How Are You Holding Up?

Having this many closures and shutdowns across the nation, and even across the world is unprecedented and something a lot of us personally haven’t had to go through before.

For many, it’s an adjustment to spend so much time inside their house, without the luxury of being able to meet up with friends or gather for educational opportunities.

Especially living in such a social and well-connected world, it can seem a little counter-intuitive to spend so much time at home, but there are many organizations and companies that are stepping up to help make your stay-at-home experience a little richer!

Virtual Garden Tours

There are several gardens that are providing virtual tours so everyone can enjoy the beauty of nature even within their homes.

Theodore Payne Foundation

On March 28-29 the Theodore Payne Foundation will be hosting a virtual Native Plant Garden Tour via their social media. It will be free and open to anyone who’d like to join in from the comfort of their home! You’ll be able to ask staff members questions and learn about sustainability and wildlife habitat. 

Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon Manor, of Waddesdon, England is offering virtual tours of their beautiful gardens on YouTube. You can enjoy spectacular views of the garden as well as interviews with garden professionals and a lesson in the garden’s history too!

Claude Monet’s Garden

The very famous Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny is a must-see for any traveler to France. Now you can enjoy it from your couch! The beautiful gardens are the inspiration behind Monet’s Water Lilies series of paintings.

Chicago Botanic Garden

You’ll have tons to see in the Chicago Botanic Garden virtual tour. Its impressive collection of 27 gardens includes everything from English to Japanese Gardens and sits on a whopping 375 acres.

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, Papaikou, HI

This virtual tour will help you feel more relaxed! With its calming music and camera pans of exotic, tropical plants, it really transports you to another place. I love that it also ends with scenes of the ocean too!

Kew Gardens, Richmond, England

We mustn’t forget the Royal Botanic Kew Gardens! I’m actually fortunate enough to have personally visited this one! It is truly gorgeous and the history is amazing! Truly fit for royalty!

Bluprint Free Classes

From now until 4/9 you can enjoy free classes from a wide selection of different crafts/skills at Bluprint.

If you haven’t heard of them, they provide great classes, resources, and even easy-to-do kits.

They’ve even got some great courses on there for gardening and DIY projects.

I’ve also actually been wanting to take up knitting (I’m regretting not learning from my grandma!) for a while and have been planning on taking some of their courses anyways.

I have loved just being able to log in and pop on a video to watch as I wind down for bed.

Create Live Free Classes

Right now, Create Live is offering free at-home “on-air” wellness courses you can tune into on their website.

If you’ve been wanting to develop a new talent or hobby, this may just be the perfect time to do it!

They have everything from photography, to workouts, to mental wellness.

You can check out their page to see what’s playing right now!

If you’re curious about what Creative Live is, they’re an online platform that provides workshops for people to develop creative skills.

Classes are taught by world-class experts and were created to provide access to today’s visionaries.

Free ClassPass On-Demand Workouts

Are you going crazy without the gym like my husband right now? Grab one month of free access to over 2,000 on-demand workouts through ClassPass to stay fit—and sane!

Food Network Kitchen App

You have until 3/31 to enjoy a 30-day free trial of the app! With it, you can watch Food Network shows and take classes from top chefs.

Free At-Home Coloring Pages

Head over to Crayola to print out free coloring pages for you and your kids!

They have all different themes including Disney, seasons, and plants + animals. You can even print out coloring pages for adults!

Coloring is a great way to harness creativity as a family (and a nice, hopefully, quiet activity for kids! Woohoo!)

Free Group Meditation

By signing up with Tap In, you can tune into live meditation groups. You can download it from the app store and do it from anywhere in your own home!

Silver Lining

It seems like now, more than ever, virtual and digital resources are being made available, many of them at no cost to you!

Although these are uncertain times, let’s take advantage of the positive things that are being made available to us and devote some time to some great at-home activities!

If anything, I think I’m struggling more with trying to choose between so many great complimentary activities being offered right now!

How’d I Do?

Know of other free at-home, health-promoting activities available? Let me know in the comments or on our Facebook page!

You can also check out our article here for more ideas.