6 Free Ways to Entertain Yourself at Home During Quarantine
This post is sponsored by Xfinity. All opinions expressed are my own.
Feel like you’re going a bit stir crazy being stuck at home all day and all night? Maybe you just need a new way to entertain yourself.
Fortunately, a new source of in-home entertainment doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money. In fact, there are dozens of companies offering up some of their premium services for free.
Here’s a look at a few of those companies and what they are offering:
Audible Stories: Free Kids Stories
Audible has an incredible collection of kids’ stories you can listen to with your children for free. Audible’s proclamation is that “as long as schools are closed, we’re open.”
Audible has stories for the littlest listeners, elementary students, tweens, and teens – and everything in between. This means you can listen to titles ranging from “Winnie the Pooh” to “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” to “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.”
All stories are currently free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone, or tablet.
Go to “Free Kids Stories” on Audible Stories.
Coursera: “The Science of Well Being”
What if I told you that you could attend a course at Yale University for free? What if I told you that free course was Yale’s most popular class? Would you believe me?
Well, you should. “The Science of Well Being” is a virtual class on Coursera’s website. In it, you will learn how to increase your own happiness and build more productive habits. Who couldn’t use a little of that right now?
Laurie Santos, Professor of Psychology at Yale University, teaches the class. Dr. Santos also hosts the popular podcast The Happiness Lab.
The course is 10 weeks long and includes videos and reading materials as well as homework assignments and quizzes to make sure you comprehend the material.
Of course, you can do as little or as much as you want in the class, because it’s free. But, for those who would like a little recognition for their efforts, you can pay $49 to receive a certificate of completion at the end of the class.
Check out The Science of Well Being on Coursera now.
Xfinity: Rolling Free Previews
If you are an Xfinity television customer, there’s never been a better time to take advantage of free previews.
Xfinity X1 and Flex customers now have access to a variety of on-demand catalogs from a series of premium networks and subscription video on-demand services. These networks and services include SHOWTIME, EPIX, CuriosityStream, HISTORY Vault, Grokker Yoga Fitness & Wellbeing, The Reading Corner, and DOGTV.
Not sure what’s free at what time? Just say “Free” into your X1 or Flex voice remote to see your options.
Plus, if you’re missing a night out at the movies with your family, Universal Pictures is now making its films available at home on the same day as their global theatrical release. This means you can watch movies such as “The Hunt,” “Invisible Man,” “Emma,” and “Trolls World Tour.”
While these movies aren’t free, the price tag to rent a movie for 48 hours is significantly cheaper than taking a family of four to the movie theaters. The popcorn is cheaper too!
Check out your Xfinity options here.
Cards Against Humanity: Family Edition
Getting tired of the same old card games with your family? You might want to check out the newest game from Cards Against Humanity.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Cards Against Humanity isn’t really known for being a “family” game. It’s usually a game reserved for adults.
But this is Cards Against Humanity: Family Edition. It’s much more suitable for families with kids, but you might still find a few colorful phrases that are more suitable to the teenagers in your family and not so much for your four-year-old.
The game utilizes a set of black and white cards, which you can download for free as a PDF. It will take some effort on your part to print out the multi-card pages on your own printer and to cut them down to individual cards, but what’s a free game without a little bit of effort to get it?
My advice? Go through all the cards ahead of time and pull out any cards that you think might not be appropriate for your family. Then call the family in for game time. You’ll be sure to have lots of laughs.
Get Cards Against Humanity: Family Edition for free.
DiscountMags.com: Free individual copies of magazines
Being stuck at home is the perfect time to explore new interests. DiscountMags.com makes this easy – and free!
DiscountMags usually sells discount magazine subscriptions, but for a limited time, they are offering free individual digital copies of a wide selection of their magazines.
Right now, you can get free digital copies of Real Simple, Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, Oxygen, Fast Company, This Old House, and dozens more. You can read each magazine online on your computer or offline by using the free Zinio reader.
To start reading and exploring new interests, click the link below to browse the selection of magazines with free individual copies. When you find a magazine that interests you, add it to your cart and checkout for free.
Browse the selection of free magazines at DiscountMags.com.
Free Andrew Lloyd Webber Musicals: The Shows Must Go On!
For a night “in” at the theater, check out The Shows Must Go On! It’s a YouTube channel featuring free recorded performances of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s most popular musicals.
These shows aren’t available on demand. Instead, a new show releases every Friday night and is available for free for 48 hours. So, you’ll need to make this one a weekend event.
The Shows Must Go On! has already released Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar. Stay tuned to the YouTube channel to see which new show releases this coming weekend.
