We’re into week two of the shelter-in-place order in the Bay Area, and you might feel like the walls are closing in. While we can get outdoors for exercise — or a daily 3:30 p.m. dance party on the porch — the front yards in your neighborhood are probably getting a little too familiar by now.
Fortunately, some museums and attractions in the valley have come to the rescue with free virtual tours and online activities, which may be a godsend if you’ve got school-age kids at home and your own work to do. The Tech Interactive, the Children’s Discovery Museum and the Winchester Mystery House are three San Jose attractions that have provided online offerings, and here’s a rundown of what you can expect from them.
The Tech Interactive: The 30-minute video available at thetech.org includes a virtual tour of the downtown San Jose science center, hosted by young “Tech Explorers” Rocket and Jianna. It includes interviews with science and tech professionals from places like Stanford University and Adobe showing how the Tech’s lessons are used in their jobs. Middle-schoolers are in the sweet spot age-wise for the video. The only drawback is that the Tech is such a hands-on place, this just makes you wish you were there in person.
The Tech also added several at-home activities like making an inflatable sculpture or designing a roller coaster, as well as links to educational IMAX movies (still cool, even without the Tech’s giant dome).
Plans are also in the works to stage this year’s Tech Challenge — a signature maker event for student teams — as an online event April 25-26.
Children’s Discovery Museum: The popular learning center, which is scheduled to reopen April 7, has launched the Virtual Purple Museum on its website, www.cdm.org/virtual-museum. Every Wednesday and Saturday, the site is updated with new hands-on learning activities based on different activities in the real-life museum. Right now, there are activities on soap bubbles and ice exploration, as well as a video on Ice Age animals and the importance of using soap. There are also parent resources on how to talk to your kids about coronavirus.
“We’ve been supporting children and families for 30 years, and even though people can’t visit, we’re here for families during these uncertain times,” Executive Director Marilee Jennings said. “We hope the Virtual Purple Museum helps the learning continue and families have some much-needed fun. We will get through this together, and anything we can do to ensure the healthy development of children, we will strive to do.”
Winchester Mystery House: San Jose’s famed tourist attraction has a 40-minute video tour of the 160-room mansion available for free on its website, www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/video-tour, through April 7 or until the attraction reopens. The narrated tour shows off the architectural features of Sarah Winchester’s sprawling house in great detail, and it feels pretty close to actually being there (and less scary watching at home). The video includes information about Winchester’s life, and breaks up the tour with historical information about the decades the house was under construction. To its credit, terms to the effect of “the legends tell us” give a nod toward dispelling some of the more fanciful myths that grew up around the Winchester heiress and her house over the years.
Younger kids will get bored, but it’s a good watch for teens or adults, especially if you haven’t been to the house before. And in anticipation of when it can welcome living souls back to the mansion, the Winchester Mystery House is offering a discounted ticket voucher for $26 ($13 off the regular price) that is valid through May 1, 2021, without restrictions or blackout dates.