The week before school starts is a mixed bag for kids and parents. There is back to school shopping for supplies and clothes. Trips to the grocery store begin to include filling up more of the cart with lunch box staples. Conversations turn from vacations to bus stops; from summer camps to classrooms; from free time to homework time.

Even newspapers gear up for a new school year. By the time The View is in the hands of readers, Howard County Public School students, parents and teachers will have just two days before the sound of the bell ushers in the first day of the 2008-09 school year, Aug. 25.

On that day a different flurry of activities start. Parents of young children take pictures; kids pile into school and meet up with friends; teachers dispense the rules of the road. The preceding week melds into the memories of the 10-week summer vacation.

Before the memories totally recede we at The View decided to go around the community to document some of what happened this last week. Here's what we found.

The staff of Dunloggin Middle School hopped on a school bus Aug. 18 to visit some of the Ellicott City neighborhoods in which students who attend Dunloggin live. Assistant Principal Lori Willoughby said it was a great way for the staff to develop relationships and spend a fun afternoon with the Dunloggin community.

St. John's Lane Elementary School staff members had the same idea. Principal Debbie Jagoda took her staff to Cypressmede Park, in Ellicott City, Aug. 18 for a meet and greet with the community served by St. John's Lane. The kids and staff played a modified version of Bingo, replacing numbers in each square with answers to questions and then finding teachers who marked a square with the same answers.

"It's a way to get students and staff excited about the upcoming school year," said Carol Eassa, one of four kindergarten teachers at St. John's Lane Elementary.

We caught some high-schoolers checking out their high school schedules. High school students know their class selections the end of the previous year but finding out the all-important exact class time and teacher comes with the schedule delivered by mail the week before school.

On an Aug. 19 stop at Bean Hollow, a coffee shop on Main Street in Ellicott City, we found two middle school students with their mom relaxing after a bike ride through Patapsco State Park.

Out in the western part of Howard County youngsters soaked in the joys of summer vacation: sleep overs, swimming, bowling and camps.

So there you have it.

A small sampling of how families and school staffs wound up the summer.

-- Christie Dumler

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