People are sharing great links everywhere to online boredom buster activities. Online classes, virtual tours, free showings, e-books, and so much more. It’s really very impressive all that is available. Since it is being shared mostly one link at a time over multiple platforms, I decided to make an ultimate list of sorts to share. So, here are all the resources I’ve been seeing offered online.

{Edited to add over 19 new links!}

Kid Focused Resources

I’m sure most of these could be enjoyed by all ages, but if you are specifically looking for online boredom busters with a kid focus, these links are for you.

Online Educational Stuff for Kids

Here is a collection of free online learning resources for children.

Free Online Resources

PlayPennies shares Joe Wicks’ YouTube channel which holds daily kids’ workout/P.E. classes.

Best selling author, Mo Willems, is teaching kids drawing on YouTube.

Whale experts have launched a free virtual marine biology camp.

And here is an entire list of educational companies offering free subscriptions while people are dealing with school closings due to the virus.

Science World’s IMAX movies about dinosaurs and Egyptian mummies are free to watch at home now.

 

The “NASA At Home” website, full of educational content such as science-themed e-books, podcasts, and videos. Kids will love the science experiments and might even find a virtual tour they like. NASA has even developed an app that allows you to take control of a NASA aircraft.

Stories and Live Readings

The YouTube channel StorytimeOnline has celebrities reading children’s books.

Audible has stories for kids and teens while school is out.

#OperationStoryTime has more authors hosting storytimes online.

Watch astronauts read stories from space!

Here are some Spanish children’s stories read by native Spanish speakers with slow audio. You can read along in Spanish or English.

LeVar Burton is airing livestreams of himself reading on Twitter every Friday.

Michelle Obama is hosting live storytimes online for children also.

 

Virtual Tours and Live Cams

Here is a cool Northern Lights cam.

Explore National Parks with virtual tours.

Cincinnati Zoo has a Facebook live home safari every day. And they have resources for activities to join along.

Monterey Bay Aquarium has live streams of their animals available.

The British Library has made their exhibit “Harry Potter: A History of Magic” available online.

Online classes and tutoring

Students from Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley give free tutoring to K-12 students.

Khan Academy has free online courses and classes for all ages. They currently have free daily schedules for kids 4-18 to help keep them learning.

E-Learning offers curriculum-based learning for K-6th for free.

Courses4you.com has a list of sites that offer free courses for kids online.

David Attenborough is teaching geography online.

Author and illustrator of the Captain Underpants books, Dav Pilkey, is offering free drawing lessons and readings of his books thanks to the Library of Congress.  While you’re there, check out the large variety of other activities the Library of Congress has to offer.

Activities

Danielle Deen from deenadventures.com has 100 suggestions of what to do with your kids during quarantine.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels

Make a cardboard dome as a fun project to keep everyone busy.

I wrote this post: 21 Teen Approved Activities For Being Stuck at Homes recently. Included is a nice mix of online boredom busters and offline activities.

Photo by mentatdgt from Pexels 

Online Boredom Busters for Adults

Again, this stuff is really fine for all ages, but adults may have a bit more interest.

Stuff To Watch

Binge watch every episode of Julia Child!

The Met is airing encore performances for free daily.

Playbill has 15 Broadway plays and musicals you can watch from home.

London-based concert hall Wigmore Hall “will be sharing exceptional performances, masterclasses, talks and more from past events at Wigmore Hall” until its planned reopening April 14.

Pink Floyd is streaming full concerts weekly on YouTube during the pandemic.

Cirque Du Soleil is offering free shows since their tour was canceled. Check out their site and see what they have to offer.

Looking for some nostalgia? Hasbro has made the first 15 episodes of GI Joe: A Real American Hero available on YouTube.

Online classes and tutoring

This is an old post, but ClassCentral shares links from 190 universities sharing 600 free online classes.

MoMA is offering free online art classes. This is an amazing opportunity.

Dr. Jennifer Delora, the owner of Access Deaf Consulting, is offering free, online ASL (American Sign Language) lessons.

Learn how to make homemade pasta from an actual Italian grandma. Nonna Nerina usually runs pasta-making workshops in the countryside north of Rome in Italy, but since the pandemic closed everything down, she had to cancel all her classes. Now, with her granddaughter Chiara, Nerina has taken her classes online.

 

Online/Virtual Tours

Winchester Mystery House is offering free virtual tours. Horror fans and ghost hunters both will like this one, but history buffs will find it fascinating too.

Image by Viktoriia Bondar from Pixabay

Visit 6 Italian museums online for free and get your culture on.

The Haunted Museum in Mapperley has launched a live stream so you can visit while they are closed due to the pandemic. Check out thehauntedmuseum.co.uk to do your own ghost hunting.

How about a 3D virtual tour of Ramesses VI tomb? Check out the tour and the amazing work done in this tomb.

If you are a lover of architecture, you may be excited to learn about these virtual tours of 12 Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. These beautiful, inspiring builds are a nice change of scenery.

Lovers of the movie The Dark Crystal will want to check out this tour. The Center for Puppetry Arts gave a virtual tour of the Dark Crystal exhibit, and it can be accessed on their Facebook page. They are also offering assorted digital programming.

Another great tour for horror fans is this one of Dracula’s Castle. This is the actual Bran Castle in Transylvania. Yes, that one, that inspired Bran Stoker. Check it out and see another piece of history.

Pitt Rivers Museum, in Oxford, England, is closed due to the coronavirus, but still available to browse virtually. This 136 year-old Victorian museum hiding within another museum is full of all kinds of curiosities and you can wander each aisle and display with just a click of your mouse.

E-books, Readings, and More to Read

Patrick Stewart is reading Shakespeare online for his fans.

Online academic resource JSTOR has over 6,000 e-books and 150 journals available for free.

Activities

Ifitbringsyoujoy.com had a great idea and listing out 35 hobbies you can learn at home for free.

A lot of gyms are doing online classes right now.

Can’t go to the gym? Check out these online classes, apps

And Finally

These two are full of links for both adults and kids. Lots and lots of links. It will take a while to fully explore what both have to offer.

Openculture.com has a compilation of links to free coloring pages, ebooks, movies, online courses, audiobooks, and more. Be sure to check this one out.

This is the link directly to the free coloring books from 113 museums offered by openculture.com.

 

There are so many options out there, and I plan on adding to the list as I come across more info. Don’t worry, I will keep you and your family informed of all the boredom busters I can find.

Signature "Leigh" with coffee stains