I’m sure that in the worry and uncertainty of the last couple of weeks, afterschool clubs are the last thing on anyone’s mind! But since the schools are closing and students are looking at weeks of working at home, I’ve made a list of some online resources that might entertain, help them feel less isolated, and allow creativity to continue to flourish. And being creative might even help those who are feeling anxious about what’s going on to express and deal with those feelings.

And it’s all a matter of perspective. We can believe we’re prisoners in our own homes or we can pretend we’re JD Salinger, shunning the press and writing our next classic novel!

Hopefully there’s something there for everyone, and if you’re looking for more, there are many writers and artists on Twitter offering free stuff for young people so you should take a look.

Incidentally, I think this is incredibly generous and public spirited of these writers and artists, especially since freelance workers like them are going to be among the hardest hit economically by all this, but it just shows how dedicated and passionate they are about sharing art and creativity with young people and how important they feel this is.

If you want to support a freelance artist/writer now would be the time to buy their book/art/music and ask them to come to your school next year. And if you want to keep independent bookshops going, please go to them instead of Amazon. Many are posting books out even if they’re closed.

I saw this online and thought it would be great if everyone’s home-schooling experience included Creative Time! (Not sure why Creative Time should be separate from Academic Time but that’s a discussion for another day)

So do point your young writers towards these resources before the schools close. Maybe they’ll come back with a novel or a poetry collection instead of square eyes from watching Netflix!

And take a look at them yourself, they could be useful even just to stock up on ideas for when we’re all back to normal.

I’ll continue to post on The Blank Page in the meantime. I know writing groups won’t be able to run if the schools close (unless you’re running online) but I’m aiming to put as much as possible on this blog so that it’s not just useful this year but will be a helpful resource for any school to use in the years ahead.

And if you’re trying to inspire your writers to do some creative work at home during the Covid-19 school closures and would like to send me their work or their questions I’ll be happy to respond with feedback/answers.

Stay safe, look after each other and continue being your amazing, inspiring selves. In the meantime, here’s a poem by Mary Oliver.

  

 

2 thoughts on “Self-Isolating or Reclusive Genius?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>