大象传媒

Learning something new is a great way to combat boredom.

From the art of paper folding to fancy football footwork, plenty of activities can keep your brain working in a way that's fun and healthy - and you don't even need to leave the house.

Don鈥檛 know where to start? Well, good news! With 大象传媒 Bitesize, learning is easier than ever before. Here are five suggested things to learn indoors.

A quick fix of origami

Nine origami cranes of rainbow coloures in a circle.
Image caption,
A peaceful hobby, origami can improve mindfulness - or should that be mind-FOLD-ness?

Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding. Origami was used for ceremonial purposes as early as 6th-Century in Japan, and later became a recreational pastime. Not only is it useful for sprucing up a dinner event with a decorative placeholder, it has many other benefits.

For example, it has been known to improve hand-to-eye coordination and spatial awareness in children. Students with ADHD might find that it鈥檚 a good way to busy the hands and improve concentration whilst learning or listening to a podcast. Origami can be a fun way to improve your geometry skills too!

It doesn鈥檛 even have to be paper; cardboard, napkins and food bags can all be folded into a pretty creation. If you鈥檝e been to a particularly fancy hotel, you might have seen towels folded into swans.

The traditional paper crane takes 15-17 steps depending on complexity. Here's a five-step origami creation to get you started:

Nine origami cranes of rainbow coloures in a circle.
Image caption,
A peaceful hobby, origami can improve mindfulness - or should that be mind-FOLD-ness?
Image gallerySkip image gallerySlide 1 of 7, A yellow origami fox face in a pair of hands., A beginner origami creation Make an adorable origami fox face in 5 easy steps.

Pass the afternoon with scoubidous

Four scoubidou braids of varying colours.
Image caption,
They may look yummy, but these should not be eaten!

Scoubidou, where are you? A playground trend that took the noughties by storm, this knotting art has pretty much fallen out of fashion today.

Scoubidou was actually popularised in the 1950s, named after the 1958 song 鈥淪coubidou鈥 by Peggy Lee, its name a loose French translation of the American scat line 鈥淪hoo Bidoo Wa鈥. Scoubidou remained a popular craft in Europe but swept the UK around 2004.

A number of stitches can be learned to create bracelets, keyring charms, animals, objects and accessories which you can give away as presents. Objects are generally a lot harder than a square stitch (shown above), so why not video chat your friends and learn together? You'll never be short of present ideas again.

To avoid plastic waste, scoubie tubes can be easily swapped out with thread, string and cords of similar thickness - anything you have lying around the house. It鈥檚 like knitting without needles!

Juggle the days away

A woman in a park juggling.
Image caption,
When it comes to entertaining, Sabrina never drops the ball.

Another great one for coordination, juggling never fails to impress. The earliest depiction of juggling is thought to be circa 1780, though a painting of female dancers throwing balls to each other discovered in an Egyptian tomb suggests that juggling might be even more ancient.

According to University of Oxford, learning and maintaining a new skill such as juggling can improve connections in the brain and keep it healthy. Musicians may also benefit from juggling, as even a basic cascade requires good timing.

Try juggling 10-15 minutes a day for a week and see how many patterns you can master. Don't forget to warm up your arms, shoulders and neck beforehand as it鈥檚 also a great upper body workout.

After you improve your mind by juggling objects, there's a good chance juggling revision will be a breeze.

Keep it up with keepy uppys

A woman in football kit doing a keepy uppy.
Image caption,
For an extra challenge, try reciting a periodic element with every keepy uppy

Also known as kick ups, keepy uppys are a basic football skill but are integral to learning ball control and conditioning nifty footwork. Even if you鈥檙e not a football fan, keepy uppys are a fantastic full-body and cardiovascular exercise to do everyday without needing too much space (but make sure you're not near anything breakable, or go in the garden if you can).

Off the pitch, the kick up routine has become an art in itself, with kickers performing tricks and flips to show off their mastery of the skill.

The NHS recommends you aim to do 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise (during which you should still be able to talk, but not sing) a week, roughly between 20-30 minutes a day. 28 days is how long it takes to form a habit, and keepy uppys every day would be a healthy habit indeed.

English football freestyler Dan Magness holds the record for the longest keepy uppy session (26 hours!) using his arms, legs, shoulders and head, and has remained unbeaten since 2010. He also smashed the record for longest distance travelling whilst doing keepy uppys on a mammoth 10-day journey from London to Manchester. Keep it up, Dan!

A longer project - learn a new language

A girl writing
Image caption,
鈥淓s tut mir leid, Frau Smith, ich habe mein Homework vergessen.鈥 鈥淲hat?鈥

Learning a language is useful for a number of things, including expanding your mind. It's also fantastic for maintaining your brain's health.

If you don鈥檛 fancy an MFL, what about BSL? Learning British Sign Language as a second language will not only make you bilingual, but bimodal too - the use of hand gestures can improve your visual perception skills as well as other spatial abilities such as mental rotation.

You're never "too old" to start learning a new language, or any new skill for that matter. Practice is more important than proficiency, and consistent practice means that the benefits are maintained. Long-term health benefits of language learning include improving memory and helping fight off dementia.

Why not start now with Bitesize? We can help out with French, Spanish, German, Welsh, Irish and Mandarin. Many online resources offer ancient languages to learn free too!

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