math and other K-12 subjects
  • Codeacademy: Learn to code
  • Colt Steele Code Camp: Free Code Camp Series (YouTube) by Colt Steele
  • Blockly: Games for tomorrow’s programmers.
  • Scratch: With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge.
  • Code.org: Online learning platform to teach K-12 students coding and computer science. Used by schools and districts worldwide, with a focus on increasing participation by women and underrepresented youth. Code.org also offers this Coding with Star Wars learning platform that is available online and offline
  • Free Code Camp: Check this link for 450 Ivy League courses that you can take.

Earth Science

STEM

  • MSU Extension: 4H Science & Engineering provide 84 easy science lessons you can do at home
  • Maker Stations: Enjoy three weeks via this PDF. Maker Stations provide targeted design thinking challenges for elementary students, emphasizing skills in engineering, art, math, science, technology, and music. 15 Maker Station options are provided for 3 weeks of daily home activities. Each Maker Station includes simplified supply lists, instructions, scannable QR code resources, and student planning/reflection templates. App extensions are provided for students to share and present creations virtually.
  • The Homeschool Scientist: Engineering challenges with things you have at home.
  • The Concord Consortium: STEM resources and curriculum materials (K-12)
  • PHET Interactive Simulations - University of Colorado Boulder: Science and math labs and simulations
  • Positive Physics: An online physics problem and video bank designed for conceptual, standard, honors or AP1 physics
  • Curiosity Science: STEM labs
  • Teach Engineering: Digital library comprised of standards-aligned engineering curricula for K-12 educators to make applied science and math come alive through engineering design.
  • Rader's PHYSICS4KIDS: Motion, heat & thermodynamics, electricity & magnetism, light, modern physics

Typing

  • NitroType: Improve your typing skills while competing in fast-paced races with up to 5 typers from around the world.
  • TypingClub: Keyboarding practice  
  • Dancing Mat from BBC: There are four levels to play, each divided into three stages. You start by learning the home row keys. Each stage builds on previous lessons, introducing new letters as you progress. Kids love it!

Uncategorized

  • SciShow & SciShow Kids: SciShow and SciShow Kids: These videos target kids of (almost) all ages in engaging videos on various science topics.
  • Pacific Science Center: Science learning materials for kids and families including social live-streams, ask our experts questions, and find suggested activities and experiments for kids of all ages, updated with new materials frequently.
  • Mystery Science: Open-and-go lessons that inspire kids to love science!
  • Backpack Sciences: Hands on elementary science videos
  • SEPUP: Science simulations, scientist profiles, and other digital resources for middle school science and high school biology
  • Crest Awards: Science awards you can complete for from home.
  • Elemental Science: 80+ do at home science activities
  • ScienceSpot: Science projects that can be completed with or without Internet access
  • Tyto Online: Next Generation Science video game focused on middle school where students directly engage in science phenomena as they solve problems.
  • The Happy Scientist: Lessons and videos around the following topics: Life Science (living things, cells, human body, adaptation, behavior, etc.), Earth Science  (minerals, rocks, fossils, weather, seasons, erosion), Chemical Science (elements, compounds, mixtures, changes, reactions, water), Space Science (solar system, planets, Sun, Moon), Physical Science (matter, energy, force, motion), Process of Science (variables, controls, observation, measurement, etc.) This page also has specialized topics such as microscopes, misconceptions, and science fair.
  • Steve Spangler Science: Enjoy these at-home science experiments.
  • ClubScikidzMd: Daily free science or cooking experiment
  • The Science Guys: Educational science videos that can be done at home and for all ages. We explain all concepts and experiments using fun animations.
  • Science Max: YouTube series that explores common science experiments kids do at home and “turbocharges” them.
  • Smithsonian Science & Nature: Explore Science & Nature and understand the cosmos and our Earth.

Social Studies

Critical Thinking

Economics

  • US Mint: Play games, learn fun facts, and find out how to turn coin collecting into a hobby.
  • Banzai: Real-world financial dilemmas & smart money management.
  • Next Gen Personal Finance: Lesson Plans on Personal Finance
  • The Stock Market Game: An online simulation of the global capital markets that engages students grades 4-12 in the world of economics, investing and personal finance.

Geography

  • Geoguessr: Geography Skills Tests
  • What Was Where: What Was Where allows students to type in any city, state, or country to view an archive of historical photographs and other documents. It’s a unique way to help them learn about history.
  • Google Earth: Explore Earth from your computer!
  • Rader's Geography4Kids: Earth energy and structure, atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, climates, and more.
  • World Games: World Geography Gaming!

Native History & Culture

  • CountryReports: Global cultural studies
  • Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction: Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State
  • The Duwamish Tribe: Learn about the history of the Duwamish Tribe
  • The Tulalip People: Learn about the history of the Tulalip People
  • The 1619 Project: An ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.
  • Zinn Education Project: Middle and high school - For more than ten years, the Zinn Education Project has introduced students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula.
  • Smithsonian History & Culture Collection: Explore history & culture with Smithsonian!

U.S. Studies

  • Bunk History: Digital archive of history
  • Ben's Guide to the US Government: U.S. Government learning adventures with Benjamin Franklin
  • Mission US: an interactive way to learn history
  • iCivics: Founded by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor - students learn how government works by experiencing it. They step into the role of a judge, a member of Congress, a community activist, even the President of the United States - and do the job they do. Students gain civic knowledge and skills through this fun and challenging online platform.

World History

  • Big History Project: A free, online social studies course that encourages students to have a big-picture view of the world and emphasizes skill development as students draw “mind-blowing connections” between past, present and future.
  • BBC History: Games, quizzes and fact sheets take kids on a journey through time.

Test Prep

  • Brainscape: Brainscape offers over a million flashcard decks for every subject, entrance exam, and certification imaginable.
  • MobyMax: Find and fix learning gaps
  • BWS Education Consulting: Test Prep for SAT, ACT
  • Marco Learning: Resources for AP students
  • Quizlet: For students to practice and master whatever they are learning.
  • Fiveable: Resources for AP students including live reviews, live trivia, and study guides!

Uncategorized/General

  • 123 Homeschool4me: 300,000+ FREE printable worksheets from toddlers to teens
  • A Better Way to Homeschool: Learning at Home - Everything you need in one place K-8th Grade
  • All in One Homeschool - Prek-8: Every course you could possibly want to homeschool preschool - 8
  • All in One Homeschool - High school: Every course you could possibly want to homeschool for high school
  • Amazing Educational Resources: A list of educational resources provided free due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Ask Dr. Universe: Dr. Wendy Sue Universe is a very smart cat who investigates tough questions from curious elementary and middle school students. Based out of Washington State University, Dr. Universe teams up with professors, researchers, and experts in the field, to tackle big questions like: What is fire? Why does soda fizz? Why is the ocean salty? Why is liquid nitrogen so cold? Washington State University is a public research university committed to its land-grant heritage and tradition of service to society. Parents and educators can help children submit questions to Dr. Universe. She gets a lot of questions and does her best to answer as many as possible via e-mail. She posts one big question each week on the website and sends it out in the Cat Mail e-newsletter. Students can vote in weekly polls, read answers to questions from other kids, and watch videos on the website. The website is easy to project on an interactive whiteboard for a collaborative classroom experience. It’s also a tool for individual student research projects and can be used on a computer or tablet. Each post on this website is fact-checked and vetted by a professor, researcher, or graduate student Washington State University who lends their expertise. The content can be used along with Next Generation Science Standards or as a jumping off point for science lessons. Stay connected with Ask Dr. Universe on Facebook and Twitter for updates on events, livestreams, and weekly Q&As.
  • Breakout EDU: Educational games K-12
  • Carmen Sandiego:  videos, stories, and lessons for all subject areas
  • CK12.org: Science, Math, Social Studies
  • ClickSchooling: brings you daily recommendations by email
  • Common Sense Media: List of free educational apps
  • Cool Kid Facts: Free educational resource of fun facts
  • CrashCourse: A series of YouTube videos/playlists that cover topics from Psychology to History to Biology to Economics and more, in an accessible format that both adults and kids will enjoy.
  • CryptoClub: Immerse yourself in cryptography
  • Curriculum Associates: K-8 Reading and Math activity packs (available in English and Spanish)
  • Curriki: Digital learning content for preschool through high school
  • Discover K12: Online homeschool platform & curriculum
  • Ducksters: Education for kids all topics
  • EDX.org: 2,500+ online courses from top institutions
  • Facts4Me: A safe research site for elementary-level readers. They are offering -- free 24/7 access. USERNAME: read (case sensitive) PASSWORD: read (case sensitive)
  • Fluency & Fitness: Educational brain breaks to help students review essential literacy and math skills, while getting in some exercise.
  • Funbrain: Math and Reading games
  • Get Your Teach On: Free resources for educators (or parents educating!)
  • The Great Courses: For older teens or adults, code FREEMO at checkout for one month free.
  • The Good and the Beautiful - Course sets (Levels 1–5) that combine and thoroughly cover phonics, reading, writing, spelling, literature, grammar, punctuation, art, and geography—all in one easy-to-use, beautiful course.
  • Highlights for Kids: Fun & educational activities for kids
  • HippoCampus: 7,000 free videos in 13 subject areas
  • IXL: Skills-based, adaptive, personalized learning for PreK-12 in math, language arts, science, social studies, and Spanish.
  • Izzit.org: Entertaining & educational videos for all levels and subjects
  • Khan Academy: Resources for all grades. Here is their suggested schedule while at home.
  • Mystery Doug: Short (~5min) videos that investigate and explore questions asked by real students.
  • Netflix: Educational programs
  • NomsterChef: Illustrated recipes designed to help kids age 2-12 cook with their grown-ups. Recipes encourage culinary skills, literacy, math, and science.
  • Outschool: Live Online Classes for Ages 3-18. Small group video chat classes—created and taught by inspiring teachers. Variable cost starting at $5/class.
  • Oxford Owl for Home: Free resource for primary/elementary ages.
  • PBS Learning Media: PreK-12 digital media service with more than 30,000 learning materials
  • Petersen Automotive Museum: Video lessons and printable materials for kids about cars from Petersen Automotive museum
  • Project Explorer: Free videos from around the world from grade 3-12
  • Scholastic Learning: Day-by-day projects to keep kids reading, thinking and growing.
  • ScootPad: Adaptive curriculum in Math and ELA for Grades K-8
  • Skillshare: Learn a new skill!  Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes for creative and curious people, on topics including illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing, and more.
  • Supercharged School: Daily lessons and educational activities that kids can do on their own
  • Teachers Pay Teachers: Over 3 million free and paid resources, created by educators, on the full spectrum of subjects and grade levels. Search for curriculum or activities to do at home.
  • Time for Kids: As the world asks more of families and teachers, TIME for Kids salutes you, and we're here to support you! TIME for Kids is in the unique position to help kids understand this unprecedented moment. TIME is providing free access to a library of four grade-specific digital editions of TIME for Kids and Your $ financial literacy magazine. Turnkey teaching tools, with worksheets and quizzes for families or teachers, available at timeforkids.com (K-5)
  • Bamboo Learning: Voice based learning with Alexa
  • Youngzine: News and more for kids

Game Ideas:

At-Home Games (Limited Supplies Needed)

  • Charades
  • Scavenger Hunt (inside and outside of home)
  • Hide & Seek
  • I Spy
  • Puzzles
  • Heads Up
  • Puzzle races: put several puzzles (20+ piece puzzles) in a paper bag and shake it up. Pour pieces out and give each person the puzzle box they are to put together. Go! (Cooperation tends to be a result as pieces are traded.)

Board Games

Card Games

Preschool Games

Online Games

Video Games

  • Civilization 6: Turn based strategy game similar to Risk (board game), Steam, Switch
  • Dota Underlords: Dota's version of AutoChess, and its particularly feature rich since its official launch. Lots of modes and single player content. Steam, iOS, Android, etc.
  • Hearthstone: Virtual collectible card game set in the Warcraft universe.
  • Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime 
  • Mass Effect Series: Expansive sci-fi story. Available on Xbox, Playstation, and PC.
  • NBA 2K Playgrounds 2: Simple NBA Jam style gameplay, fun and easy to get into
  • Ni no Kuni - Wrath of the White Witch: Kid safe JRPG with pokemon like gameplay and amazing graphic design
  • Overcooked / Overcooked 2: Co-op kitchen chaos
  • Rocket League: Available on PC, Playstation, Xbox, and switch with cross platform play
  • Satisfactory: Land on a foreign world and build a factory for fun and profit! For those that love Factorio or Modded Minecraft.
  • Teamfight Tactics: Riot Games' version of Dota AutoChess

Mindfulness and Wellness:

Barre

  • The Bar Method: Online barre classes with a 14-day free trial, plus some free workouts via Instagram
  • Physique 57: Online barre classes with a 7-day free trial
  • Barre3: Online barre classes with a 15-day free trial

Cardio & Strength

  • Fitness Blender: Free cardio, strength and stretch workout videos
  • Tone It Up: Daily online workouts with a 7-day free trial
  • Beachbody: Online classes with a 14-day free trial
  • ObéFitness: Live fitness classes with a 30-day free trial (use code ATHOME)
  • CrossFit: Free at-home workout videos, including single exercises and drills
  • The Sculpt Society: Online cardio and sculpting workouts with a 14-day free trial
  • NEOU: Various live, on-demand workouts with a 30-day free trial.
  • P.volve: Streamed functional movement workouts with a 30-day free trial (use code ONEPVOLVE)
  • Fhitting Room: On demand HIIT and strength workouts with a 30-day free trial
  • FitOn app: Quick workouts from celebrity trainers that you can do anywhere.
  • DailyBurn: Daily Burn 365 is an energetic, full-body group workout you can do any day, at any fitness level with a 30-day free trial.
  • Peloton 30 day trial has been changed to a 90 day free trial due to Covid-19
  • Solidcore: Core workout videos to do at home.
  • PlanetFitness: Planet Fitness offering FREE online at-home workouts starting March 16. See the details on their Facebook page.

Dance

  • Dancing Alone Together: In this unprecedented time of isolation, Dancing Alone Together aims to be a central resource for the digital dance world that is beginning to bloom.
  • BalletNova is offering free live streaming classes. Be sure to like their page so you can get notified when they go live

Meditation

  • Cosmic Kids Yoga: Mindfulness and yoga for kids
  • Chopra Meditation Center: Register now for Oprah & Deepak's 21-Day Meditation Experience - it's free to participate! Join us for an online, guided journey to experience the benefits of meditation in an easy and inspiring way.
  • Go Noodle: Movement and mindfulness videos for kids
  • The Well: Mindfulness with Poetry and Music
  • InsightTimer: Free meditation app
  • Headspace Meditation and Headspace Medication for Kids
  • Calm app: Relax with Calm, a simple mindfulness meditation app that brings clarity and peace of mind into your daily routine. Free and premium versions available.
  • MindBodyGreen: 28 days of free classes: The Fundamentals, Poses & Breathwork You Need To Know.

Pilates

  • Blogilates: Free workout videos, challenges and plans
  • Pilates Anytime: Access to over 3,000 Pilates classes with 15-day free trial

General Fitness

  • Sworkit: Kid-friendly workouts
  • TeenStrong: Since so many teens are out of school while we weather this health crisis, we want to offer you a way to keep your body moving everyday.  Join us for a 15 minute HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout created specifically to build strength, get some endorphins flowing, and maybe even improve your mood a bit.
  • MommaStrong: They have 4 online fitness programs developed with your unique needs in mind: Momma-To-Be, Hazy Days, New Momma, & Momma.
  • The OT Toolbox: At home OT, PT, and ST resources designed to build skills in children through movement and play.
  • Balance Board: Consider a balance board to help you with core fitness.
  • Back to basics: Your one-month treadmill workout
  • Resistance Band Workout: A one-month resistance band workout you can do anywhere
  • Core Exercises: 10 core exercises that are better for your back (and body) than crunches
  • HIIT Workout: A 15-minute full body HIIT workout — no equipment required
  • Arms and Abs Workouts: 2-in-1 exercises that will tone your arms and abs
  • Jump rope
  • GoNoodle: 5 minute movement breaks with silly songs and dances.

Support Group Resources

  • Discord: Set up a Discord server group meeting. It has everything you need to create a virtual community including voice chat, text chat, and video chat. Many of my friends in the online course creation space use it to create communities.

Yoga

  • Pietra Fitness: Catholic yoga-alternative that offers Christian scripture and meditation interwoven in their multi-level stretching and strengthening routines. Available in video format online. Currently offering a 60-day free trial for Coronavirus reasons.
  • Little Twister Yoga: Free at-home kids yoga lesson plans
  • Yoga with Adriene: (YouTube videos) Yoga With Adriene's mission is to connect as many people as possible through high-quality free yoga videos.
  • Yoga for Teens with Adriene (YouTube videos): Yoga With Adriene's mission is to connect as many people as possible through high-quality free yoga videos.
  • Fightmaster Yoga: (YouTube videos) If you want to feel better in your body this is the channel for you. Because when you practice yoga you feel better! Don't worry if you're not flexible or can't do the poses perfectly. The motto of Fightmaster Yoga is "It's not about the pose". You don't have to be perfect. All you have to do is show up.
  • YogaWorks: Online yoga classes with a 14-day free trial
  • Down Dog App: Yoga, HIIT and barre classes. Due to the current outbreak, they are making all of our apps - Down Dog, Yoga for Beginners, HIIT, Barre, and 7 Minute Workout - completely free until April 1st. They are also offering free access until July 1st for all students and teachers (K-12 and college). To access the free school membership, please register your school's domain by visiting downdogapp.com/schools. They are also extending free access until July 1 for all healthcare professionals so they can help those who are helping us. Please visit downdogapp.com/healthcare to register your work healthcare domain.
  • SkyTing: Online yoga classes with a free 7-day trial
  • Cosmic Kids Yoga: Mindfulness and yoga for kids

Movie/TV Ideas:

Please check ratings!

Resources

  • ReelGood: You can tell ReelGood what streaming accounts you have and it will tell you what movies are available to you.
  • Letterboxd: Track films you’ve watched. Save those you want to see. Tell your friends what’s good.
  • DailyMotion: News, entertainment, sports and music videos
  • 10 Apps you can use to watch movies
  • NetflixParty: Netflix Party is a new way to watch Netflix with your friends online. Netflix Party synchronizes video playback and adds group chat to your favorite Netflix shows.

Educational

Broadway

Binge watch BroadwayHD with their 7-day free trial!

Family Favorites

  • Parent Trap 1961 and 1998 (PG): Identical twins Annie and Hallie, separated at birth and each raised by one of their biological parents, later discover each other for the first time at summer camp
  • School of Rock (PG13): Jack Black stars as a guitarist with delusions of grandeur. Kicked out of his band and looking for work, he becomes a substitute teacher and turns his class into rock and rollers. (Available on Amazon and Showtime)
  • Zootopia (PG): Disney presents an action-comedy adventure set in the all-animal city of Zootopia. Determined to prove herself, Officer Judy Hopps jumps at the chance to crack a case, even if it means partnering with fast-talking Nick Wilde to solve the mystery. (Available on Amazon | Disney+)
  • Secret Life of Pets (PG): Find out what your pets do when you’re not at home in this animated comedy featuring the voice talents of Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, and Kevin Hart.
  • We need ideas. Please submit your favorites!

HBO Favorites

  • The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (TV14): Academy Award winner Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, HBO’s Emmy-winning Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief) directs a documentary investigating the rise and fall of Theranos, the one-time multibillion-dollar healthcare company founded by Elizabeth Holmes
  • We need ideas. Please submit your favorites!

Favorites on Netflix

  • Queer Eye (TV14): Grab some tissues! An all-new "Fab Five" serve up hip tips, emotionally charged makeovers and heartfelt reveals that bring out all the feels.
  • Billy on the Street (TV14): Comedian Billy Eichner sprints through New York with celebrities to stun pedestrians with unapologetic, unfiltered and unique pop culture questions.
  • To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (TV14): When her secret love letters somehow get mailed to each of her five crushes, Lara Jean finds her quiet high school existence turned upside down.
  • Good Girls (TVMA): Three suburban moms orchestrate a local grocery store heist to escape financial ruin and establish independence -- together.
  • Grace and Frankie (TVMA): They’re not friends, but when their husbands leave them for each other, proper Grace and eccentric Frankie begin to bond in this Emmy-nominated series.
  • Parks and Recreation (TV14): In this Emmy-nominated comedy, an employee with a rural Parks and Recreation department is full of energy and ideas but bogged down by bureaucracy.
  • Set It Up (TVMA): In desperate need of a break from the office, two beleaguered assistants team up to trick their workaholic bosses into falling in love.
  • Tidying Up with Marie Kondo (TVPG): In a series of inspiring home makeovers, world-renowned tidying expert Marie Kondo helps clients clear out the clutter -- and choose joy.
  • The Kissing Booth (TV14): When teenager Elle's first kiss leads to a forbidden romance with the hottest boy in high school, she risks her relationship with her best friend.
  • The Irishman (R): Hit man Frank Sheeran looks back at the secrets he kept as a loyal member of the Bufalino crime family in this acclaimed film from Martin Scorsese.
  • Philadelphia (PG13): Philadelphia attorney Andrew Beckett launches a wrongful termination suit against his law firm when they fire him because he's gay and HIV-positive.
  • Brene Brown - The Call to Courage (TV14): With humor and empathy, Brené Brown discusses what it takes to choose courage over comfort in a culture defined by scarcity, fear and uncertainty.

Submit your ideas for Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+

Binge Worthy Series

Action/Crime

  • Allegiance (NBC): A CIA analyst is pitted against Russian spies - his parents - in Allegiance, starring Hope Davis.
  • Animal Kingdom (TV-MA, TNT): Family crime-drama set in a gritty surf community. The series centers on 17-year-old Joshua "J" Cody (Finn Cole), who moves in with his freewheeling relatives in their Southern California beach town after his mother dies of a heroin overdose.
  • Babylon Berlin (TV-MA, Netflix): A Soviet freight train's hijacking leads a haunted cop and a poor typist to uncover a political conspiracy amid the vice and glamour of 1929 Berlin.
  • Better Call Saul (TV-MA, AMC): Set in the early 2000s, Better Call Saul follows the story of con-man turned small-time lawyer, Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), beginning six years before the events of Breaking Bad, showing his transformation into the persona of criminal-for-hire Saul Goodman.
  • Billions (Showtime): Complex drama about power politics in the world of New York high finance.
  • Blacklist (NBC): Crime thriller that follows Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader), a former U.S. Navy officer turned high-profile criminal, who voluntarily surrenders to the FBI after eluding capture for decades.
  • Bluff City Law (NBC): Set in Memphis, Tennessee, the series depicts a law firm led by attorney Elijah Strait (played by Jimmy Smits) and his daughter, Sydney. The firm handles controversial civil rights cases.
  • Bosch (TV-MA, Amazon): Based on Michael Connelly's best-selling novels, Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver), an LAPD homicide detective, stands trial for the fatal shooting of a serial murder suspect -- just as a cold case involving the remains of a missing boy forces Bosch to confront his past. As daring recruit, Julia Brasher (Annie Wersching), catches his eye, and departmental politics heat up, Bosch will pursue justice at all costs.
  • Breaking Bad (TV-MA, AMC): A high school chemistry teacher dying of cancer teams with a former student to secure his family's future by manufacturing and selling crystal meth.
  • Dark (TV-MA, Netflix): A missing child sets four families on a frantic hunt for answers as they unearth a mind-bending mystery that spans three generations.
  • Dead to Me (TV-MA, Netflix): A hotheaded widow searching for the hit-and-run driver who mowed down her husband befriends an eccentric optimist who isn't quite what she seems.
  • Dexter (TV-MA, Showtime): He's smart, he's good looking, and he's got a great sense of humor. He's Dexter Morgan, everyone's favorite serial killer. As a Miami forensics expert, he spends his days solving crimes, and nights committing them.
  • The Enemy Within (NBC): While Shepherd and Keaton have different motivations for bringing the enemy to justice, they both know that to catch a spy... they must think like one.
  • FBI (CBS): he series centers on inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This elite unit brings to bear all their talents, intellect, and technical expertise on major cases in order to keep New York and the country safe.
  • The Five (TV-MA, Netflix): Twenty years after 5-year-old Jesse disappears near his home, his DNA turns up at the scene of a woman's murder, baffling his family and the police.
  • For the People (ABC): Six talented young lawyers work on opposite sides of the law handling high-profile and high-stakes federal cases.
  • Foyle’s War (PG, ACORNtv): Michael Kitchen stars as Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Foyle in this original PBS Masterpiece Theatre mystery series. Set in the beautiful southern English countryside amid the disorder and danger of World War II, Foyle's War takes place far from the glory of the front.
  • Jack Ryan (TV-14, Amazon, Hulu): After tracking a potentially suspicious shipment of illegal arms in the Venezuelan jungle, CIA Officer Jack Ryan heads to South America to investigate. Jack’s actions threaten to uncover a far-reaching conspiracy, leading him and his fellow operatives on a mission spanning the globe.
  • Outsider (HBO): Based on Stephen King's best-selling novel, The Outsider begins by following a seemingly straightforward investigation into the gruesome murder of a young boy. But when an insidious supernatural force edges its way into the case, it leads a seasoned cop and an unorthodox investigator to question everything they believe in.
  • Perception (ABC): An eccentric professor helps solve criminal FBI cases.
  • The Rookie (ABC): Six months into his career as a cop, John Nolan will be put to the test as he looks to figure out what kind of cop he ultimately wants to be.
  • State of Affairs (NBC): The series stars Katherine Heigl as CIA analyst Charleston Tucker, who is tasked with assembling and presenting the President's Daily Briefing on the most vital security issues facing the country, and Alfre Woodard as the first black woman to be elected President of the United States, Constance Payton.
  • Stumptown (ABC): Stumptown follows Dex Parios–a strong, assertive and sharp-witted veteran with a complicated love life, gambling debt and a brother to take care of in Portland, Oregon. Her military intelligence skills make her a great PI, but her unapologetic style puts her in the firing line of hardcore criminals and not quite in alliance with the police.
  • Treadstone (USA): An action-packed thriller set amidst the CIA black ops program Operation, Treadstone.
  • When They See Us (TV-MA, Netflix): Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park. Based on the true story.

Comedy

  • Cougartown (Amazon, Hulu): Courtney Cox stars as Jules, a recently divorced single mother exploring the truths about dating and aging. While most women in their twenties go through life experiencing the challenges and pitfalls of meeting men, Jules took on the responsibilities of marriage Now in her forties, she embarks on a journey to self-discovery surrounded by divorcees and singletons eager re-live a time gone by.
  • Divorce (HBO): Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church star in this biting comedy series from creator Sharon Horgan about the lows and lower lows of a very long divorce.
  • Fleabag (TV-MA, Amazon): Fleabag is a hilarious and poignant window into the mind of a dry-witted, sexual, angry, grief-riddled woman, as she hurls herself at modern living in London. Award-winning playwright Phoebe Waller-Bridge writes and stars as Fleabag, an unfiltered woman trying to heal, while rejecting anyone who tries to help her and keeping up her bravado all along.
  • The Good Place (TV-14, Netflix): Due to an error, self-absorbed Eleanor Shellstrop arrives at the Good Place after her death. Determined to stay, she tries to become a better person.
  • Grace and Frankie (TVMA): They’re not friends, but when their husbands leave them for each other, proper Grace and eccentric Frankie begin to bond in this Emmy-nominated series.
  • The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (TV-MA, Amazon):  In 1958 New York, Midge Maisel's life is on track- husband, kids, and elegant Yom Kippur dinners in their Upper West Side apartment. But when her life takes a surprise turn, she has to quickly decide what else she's good at - and going from housewife to stand-up comic is a wild choice to everyone but her.
  • Miracle Workers (TBS): Frustrated with the current state of Earth, God has pretty much given up to focus on petty hobbies. Thinking the end might be near, two determined angels try to change his mind.
  • Outsourced (NBC): Workplace comedy series centered around a catalog-based company, Mid America Novelties, that sells American novelty goods including whoopee cushions, foam fingers and wallets made of bacon, and whose call center has suddenly been outsourced to India.

Documentary

  • McMillion$ (HBO): is a documentary miniseries about the McDonald's Monopoly game scam that occurred between 1989 and 2001, perpetrated by Jerry Jacobson, who was in charge of security for the agency that ran the promotion, and several accomplices.
  • Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness (TV-MA, Netflix): A zoo owner spirals out of control amid a cast of eccentric characters in this true murder-for-hire story from the underworld of big cat breeding.
  • We need ideas. Please submit your favorites!

Drama

  • A Million Little Things (ABC): A group of friends struggling in life get a wake-up call to finally start living after one of them dies unexpectedly.
  • Animal Kingdom (TV-MA, TNT): Family crime-drama set in a gritty surf community. The series centers on 17-year-old Joshua "J" Cody (Finn Cole), who moves in with his freewheeling relatives in their Southern California beach town after his mother dies of a heroin overdose.
  • Better Things (FX): Better Things is the story of Sam Fox (Pamela Adlon), a single mother and working actor with no filter, raising her three daughters, Max (Mikey Madison), Frankie (Hannah Alligood) and Duke (Olivia Edward) in Los Angeles. She also looks after her mother, Phil (Celia Imrie), an English expat with questionable faculties who lives across the street.
  • Big little Lies (HBO): Based on Liane Moriarty’s bestselling book, and featuring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Shailene Woodley, this darkly comedic series tells the tale of three mothers whose seemingly perfect lives unravel to the point of murder.
  • Billions (Showtime): Complex drama about power politics in the world of New York high finance.
  • Chernobyl (HBO): Chernobyl, a five-part miniseries co-production from HBO and Sky, dramatizes the story of the 1986 nuclear accident, one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history — and of the sacrifices made to save Europe from unimaginable disaster.
  • Crown (TV-MA, Netflix): This drama follows the political rivalries and romance of Queen Elizabeth II's reign and the events that shaped the second half of the 20th century.
  • Dead to Me (TV-MA, Netflix): A hotheaded widow searching for the hit-and-run driver who mowed down her husband befriends an eccentric optimist who isn't quite what she seems.
  • Girlfriends Guide to Divorce (Bravo): Based on the Girlfriends' Guides book series by Vicki Iovine, the series revolves around Abby McCarthy, a self-help author who finds solace in new friends and adventures as she faces an impending divorce.
  • Goliath (TV-MA, Amazon): Once a powerful lawyer, Billy McBride is now burned out and washed up, spending more time in a bar than a courtroom. When he reluctantly agrees to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against the biggest client of the massive law firm he helped create, Billy and his ragtag team uncover a vast and deadly conspiracy, pitting them all in a life or death trial against the ultimate Goliath.
  • Jack Ryan (TV-14, Amazon, Hulu): After tracking a potentially suspicious shipment of illegal arms in the Venezuelan jungle, CIA Officer Jack Ryan heads to South America to investigate. Jack’s actions threaten to uncover a far-reaching conspiracy, leading him and his fellow operatives on a mission spanning the globe.
  • Locke and Key (TV-14, Netflix): After their dad's murder, three siblings move with their mom to his ancestral estate, where they discover magical keys that unlock powers — and secrets.
  • Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu): Starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, Little Fires Everywhere follows the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and an enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. Based on Celeste Ng’s 2017 bestseller, the story explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, the ferocious pull of motherhood – and the danger in believing that following the rules can avert disaster.
  • Modern Love (Amazon): An unlikely friendship. A lost love resurfaced. A marriage at its turning point. A date that might not have been a date. An unconventional new family. These are unique stories about the joys and tribulations of love, each inspired by a real-life personal essay from the beloved New York Times column “Modern Love.”
  • The Morning Show (Apple+): This drama looks at the modern workplace through the lens of the people who help America wake up
  • Newsroom (HBO/Apple/Amazon/Hulu): Is it possible to produce good TV news and still make it popular? That's the question facing volatile cable-news anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) and his ideological staff in this drama from Aaron Sorkin.
  • Sharp Objects (HBO): Based on the book of the same name by The New York Times bestselling author Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Dark Places), this eight-episode series tells the story of reporter Camille Preaker (Adams) who returns to her small hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. Trying to put together a psychological puzzle from her past, she finds herself identifying with the young victims a bit too closely.
  • This is Us (NBC): If you need a good cry, watch this! The series follows the lives of siblings Kevin, Kate, and Randall (known as the "Big Three"), and their parents Jack and Rebecca Pearson. It takes place mainly in the present and uses flashbacks to show the family's past.
  • West Wing (TV-PG, Netflix/Apple/Amazon): This powerful political epic chronicles the triumphs and travails of White House senior staff under the administration of President Josiah Bartlet.
  • Yellowstone (Paramount): The series follows the conflicts along the shared borders of a large cattle ranch, an Indian reservation, and land developers.
  • Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (NBC/Hulu): Jane Levy stars in this high-concept drama as Zoey Clarke, a whip-smart computer coder forging her way in San Francisco. After an unusual event, Zoey, who always preferred podcasts over pop songs, suddenly starts to hear the innermost wants, thoughts and desires of the people around her - her family, co-workers and complete strangers - through popular songs.

Horror/Thriller

Medical

  • The Good Doctor (ABC): A young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome uses his extraordinary gifts to save lives and challenge skepticism.
  • New Amsterdam (NBC): New Amsterdam follows Dr. Max Goodwin as he becomes the medical director of one of the United States' oldest public hospitals, aiming to reform the neglected facility by tearing up its bureaucracy in order to provide exceptional care to patients.
  • The Resident (FOX): The fictional series focuses on the lives and duties of staff members at Chastain Park Memorial Hospital, while delving into the bureaucratic practices of the hospital industry.

Reality

  • The Great British Baking Show (TV-14, Netflix): A talented batch of amateur bakers face off in a 10-week competition, whipping up their best dishes in the hopes of being named the U.K.'s best.
  • LEGO Masters (FOX): Teams of two LEGO enthusiasts compete against each other in ambitious brick-building challenges to be crowned the grand title of LEGO Master.
  • Love is Blind (TV-MA, Netflix): Nick and Vanessa Lachey host this social experiment where single men and women look for love and get engaged, all before meeting in person.
  • MasterChef (Hulu): A culinary competition series that searches for the best home cooks in America, and through a series of exciting elimination rounds, will turn one of them into a culinary master.
  • MasterChef Junior (Hulu): A culinary competition series that searches for the best junior home cooks in America, and through a series of exciting elimination rounds, will turn one of them into a culinary master.
  • The Masked Singer (FOX): A group of celebs and influencers appear as costumed, masked performers who compete against each other in a singing competition. The studio audience votes on who wins the battles, with the losers then facing off and getting judged by Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke.

Science Fiction/Fantasy

  • The 100 (CW): Set ninety-seven years after a nuclear war has destroyed civilization, when a spaceship housing humanity's lone survivors sends one hundred juvenile delinquents back to Earth, in hopes of possibly re-populating the planet. The series is set 97 years after a devastating nuclear war wiped out almost all life on Earth.
  • Another Life (TV-MA, Netflix): After a massive alien artifact lands on Earth, Niko Breckinridge leads an interstellar mission to track down its source and make first contact.
  • Avenue 5 (HBO): Set 40 years in the future, Avenue 5 follows the captain and crew of a luxury space cruise ship as they navigate disgruntled passengers and unexpected events after experiencing technical difficulties onboard.
  • THE BOYS (TV-MA, Amazon): THE BOYS is an irreverent take on what happens when superheroes, who are as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians and as revered as Gods, abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. It’s the powerless against the super powerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about “The Seven,” and their formidable Vought backing.
  • Emergence (ABC): A police chief takes in a young child she finds near the site of a mysterious accident and the investigation draws her into a conspiracy larger than she ever imagined.
  • Game of Thrones (HBO): Summers span decades. Winters can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne begins. Based on the bestselling book series by George R.R. Martin and created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
  • Kingdom (TV-MA, Netflix): While strange rumors about their ill king grip a kingdom, the crown prince becomes their only hope against a mysterious plague overtaking the land.
  • Lost in Space (TV-PGA, Netflix): After crash-landing on an alien planet, the Robinson family fights against all odds to survive and escape. But they're surrounded by hidden dangers.
  • The Mandalorian (Disney+): After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. “The Mandalorian” is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the New Republic.
  • Manifest (NBC): The series centers on the passengers and crew of a commercial airliner who suddenly reappear after being presumed dead for more than five years.
  • Outlander (TV-MA, Netflix): This epic tale adapted from Diana Gabaldon's popular series of fantasy-romance novels focuses on the drama of two time-crossed lovers.
  • Picard (CBS): At the end of the 24th Century, and 14 years after his retirement from Starfleet, Jean-Luc Picard is living a quiet life on his vineyard, Chateau Picard. When he is sought out by a mysterious young woman, Dahj, in need of his help, he soon realizes she may have personal connections to his own past.
  • See (Apple+): A virus has decimated humankind. Those who survived emerged blind. Jason Momoa stars as the father of twins born centuries later with the mythic ability to see-who must protect his tribe against a threatened queen.
  • Stranger Things (TV-14, Netflix): When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one strange little girl.
  • Travelers (TV-MA, Netflix): A federal agent tracks four people who suddenly seem to possess entirely new personalities, leading to a startling discovery about humanity's future.
  • The inBetween (NBC): Cassie Bedford was born with a rare ability.She has visions. whether she likes it or not. Sometimes Cassie sees events that have previously occurred or will happen in the future. Sometimes she encounters unsettled spirits who need her help
  • Westworld (HBO): Follow the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin in this dark odyssey that begins in a world where every human appetite can be indulged. Aaron Paul, Vincent Cassel, Lena Waithe and Scott Mescudi join Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Thandie Newton, Ed Harris and more for the upcoming third season, which will explore questions about the nature of our reality, free will and what makes us human.
  • Wynonna Earp (TV14): Wynonna Earp follows Wyatt Earp's great granddaughter as she battles demons and other creatures. With her unique abilities, and a posse of dysfunctional allies, she's the only thing that can bring the paranormal to justice.

Sports

  • All American (TV14, Netflix): Culture clashes and brewing rivalries test a teen football player from South Los Angeles when he’s recruited to the Beverly Hills High School team.
  • Ballers (HBO): Success hits hard. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stars in this series as a retired football superstar trying to reinvent himself as a financial manager for current players in sun-soaked Miami.
  • Fans Be Brave: Baseball & Music Show available on YouTube, Anchor and Spotify.

Kids

  • Bluey (Disney+) All Children (TV-Y): Bluey is an inexhaustible six year-old Blue Heeler dog, who loves to play and turns everyday family life into extraordinary adventures, developing her imagination as well as her mental, physical and emotional resilience.
  • We need ideas. Please submit your favorites!

Podcasts

General

  • 30 for 30: Developed out of the über-successful 30 for 30 film series, ESPN’s 30 for 30 podcast series takes the best parts of the documentaries and brings them to audio format. If sports are your thing, these episodes follow athletes from around the world to learn their stories, unraveling what makes someone successful (or not) while also offering a look at how sports can influence cultures around the world. The stories go beyond sports, though, offering something for sports fans and non-sports fans alike.
  • The Daily Show with Trevor Noah - Ears Edition: Ears Edition features both highlights and extended interviews from Daily Show episodes. If you’re one of the ones that just watch the show highlights that Comedy Central puts on YouTube the following day, this podcast is for you.
  • Everything is Alive: An “unscripted interview show,” Everything is Alive is an interesting take on exploring the world. How so? In each episode, an interviewee is an inanimate object telling its life story. Ever wanted to hear how a bar of soap feels? What about an elevator? Think of this as that part of Fight Club concerning Jack’s organs, except you’re not part of Project Mayhem or burning yours and other people’s hands with lye.
  • Goop Podcast: GP and Chief Content Officer, Elise Loehnen, chat with leading thinkers, culture changers, and industry disruptors—from doctors to creatives, CEOs to spiritual healers—about shifting old paradigms and starting new conversations. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for new episodes.
  • The Habitat: We’ve all seen The Real World and Big Brother, but what happens when the people forcing other people to live together (in a space secluded away from the world, no less) are from NASA? In The Habitat, six volunteers are sent to a remote island in Hawaii to live for a year as pretend astronauts on a pretend Mars. The sextet chronicles their highs and lows through audio recordings, which are spliced together in the podcast with documentary narration. Listening to see if one person might kill another is addictive to say the least.
  • The Manual: From award-winning chefs to race car drivers to the owners of major breweries, we’ve talked to the best of the best in all of the industries you care about. We’ve talked to some great people in our first years, and the list of guests is only getting better from here.
  • Small Town Murder: One of the consistently funny true crime podcasts, Small Town Murder explores crimes in small towns (population under 30,000) that are, often-times, bat sh*t crazy. If you thought Florida was the only state for crazed criminals out there, Small Town Murder is a testament to the opposite. What helps hosts James Pietragallo and Jimmie Whisman dig into more than just the crime at hand. The duo look at what makes every town tick, from real estate sales to the local holiday parades that drive small-town life
  • Startup: In this last season of the series, Startup is Gimlet Media’s CEO Alex Blumberg’s take on the successes and pitfalls of running his media company. Having sold to Spotify earlier this year, this final season looks at the intersection of art and money and how one values each. That value changes, you find out, when you have your employees’ fates in your hands.

For Kids

Bedtime

  • Story Time: These 10- to 15-minute stories are a perfect way to lull your little one to sleep. The podcast is updated every other week, and each episode contains a kid-friendly story, read by a soothing narrator. Short and sweet, it's as comforting as listening to your favorite picture book read aloud. Best for: Preschoolers and little kids
  • Be Calm on Ahway Island: Thanks to the hosts' soothing voices and a pre-story meditation, your kid might fall asleep to this podcast before the story even gets underway. But if not, the gentle adventures on Ahway Island will also sweep them off to dreamland. This podcast teaches kid-friendly mindfulness practices like "deep dragon breaths" that can be carried into waking life as well. Best for: All ages
  • What If World: With wacky episode titles such as "What if Legos were alive?" and "What if sharks had legs?," this series takes ridiculous "what if" questions submitted by young listeners and turns them into a new story every two weeks. Host Eric O'Keefe uses silly voices and crazy characters to capture the imaginations of young listeners with a Mad Libs-like randomness. Best for: Kids
  • Stories Podcast: One of the first kids' podcasts to grasp podcasts' storytelling capabilities, this podcast is still going strong with kid-friendly renditions of classic stories, fairy tales, and original works. These longer stories with a vivid vocabulary are great for bigger kids past the age for picture books but who still love a good bedtime story. Best for: Big kids

Family

  • But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids: Kids are always asking seemingly simple questions that have surprisingly complex answers, such as "Why is the sky blue?" and "Who invented words?" This cute biweekly radio show/podcast takes on answering them. Each episode features several kid-submitted questions, usually on a single theme, and with the help of experts, it gives clear, interesting answers. Best for: All ages
  • Smash, Boom, Best: This fun and fast-moving spin-off of the popular Brains On! podcast is a family-friendly debate podcast. A kid judge listens to and scores the rousing, fact-based arguments of two contestants. With episodes like "Dragons versus Unicorns" and "Pizza versus Tacos," kids will be hooked, and they won't even notice that they're learning how to defend their ideas along the way. Best for: Big kids
  • The Two Princes: This charming fantasy adventure will have listeners of all ages glued to the speakers until the very end. Two young princes seek to save their kingdoms and in the process face villany, dragons, romance, and a magical forest full of danger. Though kissing happens, it is treated with sweetness and humor. A fairy tale for our times, this audio drama is a great introduction to the world of fiction podcasts. Best for: Tweens
  • This American Life: This popular NPR radio show is now also the most downloaded podcast in the country. It combines personal stories, journalism, and even stand-up comedy for an enthralling hour of content. Host Ira Glass does a masterful job of drawing in listeners and weaving together several "acts" or segments on a big, relatable theme. Teens can get easily hooked along with their parents, but keep in mind that many episodes have mature concepts and frequent swearing. Best for: Teens
  • The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian: This serialized podcast tells the story of an 8-year-old boy living on an interplanetary space station who explores the galaxy and solves mysteries with his friends. With no violence or edgy content and with two seasons totaling over 13 hours of content, this sci-fi adventure is perfect for long car rides. Best for: Kids and tweens
  • Flyest Fables: In the tradition of The NeverEnding Story, this original fable centers on a magical book that takes its readers to a world where they find the strength to overcome any obstacle. The writing itself is beautiful, and the stories are immersive. Themes can be serious (bullying, homelessness) but are handled with sensitivity and remain appropriate for kids. These powerful, modern stories are sure to entertain and provoke meaningful family conversations. Best for: Big kids and tweens
  • Eleanor Amplified: Inspired by old-timey radio shows -- complete with over-the-top sound effects -- this exciting serial podcast follows a plucky journalist who goes on adventures looking for her big scoop. Tweens will love Eleanor's wit and daring and might even pick up some great messages along the way. There's even a "Road Trip Edition" episode with the entire first season in a single audio file. Best for: Tweens
  • The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel: This Peabody Award-winning scripted mystery series has been called a Stranger Things for tweens. With a voice cast of actual middle schoolers, a gripping, suspenseful plot, and interactive tie-ins, this story about an 11-year-old searching for his missing friends will keep tweens hooked to the speakers for hours -- more than five, to be exact. Best for: Tweens
  • Welcome to Night Vale: Structured like a community radio show for the fictional desert town of Night Vale, the mysterious is ordinary and vice versa in this delightfully eerie series. Both the clever concept and the smooth voice of narrator Cecil Baldwin have helped the show develop a cult-like following. It's a bit creepy and dark for kids, but older listeners will find it perfect for a nighttime drive along a deserted highway. Best for: Teens

Learning

  • Ear Snacks: The catchy soundtrack is the star in this delightful podcast from children's music duo Andrew & Polly (not surprising since the hosts have created songs for Wallykazam! and Sesame Studios). But this funny program also covers a range of topics by talking to actual kids as well as experts, providing thoughtful fun for young ones and their grown-ups. Best for: Preschoolers and little kids
  • KidNuz: Kids like to be informed and engaged, but talking to kids about the news can be a challenge. This podcast, created by moms who are broadcast journalists, offers young listeners five minutes of kid-friendly news (followed by a quick quiz) each day, five days a week. Perfectly timed for waking up, KiDNuz lets you start the day off on a worldy note. Best for: All ages
  • The Past & the Curious: Reminiscent of the TV show Drunk History (minus the alcohol), this amusing podcast features people telling interesting, little-known stories from history with an emphasis on fun and humor. Although it's not specifically a music podcast, each episode contains an often-silly song that's sure to get stuck in your head. There's even a quiz segment, so kids will learn something, too. Best for: All ages
  • Book Club for Kids: This excellent biweekly podcast features middle schoolers talking about a popular middle-grade or YA book as well as sharing their favorite book recommendations. Public radio figure Kitty Felde runs the discussion, and each episode includes a passage of that week's book read by a celebrity guest. Best for: Tweens and teens

Music Fans

  • Noodle Loaf: A delightful offering from a music education specialist and his co-host daughter will get kids of all ages singing, rhyming, moving, and engaging in all kinds of musical games. The segments, games, and songs are so silly and upbeat that the whole family will enjoy participating. Little listeners can even add their voice to the theme song in the podcast's electronically compiled kid's choir! Best for: All ages
  • Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl: Kids' music can be … well, annoying. But "kindie rock" (aka, indie rock for kids) is here to help. This two-hour podcast styled like a DJ radio show features new and old songs that kids will love, many by parents' favorite musicians. Selections are generally high-energy rock, folk, or even punk-inspired songs, but listeners will also hear mellower tunes, as well as bilingual (English/Spanish) songs and hip-hop hits for a well-rounded musical experience. Best for: All ages
  • Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child: Families can enjoy rock and roll without the downsides with this fun radio show/podcast. Each week there's a new playlist combining kids' music from artists such as They Might Be Giants, with kid-appropriate songs from artists that grown-ups will recognize, such as Elvis Costello, The Ramones, and John Legend. It's a perfect compromise for parents tired of cheesy kids' music. Best for: Kids
  • All Songs Considered: This weekly podcast from NPR covers the latest and greatest in new music with a particular focus on emerging artists and indie musicians. It covers a wide range of genres and even includes artist interviews and live performances. Some songs contain adult themes and explicit language, but teens will love discovering a new favorite that you've probably never heard of. Best for: Teens

Science Lovers

  • Wow in the World: NPR's first show for kids is exactly the sort of engaging, well-produced content you would expect from the leaders in radio and audio series. Hosts Guy Raz and Mindy Thomas exude joy and curiosity while discussing the latest news in science and technology in a way that's enjoyable for kids and informative for grown-ups. Best for: All ages
  • Brains On: This podcast that takes kid-submitted science questions and answers them with the help of experts. What makes this one different is it tends to skew a bit older, both in its questions and answers, and it has a different kid co-host each week. The result is a fun show that's as silly as it is educational. Best for: Kids and tweens
  • Tumble: Often compared to a kid-friendly Radiolab, this podcast not only addresses fascinating topics but also tries to foster a love of science itself by interviewing scientists about their process and discoveries. The hosts don't assume that listeners have a science background -- but even kids who think they don't like science may change their minds after listening to this podcast. Best for: Kids and tweens
  • Stuff You Should Know: From the people behind the award-winning website HowStuffWorks, this frequently updated podcast explains the ins and outs of everyday things from the major ("How Free Speech Works")  to the mundane ("How Itching Works"). Longer episodes and occasional adult topics such as alcohol, war, and politics make this a better choice for older listeners, but hosts Josh and Chuck keep things engaging and manage to make even complex topics relatable. And with over 1,000 episodes in its archive, you might never run out of new things to learn. Best for: Teens

Virtual Tours & Field Trips:

Parks

  • Yellowstone National Park

Museums

Zoo/Animal

  • Do more research on your favorite animal and make a guide.
  • Research the habitat of your favorite animal. Use at home materials to create a miniature habitat.

Aquariums

Science

  • U.S. Space and Rocket Museum in Huntsville, AL: Saturn 5 Rocket
  • Discovery Education Virtual Field Trips

Travel the World

  • Plan a trip to a new destination. What would you do, see, eat?
  • Make a travel brochure for the destination you “visited.”
  • Create & write a postcard from that destination. Include details about the place and what you can see there.

Music

Virtual Volunteering

  • Amnesty Decoders: Operated by Amnesty International, this network of digital volunteers helps conduct research into global human rights violations. Volunteers have used their phones and computers to verify the location of oil spills, find evidence of drone strikes, and flag abusive tweets to women politicians in India.
  • Amplify: Amplify helps empower underrepresented voices in technology and those who support them to be fearless leaders. There are plenty of virtual opportunities to help support this organization.
  • Animal Shelters: Contact your local animal shelter and see if they need toys, blankets, etc. Make the items at home and ship them to the shelter. Toy ideas: T-Shirt Tug Toy | Sock & tennis ball toss toy
  • Anti-Slavery Manuscripts: The Boston Public Library's Anti-Slavery collection—one of the largest and most important collections of abolitionist material in the United States—contains roughly 40,000 pieces of correspondence, broadsides, newspapers, pamphlets, books, and memorabilia from the 1830s through the 1870s. The primary production goal of this project is to gain a complete corpus of machine-readable text from these handwritten documents
  • Be My Eyes: Help blind and low-vision people with visual assistance through a live video call
  • Best Friends: For anyone who is thinking about getting a pet, now is a great time to foster or adopt since everyone is home.
  • Card Making: Make and send cards to local hospital or nursing home
  • Catchafire: This volunteer search tool is exclusively for online volunteer projects. Each one has a timeline that can range anywhere from an hour to a few weeks. So whether you have an afternoon or several, you can help not-for-profit with tasks like writing thank you letters or editing photos.
  • Crisis Text Line (18 years or older, min 4 hours/week): Here’s a perfect example of technology being used for good. Become a volunteer to help the Crisis Text Line continue to offer free, 24/7 support for those in crisis. If you’re at least 18 and can commit to volunteering four hours each week, you can apply to be trained for free.
  • DoSomething.org: DoSomething empowers young people to enact social change both online or off. Volunteer online through one of our campaigns to help solve real-world problems. DoSomething members have used the internet to successfully urge Apple to diversify their emojis, change the dictionary definition of “Black/black”, and create the largest crowdsourced anti-bullying guide.
  • Help from Home: Not liking what you see here? No worries! Check out this website that lists a variety of help from home opportunities.
  • Housing Crowd: Housing Crowd is an effort to harness micro-volunteering to help fill an immediate need for affordable housing for the homeless in Iowa City. Search online ads for housing that meet our criteria. Post on our site.
  • Humanitarian OpenStreetMap: Map out places in the world that are literally not on the map to help humanitarian organizations do their life saving work.  
  • LibriVox: Help record free public domain audiobooks for access to all, in all languages. Readers are free to choose the books they wish to record.
  • Mask-Making: Many hospitals are looking for people who can sew to make homemade masks. Check out the following links, or see if a hospital near you needs your support. Promedica (Toledo, OH), Providence (Seattle, WA), Deaconess (Evansville, IN). Here is a link for patterns, the most hospitals are providing their preferred patterns. Joanne’s also has a pattern. There is a COVID Mask Crafters group on Facebook for tips as well as resources such as who needs masks/where to send them.
  • MicroMentor: Mentor entrepreneurs from around the globe.
  • Notes from Nature: The New York Botanical Garden's William and Lynda Steere Herbarium is looking for volunteers to help digitize their northeastern forest plant specimen collection by transcribing printed specimen labels as part of the Notes From Nature project on Zooniverse. The project will result in the collection being searchable and accessible to researchers worldwide. The software is browser-based and easy to use, and it includes a lot of helpful tips to guide you through reading the specimen labels and finding the information that needs to be captured.
  • Operation Gratitude: There are many ways to thank a veteran including sending thank you cards, letters or even handmade items.
  • Operation War Diary: Operation War Diary brings together original First World War documents from The National Archives, the historical expertise of IWM and the power of the Zooniverse community. It will create new ‘Citizen Historians'. Working together we will make previously inaccessible information available to academics, researchers and family historians worldwide, leaving a lasting legacy for the centenary of the First World War.
  • PenguinWatch: Penguin Watch, WWF and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are asking you, the public, to help count penguins from aerial photos taken with drones and planes. A special camera was used to capture high resolution images of 140 colonies of Adélie, chinstrap and gentoo penguins (collectively the brush-tailed penguins) along the Antarctic Peninsula. Some of these colonies are so difficult to get to that they haven’t been visited for 50 years! The images contain unprecedented detail, giving us the opportunity to gather new data on the number of penguins in the region. This information will help us understand how they are being affected by climate change, the potential impact of local fisheries and how we can help conserve these incredible species.
  • Project Chemo Crochet: Help create blankets for chemo patients. Simply crochet or knit 9 inch squares! Please do your best to keep to this size as it makes the assembly process much easier. Hook/needle size, pattern, and color of yarn does not matter. The more creative the better! Yarn must be washable. Ship squares to Project Chemo Crochet, PO Box 386, Fort Washington PA 19034
  • Project Gutenberg: Founded in 1971, this may just be the virtual volunteering effort that started it all. The goal is to create the largest digital library, and so far they’ve amassed 59,000 free eBooks. Volunteer by donating eligible materials, transcribing books into a digital form, or proofreading others’ work.
  • Smithsonian Digital Volunteer: Help make their collections more accessible by volunteering online to transcribe historical documents or edit Wikipedia articles related to their artifacts and research.
  • Snuggles Project: Crochet, knit, sew, or quilt blankets for animals in shelters. Details and patterns on the Snuggles Project website. Use their patterns, find a local animal shelter to deliver your Snuggles to, and please don’t forget to fill out an online donation form for snuggles created that you are sending in or delivering.
  • Translators Without Borders: For those fluent in more than one language, check out this nonprofit that combines language skills with humanitarian aid. Volunteers provide translations (10 million words a year!) to international organizations that focus on crisis relief, health and education.
  • TutorMate: TutorMate is the nation’s preeminent online volunteer tutoring program, helping thousands of at-risk first grade students learn to read. More than 200 of the country’s most prominent corporations and organizations partner with Innovations for Learning to recruit an army of volunteers to help young students in under-resourced schools and communities. A community volunteer tutor is paired with a first grade student for remote 30 minute tutoring sessions once per week throughout the school year. The volunteer can tutor from their office, at home, or wherever there is internet access. During the session, the tutor and student read stories together online and play games that build student word knowledge.
  • United Nations Volunteers: UNV connects you with organizations working for peace and development in need of skills like research, writing, art, and design. There are already over 12,000 volunteers from 187 countries lending their talents to organizations around the globe.
  • UpChieve: Tutor underserved high schoolers remotely
  • Wikipedia Editor: Edit the world's largest free encyclopedia
  • Wildlife Cam Project: To plan for conservation, we need to understand how Gorongosa wildlife responds to changes in the environment over space and time. We are using a grid of 60 cameras that has been in operation since 2016. The camera data will help us identify trends in wildlife populations to inform management, especially as species continue to recover and new species are reintroduced into the park. Identify wildlife via cam photos. It’s kind of like a game with filters to help you identify animals and their numbers in the wild.
  • World Memory Project: The World Memory Project is changing lives already by building the world's largest online resource for information about individual victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution. Discover how you can help bring the truth to light and create a chance for family connections that transcend war and time.
  • Zooniverse: Volunteer on a project with Zooniverse, the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. Our goal is to enable research that would not be possible, or practical, otherwise. Zooniverse research results in new discoveries, datasets useful to the wider research community, and many publications.

School from Home Promises

Shared by the George Washington University Parent group to help parents support their college students who are coming home, modified slightly for all school ages.

  1. Set up a “school from home” place to work, even if it is a small corner.
  2. If you live with family or friends, ask to not be disturbed when you are in your “school from home” space.
  3. Get up at a regular time and get dressed and ready for “school from home.”
  4. Set up regular times for your “school from home” and stick with these. You may want to follow your regular class schedule if your classes even if your classes are on demand versus live.
  5. Check your school email every morning and several other times each day. Check your school's e-learning management system daily.
  6. Don’t hesitate to email/contact your teacher/professor if you have questions. For college students, keep in mind that your professor has many classes and students online during “school from home,” so please make sure to give your full name and mention your class. Consider listing the class in the subject line of your email, e.g., “This is StudentName from you 3:00 TR MAT 105 class.”
  7. Keep in contact with a couple of other students from each class via email, WhatsApp or your online learning platform.
  8. Use your academic planner or a calendar/list to keep track of your assignments. You will no longer have the benefit of a teacher reminding you of upcoming due dates.
  9. Work ahead! Do not fall behind.
  10. Make sure everyone you live with understands that you are still in school. You are not free to spend the day doing family laundry, taking care of siblings, ets, etc. School is still your primary responsibility. The only change is you are now doing it from home.
  11. For high schoolers, consider doing several test prep questions each day.
  12. Stay at home as much as possible! This is how we slow the spread of Covid-19. This is WHY you are now doing school at home.


Financial Giving Suggestions

These organizations are helping people get food and medical help during the coronavirus pandemic:

  • DirectRelief: Direct Relief is coordinating with public health authorities, nonprofit organizations and businesses in the U.S., China and globally to provide personal protective equipment and essential medical items to health workers responding to coronavirus (COVID-19). Donate here.
  • Give2Asia: Your donation will support our trusted NGOs helping frontline health workers and communities respond to the coronavirus outbreak. Donate here.
  • Feeding America: This organization helps feed communities and individuals facing hunger across the United States through a nationwide network of food banks. Donate here.
  • No Kid Hungry: With coronavirus forcing mass school closures across the country, millions of children are losing the daily meals they depend on. No Kid Hungry uses donations to send emergency grants to food banks and local community groups. It diverts resources to feed kids in the hardest-hit communities. The organization also has plans in place to ensure families know how to find food while schools are closed and making sure kids get three meals a day. Donate here.
  • Meals on Wheels: This organization delivers meals to the country’s elderly population. Many of its local programs are struggling with the additional costs of delivering meals during the outbreak. You can find ways to help a local program here or donate to the national organization here.
  • The CDC Foundation: This nonprofit organization for the CDC is raising funds to help respond to the public health threat when federal and state funding is not available. The foundation said it will use the funds to support state and local health departments in the US as well as support the global response including logistics, personal protective equipment, and critical response supplies. Donate here.
  • Center for Disaster Philanthropy: This US-based organization is supporting local nonprofits in areas with a high number of affected individuals and vulnerable populations to help them support hourly wage earners, gig economy workers, immigrant populations, older adults, people with disabilities, and other communities vulnerable to the physical, mental, and economic impacts of the pandemic. Donate here.
  • Save the Children: This international organization is helping to protect vulnerable children and families by training health teams across the world on protection and prevention. The organization is supplying personal protective equipment and other supplies to help health staffers on the front lines of fighting the outbreaks. Donate here.
  • UNICEF: The United Nations Children's Fund is sending supplies and support to save and protect vulnerable children affected by the coronavirus. Donate here.

How to Support Local Businesses

COVID-19 Living History Project:

Project Description:

The COVID-19 Living History Project by Joe Boyle, Toledo Public Schools History Teacher

In our history classes, we have learned about the beginnings of the Cold War. We have learned about terrorist networks, liberation movements, and the Vietnam War. We have learned about the history of discrimination in America, and how that led to the Civil Rights Movement. We’ve all talked about massive historical events that defined people's lives, that changed how they saw the world.

How did we learn about it all? Through primary sources. We learned through watching documentaries or reading materials from actual people who were there and living through it. Primary resources helped us understand our history better than any other resource.

Now, we are living through history. The rise of COVID-19, and our world’s fight to keep it from overwhelming us, may be the story of this generation. This is just like former generations who have lived through our recent past like 9/11, the Vietnam War and World War II.

We have our moment to show the world what we are made of! Not just as a historian, but as a human being. History has chosen you to live in this time. And 30 years from now, your ancestors will want to know what it was like in the bad old days of the COVID-19 outbreak. They’ll want to know what it was like being out of school. They’ll want to know what it was like when retailers ran out of toilet-paper. They’ll want to know how you learned about what was going on. They’ll want to know who you knew who got sick, and how that felt. They’ll want to know what you did to keep busy. Just like we want to know what it was like to live through crazy stuff in the past, they’re going to want to know what you lived through NOW. You literally have the opportunity to be PART of history, right now, and create materials invaluable to your family and future historians.

Project Details:

  • Use a Google Doc or similar
  • Your assignment, should you choose, is to keep a daily journal about what your life is like during COVID-19 shut-down. Here are the guidelines:
  • Include your date and location at the top of each entry.
  • Note what happened each day. What was the news? Did a famous person get it? Someone you know? What was the weather like? What did you wish you were doing that day? These are just a few ideas. Be free with your thoughts!
  • Record local, national, and world political responses
  • Log events (market crash, population response, etc.)
  • Each entry should be about 150 words or more
  • Include pictures
  • When this is all over, please print / save your journal to share with your family and even future generations.

Optional: Research Participation

  • Please feel free to share your project to help preserve an account of our history in the making.
  • This is a community sourced project and your contributions are voluntary. There is no reimbursement for your contribution; except for the honor of knowing you helped create uncensored truths about living during this pandemic.
  • If amenable, please share your project here.

Virtual Museum Tour Scavenger Hunt


Couple this with your virtual museum tours!

  1. At the British Museum, in approximately 200 AD, there is a brooch. What is set in the plain bezel of the brooch and whose picture is on this brooch?  What celebration occurred during this person’s reign?
  2. Which museum has a famous spiraling staircase? Why is it unique? What is your favorite piece of art in this museum?
  3. Where would you find the self portrait of Vincent van Gogh? And according to the description, how many self-portraits did he create?
  4. Van Gogh painted a picture of his bedroom. Where was his bedroom
  5. In which museum would you find “The Milkmaid” painting by Johannes Vermeer. In the painting to the right of “The Milkmaid” what color is the man’s jacket?
  6. This museum has the painting Madonna of the Harpies. In the picture next to it, how many children are there?
  7. What color is the wall behind the portrait of “Eleonora di Toledo with her son Giovanni”?
  8. In which museum are the paintings not hung on the wall, but are in plexiglass so you can actually walk around them?
  9. Who is the Queen in the drawing from 1500 AD that is in the British museum and from whom is she receiving the letter?
  10. Who designed the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City? And what is at the entrance to the museum?
  11. Which museum has an amazing painting of purple flowers by Van Gogh.
  12. What is the oldest relic that is at the British Museum?