Covid19 is awful. Lockdown sucks. So we've kindly assembled a list of FREE activities to help boost moods and morale:

• Play card games online with your family and friends

• An unofficial version of cards against humanity

• Songs for self-isolation

• Virtual Museums

• Ivy League Course

• Virtual Concerts

• Gym Workout

• 7-Minute HIIT workout

• Virtual Aquarium Tour

• Virtual Tours of Famous Landmarks

• Educational shows on Netflix

• JCI Tri-Nation Training Events

• Chris Hemsworth’s health and fitness programme Centr will be free for six weeks (normally £23/month). It includes workouts with 'world-class trainers', meal plans and mindfulness exercises.

• Free 30-day membership of Davina's McCall's Own Your Goals fitness programme (normally £9.99/month)

• Rosetta Stone is offering schoolchildren free access to its popular language courses for three months.

• Calm is offering 'soothing meditations', a 'calm masterclass', 'calm kids' and mindfulness resources. They're available via its website – see Calm's free content.

• Headspace has a collection called Weathering the Storm, which includes meditations, sleep and movement exercises. It's available on the app (for iPhone or Android), or you can access some of the content via the Headspace website.

• The Royal Opera House might be closed, but it's offering free broadcasts on its Facebook and YouTube channels, including:

  • Peter and the Wolf, The Royal Ballet, 2010 – 7pm on Friday 27 March

  • Acis and Galatea, The Royal Opera, 2009 – 7pm on Friday 3 April

  • Così fan tutte, The Royal Opera, 2010 – 7pm on Friday 10 April

  • The Metamorphosis, The Royal Ballet, 2013 – 7pm on Friday 17 April

• Virtual Tours

  Museums with virtual online collections

  Pinacoteca di Brera - Italy

  Galería Uffizi - Italy

  The Vatican Museum - Italy

  The National Archaeological Museum, Greece h

  Museo Del Prado - Spain

  The Louvre - France

  The British Museum - UK

  The Metropolitan Museum - USA

  The Hermitage - Russia

  National Gallery of Art - USA

  There’s a great selection of virtual field trips here, from The Great Wall of China to online farms.

• Fender has made its online guitar courses free for three months

For those home-schooling young children, these websites have been referred to me as being useful.

• Audible has released a collection of audiobooks for free, which it says will be available 'for as long as schools are closed'. Books include Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Secret Garden, Winnie the Pooh and Timeless Tales of Beatrix Potter.

• Every weekday at 9am, Joe Wicks (aka 'The Body Coach') is live-streaming a 30-minute PE class on his YouTube channel for free (his normal fitness plans are £97 for 90 days). If you can't tune in then, don't worry – you can watch them back whenever you want.

• Carol Vorderman has announced that access to her maths school The Maths Factor will be free while schools are closed (normally £2/week). It's aimed at 4 to 11-year-olds and is matched to the national curriculum.

• Popular spelling app Sir Linkalot is free until 12 June 2020 (normally £6.99/month). You'll need to sign up to its mailing list and you'll be sent a code for free access.

• HUGE list of Educational Resources to do with the Kids at home

• http://www.homemade-preschool.com/mw-color-by-numbers-flowers-1-8.html

• Educational Animal Resources

• The ultimate list of things to do with your kids at home

• My old employer BP is offering free STEM resources for primary and secondary school children

• Family Lockdown Tips and Ideas on Facebook is a brand-new community with tips particularly geared towards families in lockdown

  Home Workouts for Lockdown shares live exercise videos and nutrition tips for families stuck in their houses

• Stretch along with Cosmic Yoga’s eye-poppingly colourful videos which combine mindfulness and relaxation into gentle workouts

• Or sing-a-long with Bari Koral and her music-and-yoga videos

• Try Fitness Blenders’ Kids Workout for a truly fun, yet effective exercise session

• New mum? Here’s a gentle, post-natal workout you can do with your baby!

• Listen in to CBeebies Radio for music, games, or just some much-needed calming background sounds

• Play games, do puzzles, watch your favourite TV shows or take time to apply for a Blue Peter badge at CBBC

• The Beano has the funniest and silliest quizzes, jokes and games

• Join cheering and sociable daily online play sessions with Sophie Pickles

• Inventive, green outdoor and garden play, make and learn ideas at Rain or Shine Mamma

• Lemon Lime Adventures shares tips and resources for stress-free parenting

• Happy Hooligans has stacks of ideas for indoor and garden play, plus recipes and parenting stories

• The Artful Parent shares clear, inspirational, creative activities to share with the kids in your life

• There’s a huge bank of creative ideas at Red Ted Art - dive in!

• Mother Natured shares excellent, wild art ideas that we just love

• Find fun and pretty things to do at Crazy Little Projects

• Brains On – your science-based questions answered

• History Storytime – learn about incredible moments from the past alongside 6-year-old Sophie

• Smash Boom Best – all the biggest debates settled – cats versus dogs, pizzas versus tacos, super speed versus super strength!

• The Week Junior takes you behind the scenes of the award-winning news magazine for kids

• Neil Gaiman reads The Graveyard Book and Coraline here

• Superstar writers Oliver Jeffers and Mac Barnett will each be reading one of their books on Instagram every day, and talking about how they wrote them.

• There are dozens of episodes of CBeebies Bedtime Stories on iPlayer

• Award-winning book illustrator Rob Biddulph is sharing draw-along videos daily on his Twitter feed

• Enjoy live storytelling by children’s authors here

• BBC Bitesize  – find free lesson plans, revision aids and games for every age group here

• Twinkl is full of teacher-created content (free and paid) from interactive tests to child-focussed news stories, informative e-books and printables. They’re giving parents in lockdown a month’s free subscription here – enter the code UKTWINKLHELPS

• Prodigy is crammed with engaging, free fun maths games.

• Khan Academy is particularly strong for computing and maths. It’s aimed at US students, but there’s a lot of crossover with the UK curriculum.

• Learn Blockly or Scratch programming skills

• Natgeo Kids have oodles of fascinating, informative videos, facts and quizzes

• KiwiCo for simple science experiments, activities and home-ed schedule ideas

• Find fun maths, reading and classic games at Toy Theater

• Scholastic have a thoughtful selection of day-by-day, cross-curricular projects

• Want ALL the maths lessons for older kids? Find them at Dr Frost

• Mirror school time with IXL’s virtual lessons, closely aligned to the national curriculum – THIS ONE YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR but apparently it’s worth it.

• Meaningful lesson plans and resources at Ms Mactivity

• . Sign up for an online account to your nearest library and download as many e-books as you can read!

• Find lots more learning resource ideas here

And finally…

There's also a Free Coronavirus Tracker from the Financial Times if you want to keep up to date with latest statistics