head games

Tomorrow is the Ubergoober's first day of school. His first day of *special* school in his *special* class.

Last night we went to the school for an open house. This to me is the most brilliant idea in the whole world. Open the school up for an evening shortly before the first day of school and allow parents and students to come in, find their classrooms and desks and talk with the teacher to find out if there is anything special the kids might need on the first day, thus avoiding all the crap at the end the first day of school when all of a sudden you learn your child needed to bring a ferret or something and he was the only one who didn't and now he's going to fail second grade and it's all your fault because you're the mommy and you should damn well know that rodents are necessary on the first day.

Or something like that.

So we came, we saw, we filled up his desk with school supplies.

And he's feeling a little better about going to a new school. He knows some of the kids in his class from summer school and I know some of the parents and, in general, I think we all feel better.

So tonight we have some homework to do, a "getting to know you" exercise that his teacher likes to do with the kids so she can understand their personalities a little better.

We also have to clean a skull.

This summer when Goober and Nature Boy were discing the cornfield, they came across a raccoon skeleton, presumably from last year when we left a fruit and poison cocktail for the little buggers so they would leave our food crops alone. Did you know those little bastards can pick, peel and eat and entire cob of corn in the dark? Also, if the cob isn't quite ripe, they'll pick it, peel it, take a bit and then leave it on the ground in disgust. It's true and it's rather disgusting to go out in the morning to pick corn and see that all the ripe corn is gone and the ground is littered with perfectly clean cobs and the unripe corn is lying next to it with a bite or two taken out. Usually next to a nice pile of raccoon poop.

Anyway, raccoon skeleton. Goober latched on to the skull and made it his pet. It doesn't have a name yet, but I'm suggesting Yorick. I think it's the only choice when you have a skull for a companion. So he wanted to take it to school for show and tell, which actually fits in well with the second grade science curriculum which starts with a paleontology and fossils unit. But if one takes a skull to school it must be safe for all students to touch and not just the hick student whose mother and father have given up trying to keep a level of safe sanitation in their home and yard.

My first instinct was to use bleach, but I was wrong. Apparently, hydrogen peroxide is the cleanser of choice for animal skeletons. You soak the skull in peroxide then use a soft brush to get in the nooks and crannies. At least this is the prescribed treatment as related by Nature Boy, who knows these things.

So we're starting off the year by bringing an animal skull to class along with the assigned homework. I'm going to think of it as extra credit.