The first day of school. Whew! I like my children's freedom, but it'll be nice to get on some sort of schedule again. Of course, things get "tight" with all the after-school activities and my kids are out of practice with respect to "time management" (stupid phrase), but we'll adjust . . . with a lot of nagging.
This is the first time in years that my school district has started school after Labor Day. It was fairly normal when I was a kid, but then that barrier got broken and school districts started pushing the start up further and further. My district was starting school two weeks before Labor Day, and then scattering days off throughout the school year. Not anymore. The legislature mandated that public schools not start before Labor Day. I think it's to help tourism (one of Michigan's biggest industries). It shouldn't have been necessary, but school districts were getting more and more grasping of the summertime, so the legislature thought they should step in. I could go either way, but I liked the extended summer.
I have four children in the Catholic parochial school. This was supposed to be the year that I'd have five: kindergarten through eighth grade. But the school fell on hard times and doesn't have an eighth grade this year. I know it sounds stupidly sentimental, but I was looking forward to seeing five kids get out of the same van. I had been thinking about it ever since Meg (the kindergartner) was born. Oh well. It's a little thing. A sad thing, yes, but a little thing overall.
