Metro Nashville Public Schools started back today as did Williamson County. Rutherford & Sumner counties had “first full day” for students today after having registration days last week. Cheatham started last week and Wilson started at the beginning of the month. Most of the private schools in the area either headed back to school last week or will begin this week.

Here’s a round-up of what Middle Tennessee parents and others are saying about the start of a new school year.

Sista Smiff:

We knew who #2 was going to have this year so that was not a surprise. It was kinda a bummer. Like opening your presents Christmas Eve in a way. That’s part of the excitement of the first day of school. The Teens both had a hard time going to sleep last night. Still get excited before the first day. I used to get like that. I still get excited for them. Crazy huh? Even with a Sophomore in high school and 8th grader, I’m still anxious to hear what teachers they got.

Jeff of Atwood Zoo has a sweet little “Night Before” poem.

Ivy has a unique take on the typical brown bag lunch:

Most of what I include in my daughter’s Bento is leftover food from dinner, remade into a pretty form. The most time consuming part is cutting up fruit and veggies into pretty shapes. Some things can be cut for the week ahead, like peppers and carrots.

Elizabeth faces childcare challenges that many working parents are also scrambling to provide for their children:

My MIL stayed with the kids the first week he worked, but, she’s in her 80s and lives out of town, so, we didn’t want her to have to do it for two weeks in a row.

I need to go to work because I was just gone for vacation, and, like I’ve said before, my employer kind of likes it when I’m, you know, there.

Two of us have first time second graders & posts complete with pictures of our precious spawn wearing the new SSA approved clothing for Metro Nashville Public Schools. From Tennessee Mom, who had bus driver issues:

The bus was supposed to be there at 7.22am. That time came and went. 7.30am, no bus. 7.40am no bus. So we start to walk back home so that DH could take her to school on his way to work. Just as we get to our house the bus arrived and picked her up. It was a new bus driver who looked all stressed out. She was late to school on her first day, but she didn’t know and she had a great time, and she said she loved it.

And my JBelle made it to school just fine though we had a wardrobe malfunction this morning:

We actually had an unpleasant surprise this morning when she started getting dressed. The shorts she went to put on are too big. I’m a bit baffled by this.

Lesley shares a tidbit about the new SSA requirement:

But I’ve wondered what parents really think about it. And kids, too for that matter…I got some answers to my query on this evening’s news where a reporter was at Hume-Fogg Magnet School and found a particularly surly boy who said (very deadpan) “It was already bad enough before, but at least I could be comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt. But now, I just wanna die.”

Holly speaks about the beginning of school from the teacher’s perspective:

I watched “Freedom Writers” to pump myself up before the school year started. I must say that I’ve gotten some of the exact same type of attitude from my students, though I don’t attribute that to race–it’s just teenagers for you, black or white or otherwise. The difference between the situation now and when I was growing up, though, is that I cannot even imagine saying some of the things to a teacher that some of my students have said to me already. It would not have been tolerated. You usually had one or two kids per class who were always testing the limits and always getting sent to the office.

Big Orange Michael found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time but could still reminisce about his back to school preparations:

I was in Wal-Mart last week and made the mistake of getting in the general vicinity of school supplies. People were swarming all over them, lists in hand. I recall those vital decisions you had to make when it came to school supplies–which Trapper Keeper would I get? Which folders did I want? What kind of backpack? What color should the backpack be? And, of course, the greatest question of all–which lunchbox should I get? This was a vital decision because this would be something you carried with you all year long. So, getting the right lunch box wasn’t something you could just do on impulse.

There are several parents out there we haven’t heard from yet. If you post about the new school year, let us know in the comments!