My daughter is currently six-years-old, and I keep thinking how amazing it is to have a six-year-old companion.
Looking back at the last six years, I’ve reminisced on the many great aspects of each stage of her life. There have also been some not so great things about certain stages. Sleepless nights, toddler tantrums and her whole third year come to mind. But parenting a six-year-old is great and it makes me want to desperately hold on because I know how quickly things change. It makes me want to stop time and enjoy the awesomeness of this magnificent year.
These are my six reasons why having a six-year-old is pretty great:
- She is a little person now. She has her own opinions (strong ones), can comprehend almost everything we explain to her and is very expressive. She is also developing her morals and values by paying close attention to rules and structure. My daughter is an only child and I love our conversations now. We can talk about deeper subjects and I get a sense of the adult she will become. Even though her reasoning can become a parenting challenge at times, I love watching her reason with us and try to argue her way out of things. Many times she is right and it’s fun to watch her assert herself and defend her opinions.
- She can read, write, add, subtract and do simple multiplication. Yup, we can no longer spell things out that we don’t want her to understand. She has beautiful handwriting (better than mine) and gets excited about math. Her favorite thing to do by far is to write stories, and she is developing into a really good student. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will continue for the rest of her school career.
- She is so much more independent! My husband and I have always pushed her to do things on her own and give her responsibility around the house. With that said, I still get shocked when I drop off her full clean laundry basket in her room and it’s all folded and put away by her. I am thinking it might be time to teach her how to do her own laundry too! She showers completely on her own and gets ready for bed. We still read to her every night, but she is starting to want to read on her own. This makes me sad as the bedtime routine has always been my favorite.
- She tells jokes. Good jokes that are actually funny. Not never-ending toddler jokes that have literally zero meaning and make no sense.
- She loves showing off her talents. My kid has never been shy, but it is incredible to watch her proudly show off things that she has worked hard to accomplish. Be it piano, swimming, her writing, or artwork, she now understands that hard work pays off and the activities are more meaningful for her.
- Harry Potter!!!! I have been patiently waiting to start reading the books to her. Several years ago, I wanted to read the series, but saved them so we can both experience the books for the first time together. This has been my favorite thing to do with my daughter this year. We sometimes read for hours and she asks the best questions and tells me how she pictures all the characters in her mind.
Having a six-year-old has been amazing but as much as I want to hold on to this magical time with my daughter, I can’t wait to see what the future holds!
This is almost like I wrote this myself. My husband thought the same.