6 New Hobbies to Explore in Quarantine

 

While the beginning of the pandemic saw a sudden explosion of the trend of baking sourdough, it’s not too late to get experimental in your kitchen. Holiday cookies, pastries, pies—whatever appeals to your sweet tooth, you can learn new techniques and recipes from The Food Network and other sites if you don’t have a cookbook on hand. If you can’t eat it all, you can ship your creations to grandkids or friends by following these instructions from UPS.

 

With much memory-making on hold this year, compiling old photos and curating memorabilia is a hobby that many have found particularly rewarding. Whether pasting photos onto colorful pages, adding captions, or making a gift for a loved one, scrapbooking can be a creative process that celebrates the memories with family and friends that you were able to make before quarantine. CVS allows you to print digital photos, so you can get hard copies of pictures you took on a smartphone or digital camera. Pinterest is full of ideas and inspiration for scrapbooking to help get you started.

 

Always wondered how your retirement fund grows but never had the time to learn the ins and outs of the stock market? While it’s very rare to beat the returns of most funds by trading yourself, many older adults find that taking a small chunk of their savings and trying their hand at investing is a fun and interesting way to stay engaged with news and trends, challenge themselves, and learn a new skill. There are mobile Apps like Robinhood that make it easy, as well as a 10-Step Guide to getting into investing. It’s very important to start small, however: some inexperienced traders have lost vast sums.

 

Sometimes, the best way to relax is sitting back and getting absorbed in a new show. Now that Netflix and other streaming services let you watch episodes consecutively, watching several at a time, almost like a movie, can be a great way to pass an afternoon. Shows like The Crown, Our Planet, Poldark, and The Great British Bake-Off, among many others have gripped older viewers, and at $5.99 per month, it comes in around the cost of renting two movies. 

 

Journaling is well-documented as a healthy habit, good for coping with anxiety, depression and stress—but for some, it may lead to a more regular writing habit. It’s never too late to become a writer, and there are plenty of resources to help you. Check out this blog post on becoming a writer after age 50, or apply to this publishing workshop NextTribe is offering for older women in January 2021. Even if you don’t ultimately get published, journaling and writing about your life experiences can be a cathartic way to pass the time.

 

Maybe meeting up to play bridge or other card games was a favorite part of the week before the pandemic. Maybe it’s a game you’ve been meaning to learn. Fortunately, there are ways to play online from the safety of your home. Bridge Base Online is the most popular site and allows you to either play with a real-life partner you know or meet a partner online.