Six-year-old girl flashes a big smile while playing with her curly hair. A child's 6th year is marked by an increase in independence and rapid development of mental skills.

Exciting 6! Here’s What to Anticipate in the Upcoming Year

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  • A pile of colored foam numbers lie on a blue table top. Using manipulatives in one strategy you can use while practicing addition and subtraction concepts with your 6-year-old.

    Simple Addition and Subtraction Strategies to Practice with Your Child

    As a parent or guardian, it's important to practice addition and subtraction with your 6-year-old. This very basic math skill is part of the foundation that will make up your child's mathematical abilities in the future. At this age, children are developing their understanding of numbers, beginning arithmetic concepts, and problem-solving skills. By practicing with them regularly, you can help them build a strong foundation in mathematics that will benefit them throughout their lives.

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  • A young boy and girl walk down a trail with their arms around each others' shoulders. Teaching your child about what friendship should feel like will help them have healthy boundaries and positive social interactions.

    Teaching Your Child What Friendship Should Feel Like

    As your child enters school, they will be surrounded by plenty of opportunities to develop new and exciting friendships. And while they're sure to have fun, there may be some situations in which they may be confronted by unhealthy behaviors from others and boundary pushing. One of the most important things we can do for our children is to help them develop healthy relationships. A crucial part of this is teaching them what friendship should feel like. Friendship is a fundamental aspect of a child's development and has a significant impact on their self-esteem, social skills, and emotional well-being.

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  • 6-Year-Old girl lays in a field, hugging her teddy bear. Raising a body positive child early is important for their future self-esteem.

    How to Raise a Body Positive Child

    Raising a body-positive child is essential for their mental and physical well-being and it's something that needs to start early in order to have lasting effects. Showing them how to appreciate their bodies and understand that everyone comes in different shapes and sizes will not only help their self-esteem, but will teach them to be open and accepting to all sorts of people in the future.

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  • A first grade boy sits at a desk writing on a piece of paper. Providing your little one with creative story-starters is a great way to encourage them to practice their writing skills.

    10 Story Starters for Your 1st Grader

    Storytelling is an important skill that helps children develop their creativity, imagination, and language skills. As a parent, you can encourage your first-grader to start telling stories by providing them with interesting story starters that will ignite their imagination and spark their creativity. By the end of 1st grade, children should be able to write a paragraph of about 3 to 4 sentences. So while they won't be able to write anything too complex quite yet, they can write a short, simple story and accompany it with an illustration.

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  • Six-year-old girl and her brother play with a Storypod and Craftie Plane. Singing songs and reciting rhymes is a great way to support vocabulary development in your 6-year-old.

    Vocabulary Explosion! How to Encourage Your 6-Year-Old's Vocabulary Development This Year

    Six is an amazing age for your child's language development. At this stage, your child will speak around 2,600 words and will understand around 22,000! In fact, they'll be able to put together sentences of around 9 words, so their ability to converse and express themselves will be better than ever. Take advantage of this fruitful time by encouraging vocabulary development through consistent and intentional activities!

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  • 1st grade students sit a table working using colored pencils and paper. In the 1st grade, your child will be learning to write simple sentences accompanied by a drawing to express their ideas.

    What Will My Child be Learning in the 1st Grade?

    Most 6-year-olds will be attending the 1st grade this year and you'll notice their skills progress exponentially! Whereas they were learning their letter names and sounds in kindergarten, 1st grade will teach them to write simple sentences and how to read sight words. It's an exciting time and knowing what they'll be expected to learn this year will help you to support their learning at home.

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  • Three child's stuffed animals lie side by side, neatly tucked in with a blanket. Creating a serene, organized environment for your toddler is helpful for fostering independence.

    Create a Serene & Organized Environment That Will Foster Independence

    Creating a serene and organized environment for your child is one of the most effective ways to foster independence in them. When a child has a clean, structured, and orderly environment, they are more likely to develop good habits, become more responsible, and feel more in control of their surroundings.

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  • 6-year-old girl sits on a rock outside while reading a book. Motivating your child to read is important for their literacy development.

    Motivate Your Child to Read with These 7 Practices

    We live in an age of ever-present technology and today's parents don't have it easy when it comes to getting their children to engage with books. As difficult as it may be, however, it's important to motivate your child to read as much as they can in order to reap its many benefits. WIth a bit of intentionality and creativity, your child will discover the joys of reading and come to appreciate what books have to offer.

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  • 6-year-old daughter and her father hug, both with big smiles on their faces. There are several ways to fill your child's emotional bucket to ensure that they are growing up healthy and happy.

    6 Ways to Fill Your Child's Emotional Bucket

    With so much on our minds and busy, modern schedules, it can be easy for adults to get wrapped up in just getting through the day. Often, if our little ones are clean, fed, and safe we feel that we've done our duty and can send them off to play. And while these things are important and children should be able to entertain themselves, it's important that we take the time to fill our little ones' emotional buckets to ensure that they are growing up feeling happy, healthy, secure, and confident. Make it a point to spend some real, distraction-free time with your child each day.

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  • Two sets of hands hold cell phones, their owners completely engrossed by the screen

    Is My Own Screen Time Affecting My Children?

    The science behind the effects of screen time on developing minds is well known to most parents. But does adult screen time affect children, as well? While our brains may be fully developed, our screen time can still be detrimental. When parents are overly absorbed by their technology, they tune-out what’s going on around them.

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  • Young child lies on her back with a thoughtful expression on her face.

    Promoting Problem Solving to Raise Independent Kids

    As much as we want to support our children in all areas, it is important that we are training them to eventually become independent, productive adults. One way we do this is to teach them how to solve problems for themselves.

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  • Young child sleeps peacefully next to stuffed bunny

    Creating the Perfect Bedtime Routine in 5 Easy Steps

    There’s no doubt that parents of children of all ages understand the importance of sleep. Aside from preserving parental sanity, a child’s sleep is critical for their development. According to the CDC and the Sleep Foundation, adequate sleep is crucial for preventing poor mental health, obesity, type 2 diabetes, a weakened immune system, and both attention and behavior problems. Yet somehow, about 30% of children in the U.S. don’t get enough sleep.

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