Apps to keep you sane
If you’ve done your fourth baking recipe for the day, and puffed your way around the block (twice) already, it might be time to hit the couch with some good app. Here’s a wrap-up of our favourite apps getting us through the lockdown.
Language Apps like Duolingo
We might not be travelling anywhere exotic any time soon, but lockdown might be the perfect time to dabble in a second language. The free Duolingo app offers over 30 languages and takes just a few minutes each day. Très bien!
TED Talks
If you’ve watched every new Netflix show, scrolled through every corona meme and exhausted every cat video, you might be ready to actually learn something. Looking to expand your mind, curious about a subject, but only have 18 minutes or less? TED Talks offer short videos from experts on a huge range of topics.
Netflix Apps
It’s nothing new, but Netflix is still the go-to for a good binge-watch, with its mix of classics, originals and latest releases. But with all that choice, you can find yourself killing more time scrolling through shows than actually watching them.
- Try The Haunting of Hill House for something a little creepy. Alias Grace for a 19th-century murder mystery, based on a true story.
- There are also a few old gems: MadMen follows a New York ad agency in the ‘60s and is well worth a watch – all seven seasons of it.
- If you’re seeking an easy watch try Derry Girls, Love, Master of None or Freaks and Geeks.
- If you haven’t already seen it, Making a Murderer is an absolute Netflix classic. Just don’t blame us if you’re up all night watching it!
Apps like Zoom
With much of the world in lockdown, the Houseparty app has taken off, and while the claims it’s a scam have been debunked, we’re no experts so are looking at the next best alternative, Zoom. Use it on mobile or desktop, pour a glass of vino, and catch up with your amigos.
Elevate
If all that reality TV and pointless YouTube has got you feeling a little brain dead, sharpen up with Elevate app. Described as a “personal trainer for your brain”, the app offers games to improve vocabulary, maths and retention skills. It’s surprisingly addictive!
Headspace type apps
Staying healthy isn’t all puffing up a hill and eating our 5+ a day. Apps like Headspace teach you how to meditate – which is shown to help people reduce stress, focus better, and sleep well.
Nike Run Club
Are isolation workouts feeling a bit lonely? Nike Run Club can be your new running buddy. Apps like this one give real-time data during your workout – total time, distance and km splits, elevation as well as heart rate (when connected with an Apple Watch). Track your progress, compare runs, compete with friends (from afar), and get personalised coaching tips.
Apps for kids
Screen time for kids doesn’t have to mean Peppa Pig and mindless games. Toca Band app (for ages 2-9) lets kids explore music, using loveable characters in a band with different beats and rhythms. Jack and the Bean Stalk app (for ages 6+) is an interactive storytime app – help Jack cleans the cow, move characters around the scenes and count magic beans. Busy shapes app is a smart piece of software, designed to get kids brains thinking! Based on Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. that young children learn about their world by exploring and manipulating it. The games help develop an awareness of how objects relate to each other and how they can impact objects and their environment.
Tiny Home for You?
So apps aren’t your thing, but dreaming of your very own tiny home is?
Whether it be to house family members close, or gain some rental income, a Kiwi Tiny Home is the perfect solution. Our architecture design team can work with you to create a wonderful ‘tiny’ home and within your budget. Talk to us today – contact us here.
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