by Carter Bannwarth and Madeline Bannwarth

Hi guys! This is the Bannwarth Kids just wanting to give a little update about how the youths are doing in quarantine. We have Carter, who is a junior, and Madeline, who is a sophomore, talking to you all about how our lives are affected by quarantine and how we are making the most of this weird time!

So, online high school (or Zoom high school as many of our friends affectionately call it) is upon us and it is a bit strange. Now I, Carter, have had a lot of experience with online school, so it is a bit more normal for me, albeit online public school is a bit more disorganized than “traditional” online school. Lots of online quizzes and graphic organizers, with a few technical difficulties sprinkled in here and there. I will say, there have been some new/interesting things to come from this new medium. Choir has been kind of cool, as we’ve been doing little optional performances here and there and working on things that we wouldn’t have as much, like sight-reading. Other activities that we are both in are a bit in the off-season period, so club officers and captains positions are up for grabs, with those things carrying on as they usually do. Madeline is very active in dance, which has been a bit difficult, but lots of zoom practices have been happening, which she seems to be enjoying quite a bit. She also has learned to enjoy her online classes, due to the fact that she can get her work done each day in about 2 hours, as opposed to being at school for 7 hours on a normal day.

Now onto the fun stuff. We have both been taking some really cool masterclasses that we would’ve never had the time for or never had offered to us if this hadn’t happened. It’s a really cool thing to see all of the weird and fun opportunities that have arisen from this. I, Carter again, have taken a one – on – one monologue coaching class, a few dance classes, and even had a few voice lessons, which all went relatively smoothly! Some of the other things that have been keeping us busy are painting, which Madeline is CRUSHING, lots of video games, which Carter likes to think he is CRUSHING, and family game/movie nights. We’ve watched a movie almost every night with some of the highlights being: Zombies, My Girl, and dad’s endless supply of Disney dog movies…The Ugly Dachshund, anyone?:)…Madeline has also been playing her ukulele quite a bit and also taking voice lessons. We have had a ton of extra family time that we never would’ve had if not for this pandemic, which I think is a really cool positive, especially with college being pretty close for both of us. We, as a family, have been trying to take everything as a positive and live a bit more in the moment.

Even though things are a little bit “off” right now, don’t worry. The kids are alright 🙂