Young Reporters assignment 7: June 11

In the May 28 issue of The Northern Light, we offered local kids the following newsroom assignment. 

Assignment 7: During the stay-at-home order, peoples’ lives have changed. Explain how your life has changed in positive and/or negative ways. Do you think some of these changes might be permanent? And once the stay-at home order is lifted, what are you looking forward to?

Here is the winning submissions from Assignment #7. Congratulations to our winner, who will receive a certificate and YMCA pass! 

Family bonding time during quarantine

By Kaatri Glanzer

Age 14

At the start of quarantine, my dad said that we would be spending more time together as a family than we probably ever have. That was entirely true. 

I have found that this extended period of stay-at-home time has brought opportunities to bond with my family. We have never had so much time to play board games and bake together and watch movies together! Before the whole quarantine thing, we did these kinds of things whenever we could find time in our schedule that wasn’t already filled with sports and school. 

Since we’re at home so much now, we have gotten games out such as Settlers of Catan and Imaginiff. We’ve been playing a lot of card games as well, including poker, rummy and blackjack. 

We have discovered new things about each other through baking as well. My mom found recipes on how to make bagels. We make a batch every week! There’s always a rack of cooling cookies or muffins on the counter. I never knew my mother was quite the baker. 

Beyond homemade treats, we have also found ways to stay fit and healthy as a family. My sisters and I do Just Dance every afternoon along with the P.E. assignments our teachers handout. Every couple of nights, we take walks around the neighborhood as a family and ride bikes and scooters. We get take-out dinners some nights and eat as a family, sometimes outside. 

We even have some of the weirdest conversations around the dinner table, like who can flare their nostrils or who has the stretchiest skin on their face. My dad can even move the muscles in his forehead! Other nights, we sleep out in a tent in the garage or have a campfire with s’mores.

Quarantine has brought many confusing emotions and changes, but it has also brought my family and I closer together in the best of ways!