Free Online Activities to Help you Survive Social Distancing

An ongoing list of free online classes, activities, entertainment and more to help you survive social distancing, lockdowns, and quarantines.  

*Updated April 15, 2020 (Check back, as the list will continue to be added to!).

Last week my focus was on setting up a homeschool and work from home plan. 

This week the reality of this situation is starting to sink in. 

Trying to work from home with kids isn’t going to be the only challenge.  With articles like this suggesting that social distancing could last months, I realized that I need to make sure the kids (and The Husband and I) have some fun things to do too. 

That’s why this week my focus has been on compiling a list of all the free online activities and classes that are being offered, and coming up with some other at-home activities for us to do as a family or individually too.

From my past experiences coping with stressful situations, I know that I need to take time to distract myself from this situation and make regular self-care time a priority too.

So, I am truly grateful for all the businesses that are offering their classes and activities online and for free.  With all of the new things we can try out online, it won’t be so hard to get our minds off of the stressors we are facing.

Thank you to all the businesses that are providing these free online resources to our communities.

The Science of Well-Being Online Course

Learn to increase your happiness and become more productive with this free course from Yale.

Mental Wellness Workshops and More

The Mighty is offering a variety of Facebook live workshops to help us cope with quarantine or learn new relaxation strategies like meditation, yoga or journalling.

Free Online Courses (from Ivy League schools)

If you’ve ever been interested in taking some college courses, now is the time to do it.  This website has lots of free online courses in Computer Science, Data Science, Programming, Humanities, Business, Art & Design, Science, Social Sciences, Health & Medicine, Engineering, Mathematics, Education & Teaching, and Personal Development.

Virtual Cooking Class

If your cooking skills are limited to microwave dinners, now is a great time to learn to cook real food.  Join chef Massimo Bottura daily at 3 pm EST for “kitchenquarantine” on Instagram.

Virtual Baking Class

Mrs Bun the Baker cookery school is offering free Facebook live bake-alongs every Friday.

Online Dog Training Lessons 

Whether you have a new puppy you need to teach some basic manners or an older dog you want to keep stimulated by teaching some new tricks, there are tons of videos on Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution’s YouTube channel to keep you busy.

Virtual Paint Night

If you’ve been wanting to try a paint night, you can do it for free from your living room with one of the many companies that are offering them through Facebook Live or their websites.

• East Coast Art Party
• Paint With Janet

Imagineering in a Box Course

Your kids (and you) can learn how to design your own theme park from Disney Imagineers, with these interactive lessons on Khan Academy’s website.

The Lion King Experience Online Course

This online course is usually offered to schools for a fee, but right now is being offered to kids stuck at home for free.  There are 11 lessons, each taking around 40-45 minutes, that include videos and activities.

Virtual Marine Biology Camp

Oceans Initiative is providing a free online marine biology camp Mondays and Thursdays at 2 pm.

Draw-along Video’s

Let Rob Biddulph teach your kids how to draw online with #Drawwithrob.

Online Art Class

Made With McHarper! is offering free online art & craft tutorials for kids on YouTube. 

Online Origami Tutorials

Collin is teaching kids origami from Monday to Friday at 5:30 pm EST.

Virtual Drama Classes

Join the Facebook group Acting Up! Online Drama Class for Kids to see the class times for each age group, and get the Zoom meeting ID and password for these online drama lessons. 

Baby/Toddler/Preschooler Classes

A lot of companies have stepped up and started offering music, gymnastics and other play activities to help keep young kids entertained.

• Songs for Littles
• Tumble Tots UK
• Little Gym at Home
• Mini Karate
• Gymfinity Gymnastics

Virtual Story Times

There are tons of authors doing online book readings for preschoolers and older children through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other websites.  

• RJ Palacio reading Wonder on twitter daily at 12:00 PM EST
• We Are Teachers Big List of Children’s Authors Doing Online Read-Alouds & Activities
• #operationstorytime on Instagram

Princesses and Superheroes

A lot of companies that offer Princess and other characters for Birthday parties have taken things online and are now entertaining children at home through online events like tea parties with princesses, jedi or superhero training, princess story times and dance parties.

• Bella Terra
• Party Like a Princess
• My Perfect Princess Party
• Ruby Rascals Children’s Parties
• Princess Parties of DC
• Magical Princess Parties
• Iconic Parties

Free Prime Kids Shows

If your kids are running out of things to watch on their normal streaming service, Amazon has now made all their kid content free.

Kids’ Podcasts

If you’re looking for something for your kids to do that doesn’t involve staring at a screen, check out these 25 podcasts for kids.

Cooking/Baking with Kids

Nomster Chef makes baking or cooking with young kids easier, with recipes that provide step by step picture instructions.

Family Gardening

Learn how and when to plant vegetables and flowers with your kids so you can start your own garden this year.

Chess Instruction

Want to have an at-home chess tournament?  Chesskid.com teaches your kids how to play with simple instructions with pictures.

Virtual Escape Room

If you’re getting tired of board games and movies for family night activities at home, try one of the many virtual escape rooms that are now being offered.

• Hogwarts Digital Escape Room
• Pikachu’s Rescue
• Cinderella Escapes!
• Escape the Fairy Tale
• Escape from Wonderland
• Pete the Cat and the Birthday Party Mystery
• The Minotaur’s Labyrinth
• Escape the Sphinx!
• Spy Apprentice Digital “Escape Room” Adventure
• Online Escape Rooms from Escape Team (the first mission is free, then the rest are $0.99)

Family Yoga

Born Yoga is offering free online yoga classes for families to do together.  They have everything from baby and me classes to classes for tweens and teens too.

Audible Kids’ Books

If you’re running out of books to read your kids, Audible has made a selection of kid’s books free and will remain free for as long as schools are closed.

Virtual Vacations

Check out my post on the 100+ Virtual Tours to Plan Your Virtual Vacations for lots of amusement parks, zoos, aquariums, museums, art galleries, national parks, world famous landmarks and more you can visit virtually.

Free YMCA Online Classes

The YMCA has put their workout classes online for free, and you don’t need to be a member to access them.

Dance and Fitness classes

Fever Dance Company is offering a wide variety of online dance and fitness classes for all ages and abilities, including adult ballet.

Yoga

From now until May 1 you can download the Down Dog, Yoga for Beginners, HIIT, Barre, and 7 Minute Workout apps for free.

Fitness Blender

Fitness Blender has hundreds of free workout videos and their website makes it easy to find the right one for you since you can sort the videos based on the equipment you have, type of workout, area you want to focus on and duration of the workout.

Beach Body  (Free Trial)

If you want a huge selection of workouts (with some fun dance ones) sign up for a free 30-day trial of Beach Body on Demand.

P.E. With Joe

The Body Coach TV is now offering these free 30-minute workouts for kids stuck at home.

Cosmic Kids’ Yoga

These kids’ yoga videos tell your kids a story to keep them fully engaged while doing some yoga moves.

Virtual Dance Classes

There are several organizations and teachers offering virtual ballet classes and other dance classes for kids (and some for adults too).

• Debbie Allen on Instagram
• Ballet Nova Center for Dance 
• Small Steps School of Dance
• Fever Dance Company

Dance Tutorials 

Your kids can learn Hip Hop dance, the cha-cha, salsa dancing and more on MihranTV’s YouTube channel

GoNoodle

GoNoodle provides short entertaining videos to get your kids dancing with Kids Bop, Kid’s Zuma and much more.

Just Dance

YouTube has a long list of Just Dance videos that kids love (my kids do them at school), or you can pick up a copy of the game for Xbox, PlayStation, Switch or Wii

The Social Distancing Festival

Check out all the free live streaming performances for Theatre, Opera, Dance, Music, Visual Art, Comedy, Book Readings, and more on this new website.

Virtual Concerts

You can find links to lots of live streaming concerts being played on Facebook Live, Instagram, YouTube and more on jambase.com.  Or check out all the Live-at-home performances on Billboard’s Facebook page.

Online Cirque Du Soleil Shows

Cirque Du Soleil is offering 60-minute specials premiering March 27th at 3:00 PM ET. 

National Theatre Live Productions

Starting April 2nd the National Theatre will be streaming live productions at 7 PM that will be available for seven days on their YOutube channel.

Online Broadway Plays (Free trial)

If you have Amazon Prime, you can get a free 7-day trial of Broadway HD for Prime Video.

Paint Night Date

If your spouse has been wanting to do one of those paint nights too, make a date night out of it with these McHarper Manor’s date nights @ Home.

Free Couples Games and Activity ideas

The Dating Divas website always has a ton of great ideas for dates, including fun couples’ games like “The Not-So-Newly-Wed Game”. 

Dance Tutorials

Want a more active date night?  YouTube has lots of dance tutorials that couples can use to create an at home dance class date night.

• MihranTV’s Basic Latin Ballroom Steps
• Passion4dancing’s How to Ballroom Dance Video’s
• Learn to Swing Dance from iLindy
• Show Her Off’s Country Swing Dancing for Beginners
• Contemporary Dance Tutorial from Auti Kamal
• Bachata Dancing Tutorial from Kitty
• Addicted2Salsa’s Salsa Dancing for Beginners

Video Chat

Social distancing doesn’t have to mean social isolation.  Many apps allow you to video chat one on one or in groups, like Zoom (for android or apple), so you can still have a virtual get-together (with coffee or wine) with your friends, or to set up virtual playdates for your kids.

Netflix Party

If your idea of socializing is watching a movie with your friends, you can do it virtually with Netflix and the Netflix Party app.

Online Games with Friends

Play card games and board games online with your friends on a computer or your phone.

• playingcards.io
• Checkers- Checkers Friends Chrome Extension, Checkers App Store , Checkers on Google Play
• Chess- App Store or Google Play
• Connect 4- Google Play
• Yatzee- App Store or Google Play

Xbox Live or PlayStation Plus

You can easily set up a virtual playdate with a gaming headset and kid-friendly multiplayer games through Xbox or PlayStation.  My kids have used Minecraft online with friends for pretend play, and Overcooked is great for cooperation skills. 

While we are lucky to have so much technology available to us to help make this easier, let’s not forget there are lots of things we can do with our families that don’t require an internet connection.

I have seen a lot of family and kids’ activities posted online over the last week, like family game nights, movie nights and arts and crafts. Instead of listing off things like that, I have come up with a few different ideas that would be fun.

• Go for a drive to the neighborhood you grew up in.  Show your kids your childhood home and all the places you used to play.  Share all your favorite childhood memories with your kids. (Obviously, if you are on a full lockdown or quarantine you can’t do this, but it could still be done online through google street view).
• Share some more of your childhood memories with your kids by looking through your old family photo albums with them.
• Look through your kids’ baby book, first year’s calendars, and keepsakes boxes and tell them all your favorite memories from when they were little.
• Look through all of your souvenirs and family vacation photo albums and have everyone talk about their favorite memories from your trips.
• Have a home video movie marathon.

So far, my kids have been handling the whole not being able to go anywhere thing fine. 

They have each done an online art class and started a virtual ballet class this week.  We have gone for a couple of family drives for a change of scenery and taken some family walks with The Dog too.

I expected Lil Sis to be complaining about not seeing her friends for over a week, but she surprisingly hasn’t yet   I’m sure if she gets bored she will start Minecrafting online with friends again, but I also am planning to set up some Facetime playdates for her to play Roblox with a friend too.

For myself, I have taken advantage of Zoom so I didn’t have to miss out on my weekly breakfast with my mom and sisters.  I have also signed up for a free trial of Beachbody on Demand to stay active, and I plan on trying one of the paint nights this weekend for some self-care time.

With all the businesses offering free online classes and activities to help make social distancing, lockdowns, and quarantines easier for us, my list of free online activites filled up fast.

As I am posting this, I continue to find new free things to do.  I will be updating this post and adding in all the new free online resources I find, so make sure you check back regularly.

What are you doing to make things easier for you and your kids? If you know of any good free online classes or activities for parents, families or kids that I have missed let me know about it on my Facebook post or in the comments and I will add it to this post.

If you’re interested in some virtual vacation ideas, check the blog next week for my post about the 100+ virtual tours you can take for free. Follow me on Facebook to make sure you see it when it’s posted.