From The Chief Editor's Desk...

As August grew to a close, my kids (as do most kids) got to go back to school.

We had the obligatory “Meet the Teacher” night at their school. Walking up to the school, my son commented about how much he missed his school. My daughter responded with a resounding “Me, too!” comment.

Ryan, 11 years old, is in fifth grade, and will be going to middle school next year. Lexi, 8 years old, is in second grade. To be honest, I'm not looking forward to the “drama” of them NOT going to the same school together. They are inseparable, and each other's best friends. This, conceivably, will be the last year that they both attend the same school together.

In the school district where my kids go to school, the school year started on August 19. They typically go to school four days a week, except for the first two weeks, when they go the more traditional five days a week. Our school district implemented the four-days-a-week school week starting last year. While the vast majority of school districts around us are still using the traditional five-days-a-week school schedule. Normally, the kids go to school Tuesday through Friday, and have a three-day weekend just about every week. Every once in a while, they'll have to go to school on Mondays for a variety of reasons, but for the most part, it's the Tuesday through Friday school week.

The kids LOVE it! I love it, as a parent who's retired. But, there was considerable “push back” from other parents in the district when it was first floated out there. Most of the parents work at least five days a week, and they were concerned about what they would do with their children while they were at work, but the kids were not in school. Granted, their concerns are valid. But with me being retired, it was never an issue for us.

With the kids only going to school four days a week, instead of the typical five days a week, it affords us significantly more family time. Cub Scouts is on Mondays, when school is typically not in session. Before, it was a race to see if we could get dinner done in time to go to the Cub Scout meetings. Now, by not going to schools on most Mondays, it allows us to actually take a more leisurely approach to dinner before the Cub Scout meetings. It also allows us to take short trips over those three-day weekends. And, because the kids are typically off from school on Mondays, that's when we've scheduled Ryan's appointments with his speech and language pathologist. That way, we don't have to pull him out of school for those weekly visits.

When our school district implemented the four-days-a-week school schedule last year, they pretty much did it unilaterally, after having open comments and discussion with the community about the proposed change. Now, (as if they didn't have anything else to meddle in), the Missouri legislature passed a measure that requires any other school districts in the state to put the measure up to a vote by the voters before implementing the schedule change. For what it's worth, our school district was one of the first (if not THE first) in the state to implement the change.

My kids get the same amount of instruction as the students going to school under the five-days-a-week model. The only difference is that they get home a little later (about one hour) than they normally did under the previous five day school schedule.

Not only do our kids love the four-days-a-week school week, but “we” (mom and dad) love it, too. We love the extra family time the change affords us. We love that we don't have to run that race every Monday to see if we can squeeze dinner in before the Cub Scout meetings. We love that Ryan can go to his weekly meetings with his speech and language pathologist without having to pull him out of school (which also means pulling his sister out of school at the same time). We love that we can take little trips with the kids. Again, we LOVE the increased amounts of family time.

This month's cover is from an image by Pixabay artist Temel. Meemaw edited the image, placing Tux into the image to go with our “theme” of “Back To School.”

Until next month, I bid you peace, happiness, serenity, prosperity, and continued good health. Please be cautious out there … COVID is resurging in many areas around the globe. Even though it isn't as serious as the first and second waves of the disease, let's do all we can to keep EVERYONE with us for as long as possible.