The year of Coronavirus

The kids' teachers have been telling them to write a journal to write what happened during this time of "living through history" with this outbreak of coronavirus.

The end of February was when we started to hear about coronavirus showing up here and things started to get a little crazy. I was worried when Mom and Dad left for Hawaii since coronavirus was starting to pop up places.

We first heard of an outbreak at a nursing home in Kirkland and so Washington became the first official outbreak state! We later found out it had been circulating a bit earlier than that so perhaps Washington wasn't the true first outbreak site.

The first week of March, we heard that the state universities were closing down for the rest of the year. After that, things started to go crazy.

People decided to hoard toilet paper, bottled water, and all cleaning/sanitizing supplies. The stores were empty of these things. Then, they started to hoard rice, beans, and pastas.

On March 6th, we heard that a few west side school districts decided to shut down schools for 6 weeks. That was pretty shocking as we had never heard of that happening before!

The news started releasing guidelines on social distancing and to try to stay 6 feet away from all people.

Elizabeth finished her 2nd trimester of school on March 11th and had an early release. She and I went to her conference that afternoon. We did not know that March 11th would be her last day of being at school for the whole year!

I went to an all day training on March 12th at the Best Western conference room here in town while Grandma Pam babysat Elizabeth. 100 people sat shoulder to shoulder and we were a bit nervous wondering how this was possible or allowed? At every cough, people jumped and got nervous.

That night, the parents decided to try to get home from Hawaii early due to the outbreak and the fact they were both sick and coming down with pneumonia due to their colds. After Nathan had tennis lessons that night (his last tennis lesson), he and I drove the parents car to the airport to drop it off for them since they were coming home the next day during the snowstorm. Grandma Pam was at home with Elizabeth. Jeremy met us at the airport on the way home from work and just drove us home.

On March 13th, I went to work while Grandma Pam babysat. It was a Friday the 13th with tons of snow predicted.   We were hearing rumors of schools being shut down. I checked out books that would be helpful with homeschooling in case we were out of school for 6 weeks. Grandma Pam brought Elizabeth and dropped her off at school with me so she could head home due to SNOW.
It was just freezing that day! That afternoon, the governor announced he was closing all Washington schools for 6 weeks. Elizabeth and I checked out books. Of course, I had a gut feeling that we would be leaving for the whole year and not 6 weeks. I think most people did. When we got home, we told Nathan that school was cancelled for 6 weeks.

My parents flew in from Hawaii late that night while it was snowing. My Dad said it was a rough drive home in the snow and considering the fact they were both super sick. They did get tested for coronavirus and they did not have it.

It snowed a lot that Friday night. Elizabeth had fun playing in the snow the next day. Then, she went to Charlotte's 10th birthday party on the 14th. That was our last social activity!!

The next week, I had to work 1 day to get books and supplies to all the parents who wanted them. Parents would roll up in their cars and we would deliver things to them wearing gloves. Jeremy took the day off to watch the kids.

After that, the kids and I basically stayed home all the day. We left to pick up supplies at school such as Elizabeth's chromebook on the 20th and various textbooks and science labs for Nathan.  The only other place we went weekly was to Walmart but we only just did the pickup. We never left the car.

As I type this (on April 24th) the kids and I have still been no other places other than our car at Walmart and to their schools to do outside pick up stuff.

Jeremy is obviously an essential worker so he goes to work and back. We designated him the grocery shopper since he's out in the world anyway. Walmart pickup is out of a LOT of stuff so he makes another weekly trip for me where he actually goes inside the store wearing a mask to try to find things that I couldn't get at pickup.

My weekly work is now transferring books from one library system to another. We are changing library systems at the beginning of next school year so the entire catalog has to be transferred. This can be done at home so I try to do this while homeschooling.

Jeremy's work has changed a bit. They now take their temperatures when they get to work. They are required to sit 6 feet apart at briefing. They are now asked to take as many calls as possible by phone and not make personal contact if at all possible. When they do get out of their cars, they are required to put on a mask, gloves and goggles.

So with no school, it was on to try to homeschool! The first few weeks, we didn't have much. I bought the kids some workbooks of the different subjects and we worked in those. I read them history and science and we tried to do some science experiments. I had them do the online math programs their school had. The libraries closed down shortly after school closed so we checked out as many books as we could. Once the kids ran out of reading those books, we tried to check out some online books. The kids don't like online books as much.

After a few weeks, the teachers at school began sending home real assignments thank goodness! I felt like I was really failing the kids since I didn't really know what I was doing and was just trying to make sure they did something!

Eventually, school basically went to an online version of school. The teachers are required to assign things and the kids are supposed to complete them. We just got work this week  that for middle and high school students they have to complete their assignments because they will actually get getting grades. Originally, they said it might just be pass/fail.

The kids usually work on schoolwork for about 4 hours a day. They often have Zoom meetings to attend to with their teachers. They have online lessons their teachers have posted that they watch. For Nathan's P.E class, they fill out a log of what physical activity they've done during the week. It's hard to practice his cello with the group so that doesn't work well!

As of today, April 24th, we do not believe any of our immediate family has had coronavirus. They are finding that some people apparently have it without symptoms! We would like to be in this group, but knowing our luck, that will not be the case.

Time to go do more homeschooling!