Miss going outside? – Take a virtual field trip
Theaters and opera houses offering live-streamed performancesArt museums with virtual tours and/or digital archives of their collectionDon’t forget about public art!Science and Natural History Museums with activities for kids and parents to do at homeZoos with live-cams on specific animals
The All-Important Disclaimer: I have not personally vetted all of these resources. There just isn’t enough time right now to do that. So if something looks interesting to you, be sure to check it out first to make sure it will work for you and your child.
Catch a virtual performance
Several world-famous theatres and opera houses are offering free live-stream performances. Here are just a few:
The Kennedy Center is offering a variety of live performances and on-demand videos at Kennedy Center @ HomeThe Metropolitan Opera is live-streaming a different opera every nightAs is the Vienna State Opera And the Staatsoper Unter Den Linden
Browse the world’s best art collections
Art museums worldwide are also generously sharing video tours of some of their best / most famous pieces. Here are just a few:
Google Arts and Culture (a medley of interesting things, ranging from 7 Awesome Facts about Dinosaurs to a list of Italian Historical Sites you can explore from home)The British National Museum in London, UKThe Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia (website in Russian)The Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Italy (a digital archive of various art works) The Louvre in Paris, France (requires Flash)The Museo de Prado in Madrid, SpainThe Met in New York City, USA (link takes you to the Met’s Digital Digest, which summarizes its online offerings)The MoMA in New York City, USA The Guggenheim (New York, Venice, Bilbao, and Abu Dhabi)
In fact, so many art museums are doing some version of this, I bet your local favorite is as well.
Don’t forget about public art!
Assuming your town still allows you to go outside for exercise, remember to keep an eye out for public art. Looking at public art with your kids is a great way to get them outside for a little exercise while observing all appropriate physical distancing protocols.
Need a place to start? I’ve got a small collection of public art posts on Caterpickles. Skim through them to get some ideas on where the public art might be hiding in your area.Need some conversation starters? I have a book out on how parents (even non-artistic ones) can talk about public art with their kids. Find What’s That, Mom? on IndieBound or Amazon
Visit world class science / natural history museums
The Smithsonian in Washington, DCNASA’s online gallery of short videos about space stuffThe Field Museum in Chicago, IL The Boston Museum of Science in Boston, MA
Again, every museum I’ve checked so far has some sort of online content on offer. So if you aren’t as interested in the ones I’ve listed here, it’s probably worth visiting your personal favorite’s website to see what’s there.
Miss going to the zoo?
The Smithsonian National Zoo has a set of webcams trained on its pandas, lions, elephants, and mole rats. The San Diego Zoo has live cams trained on its penguins, polar bears, apes, koalas, butterflies, tigers, condors, elephants, baboons, and burrowing owls. EarthCam has a selection of live streams from zoo around the worldStill not satisfied? The Verge has published this list of soothing animal cams to watch out of the side of your eye while you’re working at home.
Miss your own zoo? Visit its website and see if they’ve put up a live cam on some of your favorites.
Find a resource I’ve missed?
I’ll add more resources as I find them, but this list will be much better with your input too. You’re inevitably going to come across things I’d miss. If you do, please let me know about them, either by dropping a comment below or finding me on Twitter (@shalahowell).
Also, although I hope this won’t happen, I could easily add something to this list that either doesn’t exist anymore or really shouldn’t be on here. If you see something like that, please let me know.
Thank you and good luck!
