You need to do THIS to Survive Social Distancing

With social distancing efforts in full effect, we need more free things to do at home that are both fun and educational. Whether you are a stay-at-home parent or work-from-home parent, your usual options to entertain and educate your families aren’t enough to fill the whole day.

Good news! A lot of companies, schools and artists are making content available for free because of COVID-19. To survive our first week of social distancing, we curated an organized list of resources to plan our days during an increasingly unpredictable time. This list grew, and we realized this resource would be helpful to all of you.

With that in mind, we developed a “Social Distancing Survival Guide” to help our readers on a daily basis. In our first issue of this social distancing survival guide, we’ve rounded up some fun, free activities for the whole family. We hope you find something here that you can try out to keep you and your families from going stir crazy. You need to do THIS to survive social distancing!

1. Theatre & Broadway

Interested in Fine Theatre but wondering where to begin? Well, now is a good time to try some fun, free and exciting new things.

• The Metropolitan Opera is streaming free encore presentations of its Live in HD series.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art has also closed its doors. However, you can take a free 360 degree virtual tour of the museum from the comfort of your own home. Social Distancing and Art at its FINEST.
• Renowned playwright Lauren Gunderson began her free Playwriting Class which she broadcast via Facebook from her home in San Francisco.

2. Music

• Garth Brooks performed in a virtual concert with his wife, Trisha Yearwood on Facebook Live on Monday. Boasting over 3.3 million viewers- the country singer took requests from fans and ended his concert with Amazing Grace. You can still view it and other videos on his page!
• Other artists are in line to do the same thing. Erykah Badu had a Quarantine Concert Series from her bedroom on Monday night as well (this is now $1 to watch…cheap considering). Another great idea? Catch up on some of those Tiny Desk Concerts from NPR, so you can catch up with some new music from Harry Styles (who just received a special shout out from Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks via Instagram for having an amazing, inspirational new album and inspiring her to create some new songs and poetry- THANKS HARRY!) or most recent artist – Soccer Mommy, Sophie Allison, who felt encouraged to share her talent with the world for a little social distancing motivation and was featured on NPR. Maybe you’ll get inspired and do your own Tiny Desk Concert?
• London-based concert hall Wigmore Hall will be sharing performances, masterclasses, talks and more from past events at Wigmore Hall on their website.
• The Seattle Symphony is offering free broadcasts on YouTube and Facebook. For a program schedule click here.
• Dead & Company, which includes John Mayer and members of The Grateful Dead, will be streaming previously recorded concerts online on Nugs.TV every Saturday at 8pm. You know we will all be tuned in Saturday night!

3. School & Education

Is your Mom guilt flaring while you work from home, feed the kids and then realize its 5 o’clock and you have done nothing to advance your kids’ education today? I know mine has hit some highs and lows in our first full week at home. Here are things to inspire and educate your kids while also soothing that part of you feeling guilty for not being built for home-schooling.

• Scholastic (yes, as in THE Scholastic Book Fairs) has a digital learning hub that’s free intended to support virtual learning plans.
• Khan Academy has free schedules and educational resources for traditional subjects to keep your kids learning even though school is closed.
• PBS Learning Media inspires your home-schooled students with thousands of free teaching resources including videos, lesson plans, and games aligned to state and national standards.
• For your adolescents, the 8 Ivy League schools are offering hundreds of online courses to the public for FREE. You can register via Class Central.
• Daytime Emmy-nominated Storyline Online, features celebrated actors reading favorites books.
• Have an artist in the house? Try FREE Online Art Lessons from Wild, Free and Crafty.
• Or watch Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence at Home, Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems, every day at 1pm.
• For those builders in the family, check out the 30-Day Lego Challenge!
• Make cooking and eating fun! Kids learn how to cook and why nutrition is important in the great online series from Common Bytes.
• It’s time for a Field Trip! Virtual of course! Check out these many amazing destinations!
• Speaking of field trips…the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden has a LIVE animal camera. Your kids can enjoy watching their resident animals frolic and play all day long!

4. Fitness

• Many local gyms closed their doors due to health concerns. Don’t fret! You can still get that workout in with Planet Fitness! They offer FREE online at-home workouts through Facebook Live. They are open to anyone, including non-members!
• A popular gym in town, Orange Theory Fitness, is posting a new workout every day to keep you strong and healthy. Check it out!
• Peloton offers new users a free 90-day trial on its app.
• Golds Gym provides free access to its app Goldsamp with more than 600 audio and video workouts AND DJ mixes to motivate you!
• Down Dog and Core Power Yoga offer some free online yoga classes.
• The kids need workouts too! Cosmic Kids Yoga classes are fun, engaging and get your kids moving. My kids love the one where the yoga teacher is dressed up as Poppy from Trolls! This has become a morning staple during our first full week at home. It has helped us ground the kids while also getting their wiggles out as they start the day.

5. Sports

• The NBA and NFL stream previous games played through NBA League Pass and NFL Game Pass.
• The National Hockey League makes all games played in the 2019-2020 season available to stream on demand.
• PBS will be making its 1994 Ken Burns documentary Baseball available to be streamed free of charge.

6. Other

• Maybe your place of employment has you now working from home. This can be challenging, especially if the entire family is now home too. ‘Morning Brew’ put together this great resource guide to help you navigate the day-to-day.
• As an added bonus- we’ve included this downloadable PDF of our Stay at Home Weekly Planner for you and your family. Feel free to print and work on it as a family writing down different activities everyone can do during quarantine times! Once you’re finished you can put it on the fridge or a central area for all to see and don’t forget to wash your hands!

Anything you’d like to add to our social distancing survival guide? Share your insights on our Facebook page or Instagram!