What do newspapers, “iSomethings,” and the health inspector have in common?

All three helped to make my kids’ trek back to school something to talk about.

Here’s a recap.

In our divorced household, the kids are a week with mom and a week with dad.

This year, the first week of school fell on dad’s week, (insert frown-y face here) and I had to hear about their day via the routine 8 p.m. “good night” phone call.

It started out something like this with the middle child.

Me: “How was your day?”

Her: “It was awesome!” As a side note, “awesome” put the first day of school on the same level as a trip to Chucky Cheese.

Her: “Yep. I’m getting to use an iPhone. No, wait. An iPod. You know an iSomething.”

So, iPad equals awesome. Got it.

As soon as the phone switched to the next girl, the oldest proceeded to tell me about the four new students, the three pop quizzes, the 24 people in her Algebra I class and just how much she’s going to love the eighth grade – all without taking a breath.

When I asked about her homework, she told me of an assignment where they had to describe a technology-related thing they’d like to learn. She said she wanted to learn how a newspaper is made, and it made me feel good to know that she thought about me as some point during the day – if at least by proxy of my professional capacity.

But that littlest one, she cracked me up the most with her tale of meeting the health inspector.

When she told me, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why they would be grading the lunchroom on the first day of school; however, she quickly informed me that this health inspector was “real helpful to the little kids” after a long day in the classroom.

“He was real nice,” she said. “He helped make sure they got on the right bus.”

Bus?

“The health inspector?” I asked.

“Yeah. He was makin’ sure all the kids stayed healthy by not getting runned over by the school bus and that they didn’t get on the wrong school bus and get dropped off at the wrong house,” she said, and I guess, in her third grade logic it made sense. I laughed, and we said our good-byes until the next day, when I’ll call again and get the daily download. I can’t wait to hear what else happened.

You know, with kids, there’s always something to talk about, and it doesn’t matter if it’s the first day of school or just a plain ol’ Tuesday. Be sure you take the time to listen. You never know what you might learn.