Today we head into the fourth week of Learning from Home blog posts! It really does feel like time is playing games with us at the moment; I’ve completely given up on trying to remember how long ago things happened.

Given that it’s been a month since most of us moved to a virtual world, I thought I’d include some activities today that could possibly be long-term or family/class projects; things that you ca do as a group, or that you can keep coming back to.

Atlas Obscura is an amazing website which gives people the chance to see parts of the world that they probably otherwise wouldn’t be able to. If for no other reason than to travel virtually all over the word, seeing people and visiting places you’ve never even heard of before, it’s worth going to the site. However, they also have several projects at the moment that they are asking for help on, calling on people to assist them with transcribing a range of documents. These documents vary from whaling logs to philosophical musings through to menus and celestial computations. In assisting with these projects, not only can you help us all to understand the world better, but you’ll have the chance to find out what it’s like to be an archivist and librarian.

The Cities and Memory project aims to collect sounds and stories from all over the globe, and is a fascinating way to explore the world. They have now opened the project up to anyone who would like to participate as a way of capturing the experiences of people around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. As well as an interesting way of exploring and remembering an important moment in history, this new part of the project also asks people to reflect on how the lockdowns they are experiencing are changing the way their communities sound. If you’re looking to turn this into a group or class activity, having each person take a recording and photo at the same time each day, wherever they are and whatever they’re doing, may create an interesting log or journal of community experiences to share once the isolation period is over.

Finally, we come to craft, because we all know the group that is crafty together gets on better together, right? No, it’s not a thing? Well, I think it should be! The Creative Cure to Boredom is a great YouTube channel which has a range of creative projects, all of which use material we’re likely to have around the house. There’s paper marbling using shaving cream and food dye, painting with chocolate, and making slime sculptures. It would be a great idea to try one or more of these, and perhaps you could have an isolation exhibition, either at home, over video conference, or back in the classroom once school returns.

I hope you have a great time creating some brilliant projects that capture your experiences in a way that helps you experience the world a little differently.

Regards,

Jemma

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