Dispatches from the Home Front

Togetherness has a whole new meaning now with people sheltering at home during the pandemic. We sent out a call for dispatches from the home front. Here is the photo essay one typical American family sent back about life during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

For Kennya Jarvis, a mother of three, every day has become teacher appreciation day. She has "a new perspective on how truly hard working our teachers are," she said. "When I heard about schools in California being shut down because of  COVID-19, I never thought we would be impacted because we live in such a small town. Within a week, we found out that the schools would indeed shut down .... It was just this past week that we found out school would be cancelled for the remainder of the school year.

When Kennya and her husband told their children they would have to stay home from school, both of their children who are in school initially reacted with sadness and frustration.

Kennya quickly kicked in with a daily schedule to keep them busy. They continued to do school on-line, but awards ceremonies, kindergarten graduation and other activities were cancelled. 

“This virus has affected everyone in every possible way,” Kennya said. “This time will pass and the kids will lose the memories of the last 2.5 months of school. But I hope with what we are doing at home, they will remember all the fun and activities we did.”

Daily chores, crafts, exercise and activities. 

Doing chores earns Monopoly money with which the children can shop at the home store. 

Planting donut seeds... 

Which amazingly grew.

Dad trying to exercise at home. 

An Easter egg hunt in the back yard with just the family. 

More COVID-19 photos