The summer has flown by and tomorrow my six year old has her first day of 1st class. Who knows what she’ll learn this year, but one thing I do know is that she has taught me a lot this summer. Last month I put out a post called Six Life Lessons From My Six Year Old. Today, before she goes back to school, I want to share six more life lessons from my six year old.

1.  Dance even if someone is watching 
Whenever my six year old hears a song she loves she’ll burst into dance. It doesn’t matter where she is – whether it be in the privacy of her own home, out at the park or in a supermarket, she will bust some moves. She’s oblivious to anyone else around her and releases the joy.

2. Don’t let anyone silence you
My six year old doesn’t always have the voice of an angel but she doesn’t let this stop her expressing herself. If she feels like singing, even if it’s out of tune, she does. If she wants to make an observation or express her opinion, she doesn’t ask for permission, she tells you how she feels.

3. Be Kind
We’ve spent a lot of time in town over the summer and have seen the hardships that many are going through. There are so many people who are homeless and are having to beg just so they can get their next meal.

My heart burst with pride when my six year old asked me if she could give some of her pocket money to a lady who was “writing in some beautiful colours” on Grafton St. It was only 20cents but to her, that was a big chunk of her pocket money. That 20cents wasn’t going to make a big difference to that lady, it did put a big smile on her face.

While she doesn’t always have pocket money to give away, she does have conversations to give away and that she does often. She acknowledges the person she sees in front of her and will always say hi.

4. What Gender Stereotype?
With Halloween just around the corner, there’s been a lot of talk about costumes in our place. One conversation went like this:

Me: G, can a boy wear an Elsa costume at Halloween if he wants to?
G: No
Me: Why Not?
G: Elsa’s not scary. He has to wear something scary!

I love that in her eyes, the boy wearing an Elsa costume wasn’t the silly thing, the silly thing was it not being scary.

She did follow it up though, (after the question was better phrased) with, “of course a boy can dress up as Elsa if he likes her”.

So don’t conform to gender stereotypes. Be who you want and wear whatever makes you happy – as long as it’s not Halloween – then it has to be scary!

5. Celebrate others’ achievements
“The Great British Bake Off” started on Channel 4 last night. I thought this would make some great family viewing. My six year old didn’t enjoy it as much. She was really upset that, in her eyes, some of the masterpieces were being criticised. She felt that the judges were being really mean because the contestants had tried really hard and what they made looked great.

While this was a great time to talk to her about the fact that we can’t base everything on looks and that it was the judges role to criticise, it was also a great time to acknowledge that complimenting someone’s achievements doesn’t take away from your own.

6. Know When to Quit
The saying is that “a quitter never wins and a winner never quits”. This isn’t always the case.

My six year old has tried lots of new things this summer. Some she has loved, others not so much. She gets frustrated when she can’t do something she wants to do and always threatens to quit. However, if she loves it, e.g. hula hooping, she keeps going until she can get her waist to spin that hoop round and round and she feels so proud when she does. Yet, there are other things that she has started but has decided to walk away from before it’s done.  I admire her for doing that, as sometimes, the winner really is the one who knows when to quit!