And it all begins

Today is Angel #4's first day of 5th grade. The rest of the kids start tomorrow (on the first day, they have the incoming 6th graders and Freshman go in alone to get used to the campus before the invasion of the older kids the following day). Things were a bit crazy at the elementary school. Because it's her first day in a new school, I needed to come in with her. My original intention was to walk there, but the weight of her school supplies coupled with her persuasive arguments convinced me to drive instead. Now, imagine the parents of 400 other kids doing the same thing - in a school that has about 24 visitor parking spaces. She'll definitely be walking to school in the future. She was happy to see that she got the teacher she wanted. She had nothing to base her teacher desires on than one kid she met at the beach who said he was the best 5th grade teacher, but, whatever makes her happy. After looking at the list of 5th grade teachers in the school, Angel #2 said she would have wanted Mrs. Lyons, just because her name is Kitty Lyons, and who wouldn't want a teacher with a name like that?

We did the school supply wrap up yesterda and had to go to Walmart, K-Mart AND Target before we found an Angel #4 approved backpack. Since last school year, we have two new stores, Target and Office Max, added to the mix, which is good. For the last couple years, the stores had run out of required school supplies about a week before school started, which made shopping a bit of a challenge. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be desperately diving for the last package of wide-lined, loose leaf paper when in the school supply aisle. A funny thing I noticed when in Walmart. They have school supplies and booze in the exact same aisle - I'm guessing so mothers can get #2 pencils while at the same time get some margarita mix for their own back-to-school celebration.

This morning, WE brought up the subject of sex education in schools. I have no clue why the topic popped into his head, but I decided to listen to hear his take on the whole matter. He informed me that (in his exact words) I think sex education is best taught in a classroom environment (yeah, he really used the word environment). I asked him why and he explained that it's much better to learn about that stuff in a classroom where you can laugh about it with your friends rather than be all serious and awkward talking about it with your parents. You can't argue with logic like that, now can you?