Yesterday my mom brought me an envelope full of old schoolwork from my, ahem, younger days. It dates from kindergarten (ages 4-5 for me) up until 6th grade (ages 10-11). Here are some snapshots.
This reads (my mom’s handwriting in the blanks, shown in teal color):
“My name is Christina. Sometimes my friends call me Chris. I’m 5 years old and 43 1/2 inches tall [translation: 3 1/2 feet]. I have green eyes, and my hair is brown. Some of my friends are Kerrie, Mikey, and Kurt. I have a pet fish. My hobby is ______ [Apparently, I didn’t have any hobbies when I was 5]. I can do some special things: I can read, and play hopscotch. I like to draw pictures and do math. I have 2 brothers and 1 sisters. But the most important part of me is not what you see, but what is inside of me. I like to think about Mom. I like to laugh about Garfield. Someday I might like to be a teacher. Sometimes I am sad because ______ [I must not have ever felt sad as a child, ha]. Sometimes I am happy because my dad takes me swimming. My wish is for a real dog.”
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My kindergarten teacher made these for every student on their birthday. Every kid in the class did a page that said “I like Christina because…” and filled in the blank. This is my favorite page, from some girl named Nichole. It says, “I like Christina because she is a good listener and a good cleaner upper.” Ah, at age 4, such mature qualities :).
This is a book I did in 2nd grade (age 6) of my family. Here is my favorite page of this—a drawing of my youngest brother Andrew. It says (note the exquisite spelling here): “This is my baby boruther.”
I am guessing this is supposed to be like a message in a bottle of some sorts, age 7. Text:
“My name is Christina. I am in the third grade. I go to H------- School. I do not play sports that much [Note the picture on the cover of the previous book is me holding a soccer ball. HAHA]. I have brown hair and green eyes. My hobbies are collecting rocks, shells, and stamps. I also like to draw, read, and write. I like to act out plays and performances. My birthday is November 1.”
I kind of laughed out loud and cried a little enjoying the envelope of all these goodies. I really did used to collect rocks (like gemstones) when I was like in second and third grade. One of the other papers in there, from a class journal, said: “I hope I get rocks for Christmas.” No context whatsoever. My teacher was probably thinking, poor, poor awkward child. LOL.