Last month, American artist Natalie Long of LONG Creations shot to international fame when a free online resource she designed, the COVID-19 Time Capsule, went viral. Originally shared on Facebook, the pdf workbook, designed to help children record and contextualize their experience under the global pandemic, became so popular that Long’s personal website was unable to handle the traffic. In a sweet act of friendship to Long, a long-time collaborator, Canadian website consultancy firm Let’s Embark agreed to host the document, where you can find it today.
Now, Long has released a few supplemental downloads, including a special version for adults and pregnant moms. There are also some bonus pages that fit into the original version, designed for students, recent graduates, new parents, and to commemorate birthdays and Mother’s Day. The pdf has also been translated into French and Spanish and includes a metric version and an alternative cover.
The ‘adult’ version still looks and feels pretty childlike (I stand … inches tall!), but the design is sound, including thought-provoking prompts like “what I have learned the most from this experience” and spaces for you to fill out the average price of various items, or what TV shows are trending, which prompt you to think about the kinds of life details that feel mundane now, but can be truly fascinating in the future. Plus, there are plenty of spaces to color in and decorate, handy for those of you who are already tapped into the soothing benefits of adult coloring.
Here in the beijingkids editorial room, we hunt down every fact, check every source, color every worksheet…
It may feel a bit late in the game for those of us in China to start the project, as we’ve already been dealing with COVID-19 fallout for 12+ weeks and are now seemingly past the worst of it, but we are living through a very unusual time in history, so we think any project that helps us to commemorate and contextualize it is worth doing.
Click the following links to check out the full package, including all different versions and bonus pages: https://letsembark.ca/time-capsule.
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Photos: Anna Pellegrin Hartley, Mina Yan
