I’m going to keep updating the blog itself, but I thought I’d keep this post on top because I’ll keep updating this particular one, too. Just scroll down to skip it if it’s of no use; if for no one else, at least these links will be easily accessible for me:
How to Help
- If you’re going to stash your stimulus check(s) in your savings, maybe donate some or all to various charities -or use it to treat yourself to a bunch of takeout from your favorite restaurants or have a super Treat Yo’ Self day from a variety of independent and small businesses.
- Check your local government page -whether city, county, or state
- While at Home has a page of a ton of ideas for helping, including Crooked Media’s Coronavirus Relief Fund, which splits your donation among Feeding America, Meals on Wheels, No Kid Hungry, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Restaurant Workers Community Foundation, One Fair Wage, CDC Foundation, and Direct Relief.
- Or donate to any of them directly
- Donating directly to local homeless shelters
- Donating to Chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen
- Tanya Taylor: A fashion brand, but you can spend $3 to donate a mask to be sent to NYC hospitals; they aren’t medical grade, but they’ll be sent to those not working directly with patients so those who do can have more exclusive access to medical-grade masks.
Podcasts
- You Must Remember This: “dedicated to exploring the secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century.”
- Revisionist History: From Malcolm Gladwell, it “go[es] back and reinterpret[s] something from the past: an event, a person, an idea. Something overlooked. Something misunderstood.”
- America Dissected: The overall podcast is about the United States healthcare system (anti-vaxxers, Big Pharma, etc.), but the second season is specifically about the Coronavirus. The host is a doctor, epidemiologist, and former health commissioner of Detroit.
- Poetry Unbound: Each episode is generally less than 10 minutes, and concentrates on a single poem.
- The Longest Shortest Time: A parenting show that’s over, but still fascinating and relevant.
- Pop Culture Happy Hour: “a fun and freewheeling chat about the latest movies, television, books, and music.”
- Forgotten Women of Genre: “Whether it’s the famous chords of a theme song or the ominous sound of Vader’s breath, the geekverse as we know it wouldn’t exist without the work or ingenuity of many women who sadly didn’t become household names.”
- Levar Burton Reads: “In every episode, host LeVar Burton (Roots, Reading Rainbow, Star Trek) invites you to take a break from your daily life, and dive into a great story.”
- The Good Place Podcast
Kids
- Highlights Kids: Free online activities for kids
- Audible Stories: There are also classic books available that could be of interest to adults.
- Scholastic Learn at Home
- PBSKids: Both videos and games
- Virtual Field Trips: This is from the Nature Conservancy and it seems pretty cool! You can watch just the videos (so adults can do these, too!), but there are also teacher guides to download to interact with the kiddos. It says it’s for grades 5 through 8, but they can be adapted for all ages, and I would imagine that would be pretty easy to do
- Earth School: This is from TED Ed in cooperation with a slew of other entities. There are 30 days of lessons and each week covers a different theme. Each day has a main video and secondary videos that I think you can watch without creating an account. To do the rest of it, which is really a multi-choice quiz (which I like because it holds Evie accountable for watching the main video) and a couple other options (like further discussion), you have to make a (free) account. But that also helps to track which ones you’ve done, so that’s one less mental burden.
- This link has a slew of options, though the first section (Earth), is all from Virtual Field Trips, but the rest (29 other links) are from unique sites (though a couple are already on this list)
Electronic Resources: Entertainment
- The local library system, under which is a number of things, usually Overdrive, Hoopla, Kanopy, RB Digital, to name a few, and most have apps you can download to your phone. You should be able to sign up for a digital library card if you don’t already have one.
- The Met Opera
- BroadwayHD: It’s not free, but it looks like there are a number of performances available to stream once you sign up.
- PBS
- Science Coloring Pages: Collected by Yahoo News
- National Emergency Library: from the Internet Archive, they have 1.4 million digitized library books available for free and with no wait list. They’re not exactly pretty, but desperate measures…
- This (free) Harry Potter-themed escape room from a library in PA
- Virtual tours of parks and facilities across the globe (this list is not exhaustive)
- Virtual Field Trips: This is from the Nature Conservancy and it seems pretty cool! You can watch just the videos (so adults can do these, too!), but there are also teacher guides to download to interact with the kiddos. It says it’s for grades 5 through 8, but they can be adapted for all ages, and I would imagine that would be pretty easy to do
- Parks
- Museums
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
- The Met, NY
- British Museum (this one has lots of options!)
- The Louvre, France
- Uffizi Gallery, Italy
- The National Gallery of Art, DC
- National Museum of Natural History, DC
- Boston Children’s Museum (this one seems a little weird because, I mean, it’s a children’s museum so by nature it’s interactive, which obviously one can’t do via the computer…)
- Glen Research Center, Ohio
- Hubble Telescope, Space
- Roald Dahl
- Monterey Bay Aquarium, California
- Easter Island
- Gardens
- Brooklyn Botanic Garden, NY
- Keukenhof, Lisse, Netherlands
- Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, PA
- Butchart Gardens, Brentwood Bay, British Columbia
- Giardini Botanici Villa Taranto (Verbania, Italy)
- Gardens of Villandry, France
- Hawaii Tropical Botanic Garden, Papaikou, HI
- Waddesdon Manor, England
- Giardino Di Boboli, Florence, Italy
- Claude Money Giverny Garden, France
Electronic Resources: Recipes
- King Arthur Flour
- Joe Yonan: We got his cookbook, Cool Beans, and this is his website, which has a number of links to articles he’s written for the Washington Post on a variety of legume-based recipes.
Electronic Resources: Exercise
- Gold’s Amp: Gold’s Gym is offering free access to their app with a promo code.
- CorePower Yoga: There are a handful of classes accessible for free.
- DownDog: Again, a handful of free streaming videos
- Zumba and or Dance Exercises
Electronic Resources: Consumerism
Look, why buy from Amazon when there are a slew of business out there who actually need the business (and who actually give back to the economy)? Amazon et al. will be fine. Buying from more independent sellers will also probably mean you’ll get your stuff WAY sooner and your orders won’t prevent people from getting goods they SUPER need (to include healthcare workers and various charities who use Amazon to hold their wishlists). Create an account at paypal.com if you don’t want to spread your payment information around the internet. Most vendors have a paypal option.
Books, eBooks, Audiobooks
- Better World Books
- Your local independent bookseller: Go to this link to perform a search in your area. Many if not most shops have begun or ramped up their online orders.
- Or go to Bookshop.org, which sells books online but splits the profits among independent booksellers, no matter if they’re members. You can specify a specific local bookstore or the profits from your purchase will go into a pool of money that will be divided among all bookstores every 6 months. Here’s a Wired article from a couple of months ago to get a better idea of what they’re about.
- Use libro.fm for your audiobook purchases, if that’s what you do; your purchases support your local bookseller.
Basics
- Go straight to the source! Many companies have an online shop, and most offer free shipping once you reach (usually) somewhere between $25 and $49
- Hand Sanitizers: There are a ton of distilleries filling the gap and many sell directly to the public
- How about a zero waste shop (some of which are called zero waste)? The products are meant to last longer (less shopping/going out/spending money -menstrual cups, for instance, for those of us who bleed monthly), help items last longer (the same), or just generally be more convenient for you -so why not?
- packagefreeshop.com
- wildminimalist.com
- This site and this site have a ton of options for a variety of (or overlapping) needs, to include some food needs
And while you’re shopping, some business out there are also donating a percentage of their profits to worthy causes.
- Allbirds: Shoes
- Billie: Personal care brand that acknowledges and does away with the Pink Tax
- Casetify: Phone sanitizer
- Everlane: Clothing
- Paige: Clothing
- Modern Citizen: Clothing
- Summersault: Mostly swimwear
- Rhone: Clothing (until 1 May)
- Senreve: Handbags
- Michael Stars: Clothing
- NYDJ: Clothing (mostly jeans)
- Grande Cosmetics: Personal care
- Made In: Cookware
- Otherland: Candles
- Rothy’s: Shoes
Crafts
- JoAnn Fabric: Supplies and craft ideas, but they’re also offering Creativebug free for 2 months (this is, apparently, a place to “[g]et art & craft classes on-the-go”)
- Etsy! There are a large variety of vendors who sell kits for a variety of crafts, to include tole painting type things and needlepoint; I also just ordered fabric from a couple vendors so while there are a number of vendors online for fabric, Etsy vendors are also a possibility.
- Lion Brand: Buy yarn and other such equipment and or get some free patterns
- Yarnspirations: Same; it’s the parent company of a variety of yarn companies
- The Spruce Crafts (there are also other sites, such as recipes)