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'Dear NPR': In Postcards From The Shutdown, Kids Show Us Life — And Learning
Milo Greer from Brooklyn, N.Y., drew himself and his friend because he "misses him so much."
/ Courtesy of Melissa Greer
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Courtesy of Melissa Greer
Milo Greer's postcard had us emoji-face crying, too.
A few weeks ago, we asked parents to help us out. Have your kids draw or sketch or write us a postcard, we said, and send it to NPR (digitally, of course).
And children from all over the country (and Mexico!) responded with drawings and dispatches from the home-school, online-class, mask-wearing, missing-my-friends world they've been living in for the past several months.
So check it out: Here are some of our favorites, along with the notes that the kids wrote on the back of their postcards. (Thanks to the grownups for helping out sometimes!) And you can see all of the other great postcards we received, too.
Oh, and one last thing: Parents and caregivers, we'd love to see more postcards from students about summertime, reopening, what's going on in the country right now or anything else they'd like to show us through their art. Keep them coming (details here about how to send us a postcard).
1. Grocery shopping is very different.
/ Courtesy of Melissa Smith
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Courtesy of Melissa Smith
Madhu, age 5, draws a picture of how her mom goes grocery shopping during the pandemic.
/ Courtesy of Melissa Smith
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Courtesy of Melissa Smith
"This is from my 5-year-old daughter, Madhu. We are from Columbus, Ohio. I'm a single parent without family in the area. When I go to the store, Madhu waits in the car while a friend watches her from the car next to us." — Melissa Smith
2. Feeling boxed in.
/ Courtesy of Jeanette Jasso
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Courtesy of Jeanette Jasso
Dalilah drew us a nice picture of her room.
/ Courtesy of Jeanette Jasso
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Courtesy of Jeanette Jasso
And on the back of her postcard, Dalilah showed us her mature sense of humor.
3. Missing the park.
/ Courtesy of Ananda Madhukar
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Courtesy of Ananda Madhukar
Aniket, in Freemont, Calif., showed us how his favorite park was closed because people were getting sick.
/ Courtesy of Ananda Madhukar
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Courtesy of Ananda Madhukar
Aniket explains the pandemic to us and how he misses the park.
4. Getting creative out of necessity.
/ Courtesy of Jamie Alm
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Courtesy of Jamie Alm
Anya, age 7, from Seattle, made a comic-style postcard and told us about "sweater ball."
/ Courtesy of Jamie Alm
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Courtesy of Jamie Alm
We wish we could come play it with you, Anya!
5. Appreciating nature.
/ Courtesy of Mehul and Seema
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Courtesy of Mehul and Seema
Nine-year-old Avish from Phoenix was hands-down our favorite landscape artist.
/ Courtesy of Mehul and Seema
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Courtesy of Mehul and Seema
Avish wrote to us that he "cannot wait for the pandemic to be over." Us, too, Avish. Us, too.
6. Too much screen time.
/ Courtesy of Melissa Capasso
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Courtesy of Melissa Capasso
Fourth-grader Lucia in Brooklyn, N.Y., told us she is dealing with too much screen time.
/ Courtesy of Melissa Capasso
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Courtesy of Melissa Capasso
Testimony from fourth-grader Lucia in Brooklyn.
7. Keeping up with other interests.
/ Courtesy of Jun Wang
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Courtesy of Jun Wang
Clair, 9, told us she practices ballet in her room during the pandemic.
/ Courtesy of Jun Wang
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Courtesy of Jun Wang
Nine-year-old Clair of Needham, Mass., is focusing on dance while in lockdown.
8. Staying connected virtually.
/ Courtesy of Shannon Shah
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Courtesy of Shannon Shah
A postcard from Ishir, age 7, of West Windsor, N.J.
/ Courtesy of Shannon Shah
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Courtesy of Shannon Shah
Ishir tells us how he plays virtual Scrabble with his Nani.
9. Making time for meditation.
/ Courtesy of Claudia Obata
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Courtesy of Claudia Obata
Eight-year-old Daniel from Brooklyn, N.Y., shows us how mindfulness activities help him during lockdown.
/ Courtesy of Claudia Obata
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Courtesy of Claudia Obata
Thanks for the reminder, Daniel!
10. Social-distancing challenges.
/ Courtesy of Jonathan Alwais
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Courtesy of Jonathan Alwais
Alissa, a 6-year-old from Brooklyn, drew a picture of her and her grandmother socially distancing.
/ Courtesy of Jonathan Alwais
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Courtesy of Jonathan Alwais
"The picture is her visiting her grandma under the new social distancing guidelines. Alissa plays in the yard and her grandma watches from the house," says Jonathan Alwais.
11. Helping out parents.
/ Courtesy of Lorena Aguirre Espinosa
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Courtesy of Lorena Aguirre Espinosa
Five-year-old Belén Chávez Aguirre from Querétaro, Mexico, drew an impressive looking robot.
/ Courtesy of Lorena Aguirre Espinosa
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Courtesy of Lorena Aguirre Espinosa
Belén (in her mom's handwriting, it seems) explained that her robot was to help her mom out with multitasking.
12. Drawing comics to keep laughing through it all.
/ Courtesy of Erin Mather
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Courtesy of Erin Mather
"Morning," by 11-year-old Kyra of Springfield, Va., depicts her having to get ready for virtual school.
/ Courtesy of Erin Mather
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Courtesy of Erin Mather
"Quarantine Life" by Springfield, Va., cartoonist Kyra.
Below are the rest of the submissions we received, in no special order, so you can keep smiling:
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
Steve Drummond heads up two teams of journalists at NPR. NPR Ed is a nine-member team that launched in March 2014, providing deeper coverage of learning and education and extending it to audiences across digital platforms. Code Switch is an eight-person team that covers race and identity across the network, and in an award-winning weekly podcast.
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