With people staying at home in precaution of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and all community events and activities on hold, people are looking for ways to stay busy. Here are some suggestions to hold off stir-craziness for a little while.
Draw Mickey Mouse
For the creative-minded people in your household or Disney fans, artist Stephen Ketchum has a video tutorial helping you draw Mickey.
Ketchum has been drawing Mickey at Disney parks for years, and wants to share his knowledge. The tutorials include help drawing a modern version, a vintage 1920s style and a whimsical pie-eyed version of the Mouse.
Go to disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog, where the tutorials are located. Links also connect people to a wealth of art tutorials, including learning to draw Genie from “Aladdin,” Tinker Bell and Olaf from “Frozen.”
Drive-Through Polka
Ohio-based polka musicians Mollie B and Ted Lange know that coronavirus restrictions have shuttered live music performances throughout the country, and their own shows are no different. So they came up with a novel idea — a drive-through polka show.
The show set up in a church parking lot on March 21, and took requests as people drove up to them. Drivers stayed in their car, and the musicians kept their distance while performing. Polka might not be your thing, but it was a fun work-around during the current situation. Find the video at youtube.com/watch?v=e2iwDkO2wcs.
Sesame Street Caring
With kids out of school for the foreseeable future, families are at a loss as to how to keep kids engaged and learning. The folks at “Sesame Street” have stepped up. The program unveiled its Caring for Each Other portal, which features a wealth of free content and resources that parents can tap into for their kids.
Play learning-based video games, watch videos of Sesame Street shorts and get creative with art projects. The video up on the Caring front page is a virtual hug from Elmo. Find the link at sesamestreet.org/caring.
‘The Science of Well Being’
Free time is abundant these days. What better way to spend some of it than by taking the most popular class ever at Yale University, for free and online. “Psychology and the Good Life” was first offered at Yale in 2018 by professor Laurie Santos. The purpose of the class was to teach stressed-out students to be happier.
The course has been released online under the title “The Science of Well Being” — a fitting subject for these fraught times. The course is entirely online and takes about 20 hours to complete, with videos, readings, quizzes and “retirement” activities to build happier habits.
Find it online at coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being.
