The Lockdown

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I want to write a story involving fictional characters during the COVID lockdown, similar to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books (if Jeff Kinney doesn't already think of it first). But I don't quite know how to go about it.

I am planning on the protagonist being a 15-year-old boy experiencing lockdown with 4 younger siblings, written in a diary format.

I don't know much about how parents homeschooled their kids, as I don't have kids myself. Can anyone give me some ideas or inspiration of how I can write a full 200+ page story about the lockdown? Especially how I can start it and end it. What was lockdown like for children and teenagers?
I could even add a part where the father (a key worker) brings the virus home and the whole family comes down with it, but nobody will get too ill or hospitalised of course, as it's not meant to be an emotional story. They'll all just get it mildly.

I'd recommend visiting an online forum for parents and reading about their experiences. There has to be a lot of lockdown related threads on parent support forums. It's a hard reality for a lot of people. It won't be from a teenage or child perspective, but it could give you some insights and varied perspectives.

RE: where to start...in the county where I teach (in the U.S.), the superintendent, with the school board's approval, had set aside one Friday in March to be dedicated to training teachers and other staff just in case the schools needed to close and shift to online teaching--something completely new to almost all of us.

On the eve before that student holiday, school authorities were notified that at least one teacher at a local school had been infected and fallen ill, something that wasn't common in our state at all. The superintendent decided to dismiss school two hours early as an extra precaution. Very late that night, I got notice on my cell phone that ALL school buildings and related facilities would be closed the next day and further updates would follow. It knocked me for a loop, since the only other circumstances under which we've had school/work canceled on such extremely short notice were snow days, and even then, administrative buildings are often open.

I can only speak to my own surprise since I have no kids of my own and the vast majority of my young students are non-verbal. A lot of us adults were not quite sure what to make of it. In the end, we shut down for several weeks before re-opening online in April. This month, we'll start "phasing in" students with special needs and those whose educations require special equipment--those learning a trade. At this point, there's no start date for the rest of the county's students, as they're waiting to see how things go. (Can anyone say "Guinea pig"?) The superintendent, understandably, doesn't want to reopen only to send everyone home again, and even those families who really want to send their kids back are still apprehensive.

Children have reacted differently to the online experience; some have felt their homes were being invaded, some were extremely distracted, and nearly all of them got at least a little stir crazy. Others have been more than happy to see their teachers and friends again--cabin fever or not. Some parents, in addition to the practical problems of work, caregiving, and assisting teachers, have found they don't have as much pull with their children as they thought or as their kids need, and it's hard for online education to work without parent buy-in. Neighborhood volunteers have offered tutoring and many schools are handing out prepared bag meals or dropping them off in some neighborhoods by bus. Our county, which is very diverse, has worked hard to avoid "punishing" anyone for not being able to adapt to extraordinary stressors, having only one computer for the whole family, not being savvy with the new software, apps, and websites, etc. It's been nice to see how well many people have worked together, and how forgiving most people have been. Some families, though, have just been dealing with so much that they've sort of dropped out. We keep trying to reach out to them anyway, including the extra efforts it's taking to enroll new students and host online back-to-school nights that show how we've (hopefully) balanced a virus-wise space with a pleasant environment.

Our head custodian was sick with the virus over the summer and really thought that each breath might be her last. Several of my co-workers have lost family elders, some of our students and their families have gotten sick, and my friend lost her 40-ish brother-in-law. In some families, it was actually the child/children who got sickest, and in others, entire families started to feel better before getting even sicker than before. Almost everyone I know personally has been careful not to endanger others and tried hard to stay out of harm's way, unlike the many morons you've likely seen on TV. Please know we're not all like that!