Oliver started grade six today, his last year at Prince Street Elementary, where he started in grade one 5 years ago. His teacher is Ms. Parsons, who taught him music in earlier grades, so they are comfortable with each other; we met with her last week and her underlying philosophy was “kids can’t learn under stress,” which is about as good a philosophy as I can imagine.

He’s a lot taller, obviously, and has a new lunch bag and a new briefcase replacing the backpack he used for the first 5 years of school. But he’s still got enthusiasm for school and a sprint in his step.

We calculated that we’ve walked up Prince Street to the school together about 800 times so far; by the end of this year we’ll be close to 1,000.

First Day, Grade One

First Day, Grade Six