Online resources for at-home hobbies and activities

With the lockdown continuing on, many of us are turning our hand at hobbies and skills we've never tried before - or perhaps always meant to get round to but never found the time! We've scoured the web to find free resources to keep you occupied

Cooking & Baking

With flour in short demand across the country, it's clear that many of us are using our lockdown time to whip up bread, cakes, and all sorts of treats! A great place to start for a huge range of over 7000 recipes is the BBC Good Food website. If you follow a plant based diet, you can find a range of vegan recipes on the vegan society website. If you're looking to use up your cupboard ingredients, or are on a budget, Jack Monroe provides a brilliant range of recipes for less on their website, Cooking On a Bootstrap.

Not confident in the kitchen? Food4life offers some easy guides to basic kitchen skills, or you can learn with some simple recipes from Norwich's own Delia Smith.

Arts & Crafts

It's time to dig out the sewing machine that's been lurking in the back of your cupboard and get crafty! You can find ideas for craft projects at Craft Ideas  or Good Housekeeping.

If you've never tried your hand at your chosen hobby before there are many free beginners guides and tutorials. With Wendy offers some excellent video tutorials for simple sewing, you can learn to knit with this brilliant guide from Sheep and Stitch, or explore crochet with Bella Coco.

Fitness & exercise

The gyms may be closed, but you can still get active. You can take one walk a day, maintaining an appropriate distance. There are many walks in and around the city, you can find a walking route here. 

If you want to pick up the pace, you could try jogging. If you've never tried running before, there are some great resources to help set you on your path, such as the NHS podcast – Couch to 5k.   

If you are unable to get outside, you can find some excellent exercise videos online, such as PE with Joe Wicks or 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene. 

Learn a language

The bonnes nouvelles? There are loads of free online resources to help you learn and explore new languages. The long established favourite is free app Duolingo, which has a broad choice of languages from across the globe. You can also learn from simple discussion podcasts, such as this excellent selection from Coffee Break, or via free videos from native speakers, such as on the YouTube channel Easy Languages.

Mind & wellbeing

We're experiencing unprecedented and unsettling times, it's perfectly understandable that many of us aren't feeling ourselves right now. There are lots of free resources, websites, and apps available which offer a spot of calm in this chaotic time. Meditation app, Calm, is offering free practices and sleep stories, Headspace are offering reframing exercises and at-home sessions on navigating change and uncertainty, online therapy service, Talkspace, are offering a free resource hub with lots of handy tips and tricks on everything from confronting feelings of powerlessness to how to manage working from home.

We are here for you 

Whilst you may not be physically in college, our college community is still here to help and support you during these times. 

The Advice Shop is continuing to provide information, advice and guidance including careers guidance appointments via email, telephone and Skype. 

You can contact the Advice Shop to arrange appointments by emailing information@ccn.ac.uk or by telephoning 01603 773 311. 

 Our Wellbeing advisers, Counsellors, and Mental Health Adviser are available during normal working hours to offer advice and guidance for anything affecting your wellbeing, not just coronavirus related.  

You can contact the Wellbeing team by emailing wellbeing@ccn.ac.uk