With the school year getting underway in Tyler and Longview, parents might be trying to think of unique ways to send the kids off on the new journey with something they'll remember. Some Texas parents have stumbled upon a pretty cool idea, and you can do this after the kids go to bed and surprise them in the morning.

Parents in The Colony, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, made the news early this week for the efforts to work on a neighborhood-wide art project after the kids went to bed.  NBC 5 said it's almost like Christmas morning, since the big surprise is waiting once the kids wake up.

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The parents break out buckets and buckets of sidewalk chalk and write inspirational messages on the sidewalks through the neighborhood all night long, and the messages lead all the way up to the school.  It can be something as simple as "Good Luck Mason," or it can be an elaborate chalk picture of books and a backpack and an iPad. Of course, it all depends on the parent's artistic ability.  Stick figures of 4th graders might suffice for some of us.  The point is, the messages and pictures are supposed to pump the kids up and let them know they're loved.

Cool idea, right?  Provided that you've got enough energy and street light to practice your art skills late at night.

As parents, we lose sight of the kids as soon as they walk through the doors of the school building and we have to hope that they're staying positive and having good attitudes in there all day.  Leaving those sidewalk messages helps us know we've done something small to give them a boost on the way in -- something small to help that good day happen. By the way, it doesn't just have to be for the first day of school. This would be great for birthdays, football games or just a random positive message on a Wednesday.

Sidewalk messages or not, we hope it's a great year.  For kids, AND parents.  Good luck!

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