Virtual experiences may not always be better than the real thing, but – for better or worse – 2020 is the year we discovered that they’re definitely a lot better than nothing at all. Not only are online spaces and activities a great way to escape a grinding lockdown routine, they often allow us to visit historic sites, world-renowned museums and inaccessible locations we never could have visited in real life. Whether you’re still homeschooling, keeping the kids home more than usual, or simply inspired by the wealth of online adventures out there, these virtual experiences will take them places – and you can go, too.
It’s impossible to get past Google Arts & Culture when listing the best immersive and interactive online experiences available. In fact, if you were planning on falling down a virtual rabbit hole for an extended period, this is the place to start. For the little artists in your life, that could mean visiting some of the greatest museums in the world, exploring works of art in high-res at their leisure or browsing the entire collection – by artist, era, colour or topic (paintings of dogs, anyone?).
More interested in making up for lost holidays? Google also lets you travel to national parks, significant cultural sites and popular sightseeing destinations all over the globe, at a click of the mouse. For example, this curated trip around the USA features an epic road trip, tours around several parks, entry to numerous museums and a plethora of in-depth explorations of specific topics ranging from jazz and baseball to indigenous culture and Black history. Browsing the country will certainly be a more relaxing experience than trying to navigate it with kids in tow.
Those of us who live far from the nearest coast may be feeling ocean-deprived. Let the kids at least catch a glimpse of some sea critters, for example through the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s live cams. Some, like the coral reef, jellyfish and kelp forest cam, are soothing and relaxing, others – like the penguin or sea otter cam – intensely cute and fun. If your kids are clamouring for a bit more action, tune in for the daily or weekly feedings. Once you’ve captured their attention, the website also offers information on the animals, their habitats and marine conservation.
Hungry for more animal content? Explore.org has more live video than you can ever watch in a lifetime. The “world’s leading philanthropic live nature cam network and documentary film channel” shows all manner of animals, mainly doing their thing in the wild. You can browse by location and species, but also by the type of organisation (for example, rescues and sanctuaries), plus there’s the section “Zen Cams”, which does exactly what it says on the box, and may be just the ticket for when you’re trying to get the kids ready for bedtime.
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art offers one of the best proprietary kid-focused art websites out there. Star with the Where’s Wally?-style map of the museum, featuring clickable highlights from the collection. Individual works of art first pop up in preview, behind which is hidden an in-depth description of each piece and its history, accompanied by audio and fun facts, plus tasks to get kids to further engage with what they discover and to create their own art at home. Alternatively, you can navigate the collection by hopping into the “time machine”: select a time period, place and topic, and get, for example, a selection of medieval Asian art about mythology.
Kids complaining about the loooong days at home? Put their quaran-time into perspective with the British Museum’s interactive timeline, which can take them anywhere between the year 2,000,000 BC and today – well, at least to those times and places deemed historically significant. As you scan back in time, the dots on the timeline become more sparse, but each item, like the Babylonian clay tablet dating back to the year 1,700 BC, is supplemented with a description, audio and images, as well as links to related objects. An additional menu allows you to explore the timeline by topic.
Speaking of places your kids are unlikely to go in person anytime soon – why not use this opportunity to take a trip to space? The NASA website requires a bit of navigating, but it offers everything you need to keep your junior space cadet grounded for hours at a time. For example, the agency regularly posts updates from the International Space Station, including videos and live earth views. There’s a whole page dedicated to NASA STEM @ Home Resources. Last but not least, you can take 360-degree virtual tours of facilities like the NASA Glenn Research Center and the Hubble Space Telescope.
On the other hand, who knows where they’ll go when they’re all grown up? Maybe sending them on a virtual space trip is only going to prepare them for a very real future in space? Even if not, Access Mars is certain to inspire them and show them what is possible technically, on this planet, right now. The site allows you to experience Mars through the camera eyes of the Curiosity rover on an interactive 360-degree photo tour.
Closer to home, but still totally spaced out, is an online tour of the Winchester Mystery House. If your kids like mysteries and enjoy being a little spooked out, they’ll love exploring the famously disjointed California mansion. They can try to figure out why its owner, Sarah Winchester, heiress to a firearms fortune, built a home filled with hidden passages and doors that lead nowhere. Maybe they’ll even pick up an interest in architecture along the way? Neither the immersive 360-degree tour nor the video tour are free, but worth the small investment if they tickle your kids‘ fancy.
We’ve all been spoiled for choice when it comes to online entertainment, but you can’t just plonk kids in front of an online play, musical or opera and expect them to be entertained. Thankfully, some cultural institutions have put a wealth of excellent learning resources online to facilitate remote learning and encourage kids to engage with art on their own terms. Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre hasn’t just put many of the Bard’s plays online, but also accompanying resources.
National Geographic Kids offers excellent “edutainment” to supplement the curriculum, including games and videos on subjects like history, geography and biology. If your kids are still asking WHY exactly they’ve been stuck at home for the majority of this year, the website also has some excellent kid-friendly coronavirus resources. However, for a field trip experience that will take them to places far, far away, you can leave them with the treasure trove of videos exploring places and cultures around the world.
Get Your Guide, usually dedicated to curating and offering bookings for sightseeing tours and activities in destinations around the globe, has pivoted to video. More specifically, the website is offering guided video tours, presented by the guides that usually offer them in person. Topics are varied and include typical sightseeing tours like a “kid-friendly Vatican Museum tour and quiz”, but also fun offerings like “learn magic tricks at the Illuseum in Berlin,“ “Greek mythology explained” and even a “kids’ pizza-making class”.
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