NATIONAL NEWS
January 5, 2009
Off to School
The first daughters start a new school
Two new kids are settling in at Sidwell Friends School in the nation's capital. It probably won't take their new classmates very long to learn their names. After all, Malia Obama, 10, and Sasha Obama, 7, happen to be the children of the next President of the United States.
 |  CALLIE SHELL—EPA/OBAMA TRANSITION HANDOUT Michelle and Barack Obama help Malia and Sasha get ready for their first day at a new school. |
Malia and Sasha started classes at their new school the morning of January 5, when other Sidwell students returned from a holiday break. Malia attends fifth grade at the middle school campus in Washington, D.C. The elementary school, where Sasha is in second grade, is in nearby Bethesda, Maryland. Their mother, Michelle Obama, dropped each girl off at her first day of class.
The new First Family will move into the White House on January 20, when Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President. The Obamas are staying in a nice hotel until the January 20 inauguration, or formal induction into office.
When Bill Clinton was President, his daughter, Chelsea, attended Sidwell Friends School. The children of presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Richard M. Nixon also attended Sidwell. The Obama girls will see a few familiar faces at the school. Some grandchildren of Vice President-elect Joseph Biden are now students at Sidwell.
"The Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now," said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Obama, when announcing in late November that Malia and Sasha would attend Sidwell.
