Free Online Activities and Resources

Arts & Crafts

  • Kyle T. Webster (an American illustrator most famous for creating good photoshop brushes) is hosting a new series of free ‘Draw Along’ videos for all ages. While they are primarily aimed at children, people of all ages are encouraged to participate. (You can watch live at 2:30pm PT, Wed – Fri, here. Alternatively, if you are like me and want to do things at your own pace, they are all archived on Youtube.)

Community Resources

Counselling Services

  • UVic Counselling services is offering phone support during the COVID-10 pandemic. For more information, and to see other changes to their service, please see their webpage.
  • The BC government has launched Here2Talk to provide free counselling to post secondary students.
  • The British Columbia Psychological Association provides “psychological first aid” telephone calls, free of charge, to any health care or other essential worker (19+) affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their webpage also has information and resources for the general public.

Entertainment

  • A List Of Live Virtual Concerts To Watch During The Coronavirus Shutdown (from NPR)
  • The National Theatre (in London) is launching the National Theatre at Home initiative and will be streaming productions on its YouTube channel (beginning this Thursday, April 2nd). Shows will go up at 7pm and be available to watch for the next week. (Other upcoming shows which will be on offer on YouTube in April are Jane Eyre; Treasure Island and Twelfth Night.)
  • Classic FM is maintaining an updating list of all the major classical concerts and events being streamed online.
  • The Guggenheim Museum has a bunch of free PDFs of modern art books (via the internet archive).
  • Various cultural institutions around the world are sharing free colouring sheets and books based on materials in their collections as part of #colorourcollection.

Food

  • Meal Exchange is a national charity that is committed to supporting students during this difficult time. They have started a preliminary list of supports available for students including community support groups, emergency food services, and local food delivery. Please email gfc@mealexchange.com to add additional resources in different communities
  • See also, the resource sheet prepared by Sonja Yli-Kahila, Coordinator of the Food Share Network (above – Community Resources), as it contains information on food distribution services.

For Children (and their Parents)

  • The Royal BC Museum has a bunch of online content for children and their parents – including advice for setting up lesson plans for those new to home-schooling. 
  • Lindsey Nelson, an awesome mechanical engineer and engineering educator based in Washington, DC, has created a google doc with Engineering Activities for Kids that can be done at home.
  • 30 minute PE classes on Youtube. If you donate it goes to UK NHS. This guy is a FITT trainer online and has this school thing going … gives shoutouts to kids who make comments in between the exercises. Good for parents and kids to do together.
  • Yoga for kids. Makes yoga moves into references to popular kid movies (like Moanna, Harry Potter, and Trolls yoga) and tells a story from the movie using yoga poses. I have heard through the grapevine that this is popular with kids as young as 5.
  • Bored Teacher has a great list educational websites for high school students. (As a warning, this site seems to have lots of pop-ups so it may be worth having an ad blocker enabled.)

Health and Fitness

  • CBC has a great list of free, no-equipment online fitness classes.
  • OpenWHO is WHO’s new interactive, web-based, knowledge-transfer platform offering online courses to improve the response to health emergencies. OpenWHO enables the Organization and its key partners to transfer life-saving knowledge to large numbers of frontline responders.
  • The BC Government has just launched a new mental health service for post-secondary students. Here2Talk offers 24/7 free and confidential service by app, phone or online chat. Students can speak to a counsellor by phone, toll-free at 1-877-857-3397 or direct 604-642-5212. Students calling from outside Canada can dial 1-604-642-5212. Sessions with a trained counsellor can be accessed by downloading the Here2Talk app or by visiting here2talk.ca.​
  • UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center is offering free guided meditations.
  • UBCO and the province are working together for Free mental health support available to all BC residents.

Tenants (Renters)

Writing Support