Stay Home for Circuit Breaker 2020

So many resources had been shared online, for keeping the young ones entertained, educated(!?!) and occupied, and to fight off boredom for the seniors (and everyone else in-between!!!!)

Just compiling my own list here. Leave me a comment below if there are links that don't work, cos I don't visit all of them... You know, in between cooking almost 3 meals a day, marketing and household chores, screaming at the kid, trying to catch up on some of my work, and keeping myself sane with Korean shows... Heehee

General 

Read/Listen

• Even before the Covid-19 situation hit, I have been a fan of the collection of e-books offered by the National Library Board, Singapore eResources platform. Just sign up for your 'myLibrary' account (if you are Singaporean or a NLB member), and you are set to read on a browser, or using the NLB mobile app, or download to read offline using the Overdrive or Libby app. See what you need here. 
• Amazon Audible has made Stories free available online for kids, as long as schools are closed.

Teaching and Learning Resources

• As part of a global initiative to support parents and educators through these times, Scholastic has been providing free access to digital resources which are developmentally-appropriate for children aged 4 to 15 years. 
• Cambridge University Press has also stepped up to provide educators with resources to support the teaching and learning during the school closure period. 

Nature

• Part of the #PlantOneOnMe series by the Gardens By the Bay, Singapore. This is a multi-episode series on tours in the Cloud Forest conservatory. We will be eagerly waiting for the day when they will be open again and we can actually use our membership...

The Arts 

• #GalleryAnywhere gives you a daily dose of art from the comfort of your home. Presented by the National Gallery, Singapore.
• The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. features two online exhibits through Google Arts & Culture. One features watercolour renderings on American fashion from the Index of American Design; whereas another is on Dutch masters of genre painting, or scenes of daily life. 
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Performing Arts

• Esplanade Offstage is provided for all to enjoy performing arts in Singapore and Asia. You can easily filter by your preferred form of performing arts, and enjoy one-stop page of links to their partners. Besides reading about artists, Offstage has also listed videos for us to enjoy the performances online via "The show goes on---line" since the national performing art's centre is closed.
• Of course, not forgetting the weekly full-length broadcasts of famed musicals via the Youtube page The Shows Must Go On!. We enjoyed The Phantom of the Opera and Cats.
• BroadwayHD is a subscription-based internet service that lets you watch musicals without getting to Broadway itself. It offers a free 7-day trial, so plan when there's a long weekend/holiday stretch coming up. 

Music 

Facebook live broadcasts are one of the ways musicians used to continue to showcase their craft.

• Compilations include the facebook pages 古典好好聽 Classicalmusic to go.

History

• This "Museum of the World" virtual museum tour of artifacts brought by the British Museum and the Google Cultural institute allows us to pick and choose the time period and cultural setting we want. 

Christianity-Methodist

• Even as The Methodist Church in Singapore celebrates 135 years in Singapore this year, we are constrained by the ongoing Covid-19 situation to stay at home as much as possible. But that doesn't stop us from continuing to come together to pray and worship online as a community. I signed up to receive whatsapp updates to receive the daily prayer prompt on whatsapp. 

Entertainment

Of course, it has been almost impossible to get Y to guai guai complete the never-ending list of chores (cos she doesn't complete them) and assignments set. All she hankers for is for her own game apps and the Xiaomi phone we bought last year. We have been considering whether to get on the Netflix bandwagon after our Starhub contract ran out and we decided not to continue (we hardly sat down to watch anything at all, since we all had our own choices of entertainment on our phone/tablet/laptop/desktop anyway). So I started looking out to see if the Netflix offerings were suitable. Some links/lists here for those who already have a subscription include: 

• List of Netflix Educational shows for Kids from variety.com.

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This post was first published on 20 May 2020.