4/5/20 Middle and High School RE

75 things to do while stuck inside due to a pandemic.

 

1. Complete a puzzle: The more pieces the better! Take on a Rubik’s Cube. More of a word person? Crossword puzzle!

2. Start a journal or blog. Sure, it can be about the coronavirus, but it could also be about a specific interest from chess to cheese.

3. If it won’t bother your neighbors: Dust off that old instrument and practice.

4. Text all your friends.

5. Write poetry. Perhaps you can craft a haiku for Mother’s Day, or something without a specific structure. Just try it!

6. Watch all the really long movies you’ve avoided until now.

7. Download Duolingo, or a similar app, and teach yourself a foreign language.

8. Finally read those books you checked out from the library. Or the ones you downloaded onto your Kindle.

9. Meditate. Try lying down with your eyes closed, palms up and while focusing on your breath. Or spend 20 minutes sitting crosslegged and repeat a soothing word to yourself in your head. (The latter is more like transcendental meditation.)

10. Look at pictures of puppies.

11. Write actual letters to family and friends.

15. Learn calligraphy. YouTube can help.

16. Finally read the rules to those long and intense board games you’ve never played with the family. Encourage the family to play.

17. Bake cookies.

18. Have a space in your home where all of the tupperware goes? Organize it and actually match lids to containers.

19. Watch all of the Harry Potter movies in order.

20. Watch all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

21. Watch the Star Wars movies in this and only this order: Rogue One-IV-V-II-III-Solo-VI-VII-VIII-IX.

21. Watch every Tom Hanks movie chronologically.

23. Knit or crochet.

24. Use Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts or Marco Polo to video chat with your long-distance friends.

25. Try out at-home aerobics or yoga videos.

26. Look at yourself in the mirror. Attempt a self portrait with pencil and paper.

27. Coloring books: They’re not just for kids.

28. Take time to reflect: What have you accomplished in the last year? What goals are you setting for yourself in the next year?

29. Write a short story or get started on that novel.

30. Start a Gratitude Journal.

31. Write your parents notes and hide them where they’ll find them. Disguise your handwriting.

32. Actually try to reproduce something you see on Pinterest. Probably fail. Try again.

33. Clear out the family room and camp indoors with all blankets, popcorn and scary movies.

34. Fold a square piece of paper into a fortune teller you put your thumbs and pointer fingers into. Proceed to tell fortunes.

35. Learn how to braid (fishtail, French, etc.) via YouTube tutorial..

36. Interview your grandparents (over the phone, of course) and save the audio. Can you create an audio story or book with that file?

37. Go through your camera roll, pick your favorite pics from the past year and make a photo book or order framed versions online.

38. Go on a health kick and learn how to cook new recipes with ingredients you may not be using already, from miso to tahini.

40. Create a Google document of shows or movies you’re watching and share it among family and friends.

41. Perfect your favorite recipe.

42. Watch “Frozen 2,’ which went up early on Disney Plus. Another new movie on the streaming service: “Stargirl.”

43. Write a book with your family. Pick a character and each member writes a chapter about their adventures. Read aloud to each other.

44. No March Madness? Have a Scrabble tournament. Or Bananagrams. Pictionary, anyone?

45. Get into baking with “The Great British Baking Show,” but your technical challenge is baking something with the ingredients you have on hand.

46. Indoor scavenger hunt.

47. Read the Harry Potter series.

48. Dye your hair a new color. No one else needs to see it if you don’t like it.

49. Read Robert Jordan’s 14-book “Wheel of Time” series before it streams on Amazon.

50. Write a play starring your friends. Perform it via a video call app.

51. Go viral in the good way by making a quarantine-themed TikTok.

52. Rearrange your sock drawer. Really.

53. Make lists of all the museums, sporting events and concerts you want to visit when they finally reopen.

54. Get into comics with digital subscriptions on your tablet, like Marvel Unlimited.

55. Rearrange your furniture to make it seem like your bedroom is a totally different space.

56. Practice shuffling playing cards.

57. Teach your dog to shake. (or your cat, it’ll take longer)

58. Memorize the periodic table. You never know when that will come in handy.

59. Get a free trial of a streaming service and binge-watch as much as you can before it expires.

60. Bring out the Legos. Build your house inside of your house.

61. Learn the words to “Tung Twista.” Get them so ingrained in your brain that you can rap them as fast as Twista can. Impress everyone.

62. Attempt things with your non-dominant hand, from writing to brushing your teeth. Prepare to be frustrated.

63. How many words per minute can you type? See if you can get speedier by taking an online typing course.

64. Learn origami. Make cranes for your loved ones.

65. Stretch. Work on your flexibility. It’s possible to do the splits, right?

66. Try to speak in pig Latin. Or, “ig-pay, atin-Lay.”

67. Consider donating money to food banks to help families struggling to get meals.

68. Write a song. If you want to make it about your time inside and put it to the tune of “My Sharona” and replace “Sharona” with “Corona,” do what you have to do.

69. Study the art of beatboxing.

70. Try moving in super-slow motion. It’s OK to laugh at regular speed.

71. You know how there are dozens of ways to wear a scarf, but you only wear it the one way? Learn the other ways.

72. Learn Old English words. Pepper them into your conversation. Wherefore not?

73. Take deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth.

74. Make a schedule and stick to it.

75. Sleep. Get lots of it.

 

Snack time!