Summer ends with school bell’s ring at many homes across region

While some parents scanned the bins of discounted school supplies at a north Spokane Target store Monday afternoon, many more spent a relaxing day outdoors with their family to ease into the new school year.

The wild and long summer days end today for most students.

Classes begin today for Spokane Public Schools and the Mead School District and in Idaho in the Coeur d’Alene, Lakeland, Lake Pend Oreille and Post Falls school districts. Classes start Wednesday at Riverside and West Valley and Thursday in the Central Valley School District.

East Valley, Cheney and Deer Park school districts started classes last week.

Jill Smith has three children – ages 3, 6 and 13 – starting classes today in the Mead School District.

“The backpacks are packed and ready to go,” Smith said Monday afternoon. She was letting them spend some energy on the bouncy pads and giant inflatable slide in Riverfront Park.

The new school year is an adjustment for Smith’s home, as it is for many other households. Her 6-year-old daughter began crying when Smith left for work a week ago.

“The kids get a little more sensitive as the school year gets closer,” Smith said.

To ease into the schedule changes, Smith and her husband had been working on getting the children to bed earlier. And they try to keep the mood around their home upbeat and casual.

“It’s better to not stress about it,” she said.

For many working parents, the fall brings a schedule shift that starts a household dance of where to keep the kids after school – with a nanny, a sitter or a neighbor?

Sabrina Gunder’s son attends fifth grade in West Valley School District. She’s thankful there’s another day before classes begin Wednesday.

To take their mind off the school year, they all went to Pig Out in the Park Monday, as her family’s last blowout of summer vacation.

To start the year off right, her son, Quinn Gunder, who’s 10, wanted a henna tattoo of a bulldog on his shoulder, his big treat for the weekend. Henna tattoos are painted on with ink and last about a week before fading.

“It’s the closest thing to a real one he’s going to get,” Sabrina Gunder said.

Paul Caballero, owner of a henna tattoo business, said a lot of his clients from this weekend will start school with Harry Potter lightning bolts – smack on the forehead, just like the fictional wizard.

“That’s a real popular one,” Caballero said, “Especially on smaller kids.”

Most other tattoos went on ankles and shoulders, places that could be easily covered.

What fashions to wear during the first school days are a big deal to students like Laurina Smith’s 6-year-old daughter who attends Spokane’s Madison Elementary. The girl was already discussing what she’ll wear on her big first day in the first grade.

Smith told her daughter that there was plenty of time to worry about that.

“Today we just relax and let them have their day,” Smith said during lunch outside, at Franklin Park.

In years past, Smith, her husband and children, would pack up and go camping on Labor Day. This year, they camped earlier in the year so they could keep it low-key and low-stress before the first day of school.

A three-hour spree at Wal-Mart finished the bulk of her school-supply shopping in early August.

“Backpacks were packed two weeks ago,” Smith said. “Then I don’t have to think about it.”

At least until the alarm clock went off this morning.