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15 Skills to Learn While Lockdown

What certainly plays in our favor is the luck of living in the digital era that provides us with many tools that can facilitate us for new things to learn while lockdown.

Here are some useful and fun tips to learn while lockdown and make your time at home productive.

1. Learn a new language 

Learn a language with songs; learning languages with music is a fun and effective method that allows us to memorize lots of vocabulary effortlessly.

The passion for music can thus become the key to improving your English, Spanish, French, German and so on.

Learn while lockdown a language with movies, cartoons and fiction. Start with cartoons, with the simplest and most intuitive language to continue with your favorite movies and TV series. Activate the subtitles in the language and then, as soon as you can, read them in the original language.

2. Learn how to crochet

Crochet is a type of textile art whose origin is lost in the mists of time and whose artifacts have been found in every corner of the world, from the Far East to Africa and Europe. Our grandmothers who used it to make hats and lace often hand down this particular work to us. But today we can also learn it by ourselves, relying on the numerous guides and video tutorials that the network makes available to us.

First buy a crochet hook, and then buy a ball of yarn suitable for this type of processing. Prefer color acrylic, much easier to work with. The fundamental hand in crochet is the one that keeps the thread, not the one that moves the underwire. The thread must be neither too tight nor too soft, but sliding on your palm, otherwise you will compromise the entire work. At this point, start the actual work. Make a knot and insert into the hook, then put the needle over the thread, apply a little pressure and pass it under, finally rotate it. 

3. Learn to cook  

When you are a beginner in the kitchen and you have to try your hand at the stove, for need or desire to learn while lockdown, it is not easy to improvise and the disorientation can be strong. However, you should not panic and with a good dose of will you can get to the preparation of delicious dishes, starting from quick and easy recipes. With the practice you will reach such a security that you can customize the dishes and even launch into new experiments. 

Let’s discover together which are the main cooking alternate in the preparations of the dishes: cooking in a double boiler, steaming, roasting, braised cooking, stewed cooking, cooking flambé, cooking on the grill, cooking in a liquid, baking, microwave cooking, boiling, frying, blanching or blanching. As cooking is not an easy task and there are various ways of preparing different dishes you might realize that you don’t have enough tools to prepare every dish you put your mind to accomplish, from our partners you will find what you are looking for: 

4. Start an online course 

Studying online is convenient because studying online allows you to choose: your time, your activities and your career.

All the online lessons, in fact, are available on online platforms that allow you to access them at any time and from any device connected to the Internet, therefore also from your Smartphone. In this way each student can choose how and when to study, and customizing the study will become an easy and fast process, if not banal.

Perfect for this quarantine period where we can prioritize all those new skills that we have always wanted to add to our curriculum but never had the time.

5. Learn how to origami

The origami is also suitable for those who have children, perfect for spending an afternoon together. Just a few: collared paper sheets, scissors, patience and a lot of imagination. And of course, the perfect tutorial, check YouTube videos to discover this ancient Japanese discipline.

6. Learn the art of calligraphy 

A good pen or fountain pen, a good ink, a good paper and a pleasant and bright environment will help to improve your work and not be discouraged by the first attempts! Practice, practice and practice again! Never get tired of exercising on the basic signs, called drills: they are essential to train your hand and muscles. Prefer short but frequent exercise sessions to a few but long workouts! Look for tutorials online to guide you through the first steps. 

7. Create personalized soap 

Both beach and silicone biscuit molds are ideal. The fresh soap that is still dried can be carved, decorated with handprints or egg. To decorate homemade soaps you can use flower petals, cinnamon berries, star anise and even glitter to create a sparkling soap!

8. Learn a new fitness house routine 

At the beginning the total body is the best choice because the muscles, not yet accustomed to regular workouts, grow even with sessions less intense than those of experienced athletes. It is important to master the 3 basic exercises: lifting fewer weights, bench and squat and integrate them into the total body training. Remember to prepare for physical activity with a warm-up session.

9. Start gardening 

The first essential step to start growing a vegetable garden is to evaluate the size of your balcony. Another important element to evaluate is the exposure of your balcony. The vases should be chosen according to what you want to cultivate. Also always get saucers to avoid flooding the terraces below. You will then have to take the soil. If you are just at the first weapons with gardening remember to also buy the tools of the trade. You will then have to choose whether to take the seeds or seedlings already sprouted. You have everything you need; now you just have to choose what to start cultivating.

10. Learn how to create jewelry 

Creating with your own hands and creatively recycling old objects now in disuse or broken is a passion that unites us in many. If you have children, call them and involve them in the wonderful play of DIY. You can range from buttons combined with beads, collared pieces of cork; from cutlery to plastic pieces easy to shape with the heat. And these are just a few examples: there is really no end to the different materials that we can recycle to turn them into cute handmade jewelry.

11.  Learn a musical instrument

Making music fosters creativity and personal expression. Making music improves, according to many researchers, the abilities of your immune system, increasing the number of cells that fight the onset of diseases. When you play you need to be focused. That’s why after a while the worries are forgotten and it’s just you and what you’re playing. Playing helps to reduce stress!

12.  Learn how to draw or paint

The passion for drawing needs to be continuously cultivated and stimulated. Start by getting a pencil and a block of paper. At the beginning choose simple subjects, observe them carefully and begin by drawing the essential traits; only at a later stage passes to higher levels of difficulty. Online you can find many tutorials to learn while lockdown the basics of drawing technique.

13. Learn the basics of photography 

Why do you want to learn while lockdown how to photograph? Maybe you want to take nice pictures of your children or friends; maybe instead you are looking for a way to express yourself/ to; maybe you feel a generic call to do something artistic.

Start by practice photographing stupid objects, learn while lockdown on how to photograph starting from the composition and finally read everything you can about photography! Online is full of free resources, tips, forums, face book groups, think tanks, photo blogs, magazines.

14.  Learn how to meditate 

Meditation has multiple benefits including: increased concentration, strengthening of the immune system, improved memory. Sit comfortably, find the right posture, pick up your hands in zazen positions, look at your eyes and concentrate on your breath.

15.  Learn how to make cocktails 

Preparing cocktails is an art. But if we want to try our hand at creating tasty homemade drinks, just follow simple and precise rules. There are white and dark spirits. Find the recipes online and follow the ingredients for an alternative evening.