Family Friendly Activities You Can Do At Home

     1. Color Our Collections

     Color Our Collections is a movement created by the New York Academy of Medicine Library in 2016 in which libraries, museums and other cultural institutions provide the public with colorable versions of their collections free for download online.  There are currently 117 participating institutions, including the National Library of France, The Lithuanian Art Museum, Cambridge University, the Washington State Library and many, many more.  Visit their website to find all of the participating institutions.

     2. Stuffed Animal Safaris

     Many communities around the country are placing stuffed animals in trees, in bushes and in windows for kids to look for on short walks around the neighborhood.  Take your family out, look for some stuffed animals and see if you can spot them all!  Just make sure to keep distance from anyone else going out for a walk and maybe consider putting up a stuffed animal in your own window to play along.

     3. Virtual Trips & Museum Tours

     Many of the world’s most famous museums are currently hosting virtual tours that will allow you to explore their collections from the comfort of your own home.  Just a few of the museums offering this include: The Louvre, The Boston Children’s Museum and the British National Museum.  Google Arts & Culture teamed up with over 2500 different museums, so go check out the others at their website.

     4. Reading Bingo

     Print out a read at home bingo sheet and give it to your kids to bring a fun twist to reading.  Offer whatever rewards feel suitable for completing certain tasks, such as filling out a row, or blacking out the entire sheet.  The Internet Archive is also hosting a ‘National Emergency Library’ which hosts downloadable versions of many rare and unique books, so go check it out if you’re looking for something new to read.  Have fun with it, and enjoy reading some good books!

     5. Zoo & Aquarium Live Streams

     Lions & tigers & bears, oh my!  Who doesn’t love watching cute animals run around and play?  Many zoos around the world have live cams set up in order to let people view their animals from the comfort of their own home, even more so now that everyone is having to stay home.  The San Diego zoo, for example, has cameras letting you see all sorts of animals from polar bears, to tigers, to owls and baboons.

     6. Find Something Unique and Creative from Portland

     Travel Portland is currently hosting tutorials and videos from a variety of makers and chefs, as well as live concerts from local bands and performers.  Go ahead and check out some of the interesting people from our home city in order to find out what makes it such a magical city to live and work in.  You can see all of the videos on their website.

     Hopefully this gives you some more ideas of fun things you can do at home while waiting out the pandemic.  What have been some of your favorite things so far?  Let us know in the comments!