Fun things to do at home

DEBBIE JACOB

IT’S THE flu season, covid19 is still around, the rain makes many outdoor activities difficult – if not impossible – so I bring you interesting, educational, fun activities to do at home. Choose activities that make you feel connected to the world and provide a feeling of flow, which means you get so engrossed in the activity you forget about time.

Here are my latest discoveries.

Two months ago, a friend of mine’s suggested a “book club” for just the two of us. We settled on reading A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life. In this book, author George Saunders presents six short stories by four Russian writers, Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Gogol. The short stories, Saunders’s analysis of them – along with reading and writing exercises – all come from his Russian literature class.

My friend and I chose to discuss these stories only in e-mails so we could form our own in-depth opinions before comparing our views. We could look back on our comments, expand and rethink opinions. Now, my friend and I plan to tackle Substack, Saunders’s internet site for analysing short stories at https://georgesaunders.substack.com/p/a-moment.

2. Enroll in free open courses at Yale University. My favourite course is still Miguel de Cervantes’s picaresque classic Don Quixote taught by Cuban-born professor Roberto González Echevarría. You can listen to the professor’s lectures and download PDF copies of them. To enroll, search Cervantes’ Don Quixote Open Yale Courses or follow the link https://oyc.yale.edu/spanish-and-portuguese/span-300.

There are many open classes available at Yale including organic chemistry, ancient Greek history, financial theory and financial markets; literature courses like The Novel Since 1945, psychology classes and more. Check out the link at https://oyc.yale.edu/courses or search for Help-Yale open courses to pull up an extensive list of courses.

3. If you search the internet, you can find many museums to visit, but I recommend a site called These 12 Famous Museums Offer Virtual Tours You Can Take on Your Couch. The British Museum presents a three-dimensional, interactive timeline. Pick your place to land in pre-history and history. A virtual walkthrough at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris feels like you are really there viewing Monet, Cézanne and Gauguin’s art. All of the museums offer spellbinding virtual tours. A museum in Bolivia takes you birdwatching; a museum in Greenland shows the Northern lights. You can virtually fly over the Roman ruins of Caesarea in Israel. Search for these 12 famous museums at https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours.

4. A site called The New York Times’ Lesson Plans and Ideas has 150 short newsworthy lessons for students, teachers and anyone looking for ways to understand pop culture and newsworthy events. Topics include Teenagers and Misinformation: Some Starting Points for Teaching Media Literacy and What Does a Photo Editor Do? There are many lessons on writing and photography. Check out https://www.nytimes.com/column/learning-article-of-the-day.

5. Any list of activities to sharpen your memory and cognitive skills has crossword puzzles on it, but not everyone has the time for long puzzles. Now you can tackle mini puzzles at the New York Times website https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/mini. The instructions to sign up for a daily puzzle are easy. Make sure you sign up for Wordle too.

6. Radio Garden is my favourite find. This site provides endless hours of fun. A rotating interactive map of the world allows virtual travel and the opportunity to tune into radio stations in many countries. Information about the stations pops up on the side while you’re listening. This is a great way to discover new music. Search for Radio Garden at https://radio.garden/visit/saint-georges/N9XxVfE3.

7. So you want to discover new books, but you don’t want to rely on publishers’ sites or common booksellers’ sites. Check out https://www.tertulia.com/explore, which gives you all the latest book buzz across many media platforms. You discover what books are being mentioned the most on social media and podcasts, among book critics and in traditional media. Tertulia casts a wide web to bring you the latest book talk. You can just browse or join the co-op.

The good news is you never have to feel stuck at home. Use your imagination and the internet to explore meaningful ways to have fun without going anywhere.