Shelter-In-Place Activities That Do Not Require Screens

As America awakens to the reality of being locked inside for weeks or months, we need effective outlets for our pent-up energy. I’m already sick-to-death of screens. Because let’s face it……..

We can only read the news so much.

Here’s a handy list of shelter-in-place activities that don’t necessarily require screens. (I added a few learning tools that use apps.) Please add to this list in the comments.

Games

1. Dice games like Yahtzee.
2. Board games like Monopoly.
3. Card games like Solitaire, gin rummy, poker.
4. Build worlds with Lego blocks.
5. Set up a puzzle table and work jigsaw puzzles.
6. Play physical games like Twister or arm-wrestling.
7. Play Nerf basketball.

Art

1. Doodle with pen and paper.
2. Doodle with pencils or colored pencils and paper.
3. Work on watercolor painting skills.
4. Practice the essentials of figure drawing.
5. Sketch items around the house.
6. Try your hand at landscape painting with acrylics.
7. Read up on different periods in art to learn how each was revolutionary. The next time you visit a museum (and you will), you’ll see it with new eyes.

Photography

1. Set up a bird watching station near a window. Use a tripod to photograph birds. Keep binoculars and a bird guide handy.
2. Learn to use the camera you bought last fall. (Because I never read the manual. Ha.)
3. Hone food photography skills.
4. Organize old photos. I recently went through our cache and downsized, either by trashing subpar pictures or giving them to the subjects.
5. Snap photos of the same objects from different perspectives and distances to learn about composition.
6. Organize a gallery show in your home. Force your family to attend.
7. I don’t want to touch the billions of photos we’ve got in the cloud. Since it requires a screen, I don’t have to. But you can cull online photos if that’s your jam.

Writing

Everyone is saying, “Use this time to write your novel masterpiece.” But good writing comes from its pieces and parts. My list is focused on honing the foundation.

1. Write poetry.
2. Master the art of haiku.
3. Send snail mail. I’ve been mailing daily postcards, but any form of handwriting is a personal comfort right now. Letter-writing was once a valued form of written expression. (Don’t lick envelopes to seal.)
4. Journal with pen and paper.
5. Practice Julia Cameron’s free-form morning pages, where you write three pages of nonsense as soon as you wake.
6. Go through existing writing and look up synonyms for overused words. These lists come in handy for me when editing.
7. Try writing in different voices, or take a stab at writing the same scene as a comedy and as a tragedy.

Design

1. Learn about architectural styles and make lists of how many types you’ve personally experienced.
2. Find out when your house or apartment was built and learn the history behind its style.
3. Rearrange furniture in each room.
4. Clean cracks and crevices in each room while moving furniture.
5. Make an inventory of things of value in your home. Family pieces and sentimental purchases have stories. Record a few of those stories to relay what our most precious possessions mean.
6. Pick a designer and learn more about them. What inspired her aesthetic? What’s his most revolutionary creation and why?
7. Try on clothes in unusual combinations. Wear the wackiest or snazziest look the next time you’re able to leave the house.

Reading

1. Read the shelf of brick-bat books you never picked up because they were too thick and daunting.
2. Try a new genre.
3. Ask your partner or child to pick a random book off the shelf, and read whatever it is from start to finish.
4. Finish your TBR stack.
5. Pull out books to donate once libraries re-open.
6. Read a book aloud to your partner and/or family.
7. Act out scenes from Shakespeare.

In the Kitchen

1. Make up new cocktail recipes. Sample. Hiccup.
2. Learn a new cooking skill. I’m trying to master shortbread. MTM is expanding his cooking repertoire with beans.
3. Practice cutting with different knives.
4. Sharpen knives.
5. Learn more about types of cheese.
6. Use all the precious stuff on the table. So what if it breaks?
7. Try cake decorating.

Daydream About Earth Travel

1. Make a list of the top five places you’ll travel once we’re able to travel again. (And if it’s to a grocery store stocked with toilet paper, that counts.)
2. Take a deep dive into another culture. An example: Because I still hope to complete my Iceland residency from August to September, I have been reading about the Vikings, sampling Icelandic sagas, and devouring Scandinavian authors.
3. Go through scrapbooks from past trips.
4. Make a scrapbook of travel mementos.
5. Learn a language. I take French lessons daily via Duolingo.
6. Clean and disinfect suitcases.
7. Wash travel eye masks and pillows.

And Space Travel

1. Virtually stargaze. This requires a screen, but NASA has a stellar online catalogue of space images. I visit almost every day for some otherworldly news.
2. Learn the constellations.
3. Learn the phases of the moon. There are more than you think!
4. Track news about exoplanets. Amateur astronomers discover new exoplanets orbiting other stars daily. It is fun to speculate about the possibility of life.
5. Take a deep dive into another world. I’m especially fascinated with Saturn’s moon Titan, but multiple space exploration projects are active right now. Missions are happening to our sun, on Mars, to comets and asteroids, and beyond Pluto.
6. Read up on Breakthrough Starshot and other science-fiction-inspired ideas for future space exploration.
7. Print and assemble a book of your favorite space photos. MTM gave me a book of the best pictures from NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn. NASA’s pictures are open-source. Close-ups of Jupiter make gorgeous framed photographs.

Learn About Earth And Its Processes

1. Read up on the geology of your area. What forces made the land upon which you sit?
2. Learn about different rocks and how they were formed. The granite countertops will have a whole new dimension.
3. Study the approximate ages of mountain ranges around the world and the forces that formed them.
4. Learn the different types of volcanos and find an example of each.
5. Read everything you can find about a natural wonder like Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls.
6. Look up different continental maps throughout history. I was surprised to learn my state was once submerged to the Midlands! Charleston, where I live, was once the ocean floor.
7. Find out if any roads in your area are ancient and excavate that history. In my city, the busiest shopping street was once a Native trail. Next time you’re able to go out, you might see new layers in your city or town.

I’ll stop now and let you take over. What can you add to help us put down our phones and get curious? Share your ideas in a comment!

Oh, and if you need something to read during all this time in isolation, YOU CAN BUY MY BOOKS HERE.