If it's too cold to leave your house or your pajamas are glued on, you can still enjoy the season. Exercise, take a class, learn a craft, visit other locales and find new friends through your laptop or cellphone.
While these activities are often better in person, the weather, illness and other conditions can make that difficult. Online activities offer a variety of advantages: they can be free and convenient. "I don't have to leave my house and I can do it in my pajamas or sweats," says retired Springfield physician Gina Kovach about the free January online yoga program she does annually with her daughter and friends through Yoga with Adriene. While Kovach usually walks for exercise, January weather prevents that. "I look forward to the (online yoga)," she says. "It's good for me and a way to connect with my daughter and others."
Online exercise options are as plentiful as snowflakes. Check with your local fitness centers and yoga studios since many offer them. AARP has a variety and gives nonmembers access to some. Search "online exercise classes" to find possibilities.
If arts and crafts are your pleasure, you're in luck. Lisa Whelpley of Chatham, an avid greeting card maker with a home craft space, is hooked on a free, weekly card-making class called Craft Roulette. "I started doing this during the pandemic because I was looking for something to do and wanted to interact with people. I've found a community there and it gives me creative confidence because I hone my skills every week," Whelpley says. She's developed friends around the world in the group, and every week she learns from others' creative styles. "One thousand people participate each week. It's amazing," she says.
She and her husband, Rodd, a poet, watch poetry readings online and listen to lectures or author talks through University of Illinois Springfield and Chatham Library. Springfield's Lincoln Library has occasional online events, too.
Perhaps you're looking for something quieter. Springfield professor Deborah Brothers has taken a variety of online meditation classes, which can be cheaper and helpful if you can't find time off work to take them in person. "The greatest benefit, besides saving time and money, is that I got to do things I otherwise wouldn't have gotten to do, and with people and teachers that were out of state," she says. "As an autistic person who is not only socially awkward but also has a highly reactive and sensitive sensory system that often makes it difficult to be in public spaces due to hyper senses and overload, it is a blessing," she adds. Also, online classes can be a great way for beginners to learn a skill, according to Brothers.
Springfield teacher Derry Dalby has visited an aquarium and has watched theater online. Through the Roundhouse Aquarium in California, his class was able to tour the aquarium virtually. "Many of my students are low-income so they would not have an opportunity to do something like that and the closest aquarium to us would be in St. Louis," he says. The students enjoyed the online tour "very much."
Through aquariums' webcams, students of all ages can tour aquariums or watch their inhabitants live online. Some aquariums offering this include the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, the Georgia Aquarium and the National Aquarium in Baltimore. The Monterey Bay Aquarium's webcam provides a live look at their jellyfish. It's mesmerizing and good for de-stressing after the holidays. You'll be asleep in minutes between the soothing music and the jellies' slow rise and fall.
Being far from certain theaters hasn't prevented Dalby from enjoying shows. He has virtually watched singers such as Barbara Dixon, known as "Broadway Barbara." Although she's based on the West Coast, this "gave me an opportunity to see her shows without having to travel," Dalby says. The same was true of a musical he wanted to see called Lizzie, about Lizzie Borden, which was performed in San Francisco.
Online academic or business classes are popular. Participants take them for professional reasons or to get a degree. Gina Kovach took several online classes for work and because she "likes to learn." She highly recommends Coursera, an online company that has a "ton of online courses in a variety of disciplines." Many universities and colleges (including University of Illinois Springfield and Lincoln Land Community College) offer online classes, too.
To find online experiences to fit your interests, search "online cooking classes," "online aquarium tours," or "Florida webcams," for example, or peruse some of these websites:
-Coursera.org
-georgiaaquarium.org
-National Aquarium – www.aqua.org
-The Kennedy Center - https://www.kennedy-center.org/digitalstage/masterclass.com
-Smithsonian – si.edu/learn
-Craft Roulette – craftroulette.live
-yogawithadriene.com
-AARP - https://local.aarp.org/virtual-community-center/
-America's Test Kitchen cooking school – onlinecookingschool.com
-Road Scholar – roadscholar.org/collections/online-lectures/
-Open Oceans Webcams –
openoceans.org
