I was born in late 1989 so I lived through all of the 90s. It was awesome! Being a kid at that time was truly amazing and I consider childhood to be the best years of my life. Not that life is bad now, but childhood is magical. I remember waking up early to go to school and catching cool shows like Goof Troop, Bobby's World, and Scooby-Doo. If mom had time, she would make us Eggo waffles or Pop-Tarts. Sugary treats for breakfast!
Back then school food was free, at least where I lived. We got free breakfast and lunch at school. Then during recess my friends and I would play kick ball, freeze tag, and make forts out of the tree branches. My elementary school was in the old high school building. So the new high school was a few blocks away and the elementary got the old building. So our field was this huge football field. We had a blast and we could run around it as we pleased. Boys had cooties. We would usually fight them for fun. Girls stuck with girls and boys with boys. But this didn't mean that girls were girly. We played in the dirt too.
Some of our toys included: Skip-It, G-o-o-o-z-e, Barbie, Sky Dancers, Polly Pocket, Lisa Frank, and toys from movies. I remember having lots of toys from fast food restaurants that you get with the kid's meal.
The best place to eat at was Chuck E. Cheese. You got to play, eat pizza, and then get a prize when you were ready to leave. My uncle would take us there often over the summer.
During class, we would focus a lot on cursive writing. Computers were rare and so we would go maybe once every two weeks to the 'computer lab.' This lab had 2 rooms with about 30 computers in each room. So usually two classrooms were in the lab at a time. Computer time was fun and mostly easy work. We would practice multiplication problems there.
Around 5th grade we started reading longer books and having to take computer tests on them. We would answer questions on what we read.
Harry Potter was a big deal. That series made reading fun and cool. Other neat books were: The American Girl Series, Holes, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Goosebumps, and Magic Attic Club. Everyone was listening to Britney Spears, The Spice Girls, N'Sync, and The Backstreet Boys.
Toe rings were popular. So were slap bracelets, platform shoes, butterfly hair clips...
After school, we would usually have a snack. Probably cereal or fruit roll ups. I'm being honest here. I didn't eat very healthy as a kid. lol But I never had problems with my weight as a kid. I think because...
One of the major differences I see from kids now is that my brother and I would spend all evening playing outside. We had bikes, roller blades, scooters, and a small swing set. We became lifelong friends (still talk to them) with the neighbor's kids and we would have adventures together. Sometimes we would ride our bikes to the small river in town and dare each other to jump in. I grew up in a Mexican border town of Texas so if you got home with wet clothes, you're latina mother would be upset! Other times we would skate off to other blocks of town hoping our parents wouldn't find out we had wandered off too far.
Video game consoles were rare. My brother and I did have a Playstation as kids and we loved it, but we usually left it for rainy days. Our priority was going outside. Some of the games we had were: Spyro, Metal Gear Solid, Crash Bandicoot, MediEvil, and Final Fantasy.
On the weekends we would cuddle up with mom to watch a Disney movie or something on HBO. She would have us cover our eyes if something dirty would pop up. lol
Some of the popular kid's shows were: Hey Arnold, Doug, Rugrats, Power Rangers, Sailor Moon, and Arthur.
I'm not saying the 90s/early 2000s were the best to grow up in. I know my mom loved her childhood too in the 70s. I just think I was blessed. I grew up in a low income area in a single parent home. She was a young mom too. But despite the odds, my mom did an awesome job raising us. I loved my childhood. It felt like an adventure...it was magical.