Shaving Cream Day

Akiko's last day of first grade has finally arrived!

Akiko and Mrs. C.
Akiko made the candy lei that her teacher is wearing around her neck.

When I was in elementary, the last day of school was called "Shaving Cream Day." The kids from the junior high got out about an hour earlier than the elementary and would come down the hill and spray cream and silly string on as many little kids as they could. I never got creamed, and neither did my siblings, that I can recall, but I remember seeing some kids covered head to toe in it. I wonder if they've banned the practice. I'm sure they have.

Anyway, Akiko has grown so much this last year. When she was in kindergarten, I would do her hair every morning. She would have a different hairdo every single day. The girls in her class noticed.

I used to do her hair all the time at the beginning of this year, too. Then I got pregnant and getting out of bed in the morning became a chore for me. I would at least brush her hair for her from the side of the bed. Eventually, Akiko slowly took that over for me, too.

Every once in a while, I would find her in the bathroom with an arsenal of hair clips and headbands as she practiced different hairstyles on herself. Now she and her hair are all on her own. Of course, brushing her own hair became a million times easier when we chopped off a good seven inches or so last spring.

I promise, this post is not all about hair. That just happened to be a long tangent. Sorry.

Akiko's reading and writing skills have taken off. Mrs. C. really loved Akiko's writing and would often use her journal entries as examples for the rest of the class to follow. We loved reading things that Akiko wrote that she brought home from school. While we throw most of the stuff away that she brings home from school, some of them we had to keep because they were just so funny or really well written.

For example, one of her workbook problems said, "Write a number sentence using the number 5."

So, Akiko wrote, "5 had a baby. She was happy. The end." Funny, right?

I think the number sentence was supposed to read something like "5+4=9." I like Akiko's sentence better.

Akiko has also stated many times that her favorite subject is math. It's been neat to see her skills take off in that curriculum as well.

I've loved watching how much she's grown and progressed in all areas. She's always been pretty independent, but it's really manifested this year. I bought her a pair of laced shoes a couple months ago, showed her how to tie them once, and she got it right off the bat.

We're really proud of Akiko and all that she's learned this last year.

Now...

Let summer begin!!!