Welcome to another day of social distancing and (for most of us) staying at home!  I have several fun links for you this morning!  This year, Billings Farm has made their Baby Farm Animal Celebration virtual – and FREE!  What else? Well, you can learn at home with PBS, find your voice by reading Shakespeare, listen to radio stations from around the world, and learn how to knit your very own Weasley scarf!

Billings Farm and Museum
This weekend is the annual Baby Farm Animal Celebration – online! Get up close with the farm’s baby animals through videos, photos and downloadable activities, including making natural egg dye for your Easter eggs! Virtually meet and learn about the farm’s calves, lambs, steers, goats, bunnies and chicks. You can already watch the eggs in their online stream, and you might get to see a chick hatch!  Today, though, Museum Educator Christine Scales will preview the Baby Farm Animal Celebration and answer your questions about the baby animals at 1:00 PM EST during their new Facebook Live series, “Ask Billings Farm Live.”  (A recording of the event will be available.) And don’t forget that Billings also provides daily “Bag of Fun” kits and videos featuring book readings, farmhouse tours and virtual visits with the farm animals. 

Harry Potter at Home
I think this might be the perfect time to reread the Harry Potter series.  Is anyone with me?  Harry Potter at Home is a free online collection of child-friendly activities, videos, puzzles, illustrations, quizzes, creative ideas, articles and much more, that will help you bring the magic of the wizarding world into your home. (Want to knit that Weasley scarf I mentioned earlier? Check out the video tutorial.)

Radio Garden
Do you enjoy flipping through radio stations?  How about spinning a globe with your eyes shut?  Well, then, this will be a treat!  Radio Garden is a non-profit Dutch radio and digital research project developed from 2013 to 2016 by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.  You can use it on your desktop, or download the Apple or Android app onto your phone or tablet.  Then, just spin the globe and see where you end up?  Norwegian pop?  Russian talk radio?  Up-tempo Tanzanian?  Cambodian punk?  Jamaican gospel?  There are more than 8000 stations registered all over the world.

Find Your Voice Through Shakespeare Workshop
Join Peter Gould, creator of the popular Get Thee to the Funnery Shakespeare Camp, and Find Your Voice Through Shakespeare in a free interactive workshop via Zoom on Friday, April 10 at 3:00 pm.  As a childhood stutterer, Peter Gould turned to Shakespeare to find his voice and build confidence; he now shares his methods through his popular Get Thee to the Funnery Camp. In this online interactive workshop, participants will learn how to look through words, add punctuation, leap over line endings, and use breath and focus to bring new life to immortal words. No previous theater training necessary. Sit and watch, or dive right in. Sign up here.

PBS At Home Learning
While school is out, PBS is showing educational programming with accompanying interactive lessons and suggested activities at their website.  Vermont PBS Main Channel will offer programming starting each weekday at 7:00 a.m. with programs for pre-K to 8th grade students.  Vermont PBS Plus Channel will offer science, history and English language arts programming for students in grades 6 through 12.  Both channels are broadly available on all cable systems, and available for free over the air through a digital antenna without the need for cable subscription or broadband internet access.

Stay well, everyone, and we’ll make it through this – together.

-Shana