6 years

Btw - craftymama painted the yellow room. lol. So much for one thing at a time. She wants to paint the dining room now.

 Michaelmas is coming at the school and marks the first festival of the year. Their will be talk of bravery, of courage, of standing up for others. There will also be plenty of apples. I love the festivals at the kids' school - they are celebrated with mind, body, and spirit and thus create a whole energy around one central theme. Its amazing to watch the kids come alive with excitement over these days, and to experience it with them.

 I also attended a parent evening on the 6 yr change. To be honest I knew most of it. But in case I forget one day....

 The 6year old change is also known as the first puberty. It is when a child undergoes their first transformation. The ethereal life force is beginning to supersede the physical and the individual is truly being born. Just as the mother can tell naturally when her child stirs or instinctively what her child needs so to does the child possess this innate knowledge and does not lose it until undergoing the 6 year change. Physical signs that this change is occurring is the losing of teeth, the loss of baby fat, the inability to sit still, fascination with people older themselves, joint and muscle pains, mild fevers (that are actually growth spurts), and changes in their drawings; which I'll get to in a moments.

 Changes you might not notice are the stomach pains a child may experience when sitting still, the sudden knowledge that they are separate from the world and thus begin to compare themselves to others. With that comes the realization of what others can potentially think of them. They also begin to internally, and externally, question authority and desire to be the boss themselves.

 As mentioned, their drawings change as well. Instead of random pictures of people or things - the ideas become more concrete and each image has a meaning. The drawing of grids or series' of windows often symbolizes the loss of teeth or the stretching of the abdominal muscles. Smoke in a fireplace - with the absense of seeing inside the house to see the fire, symbolizes internal feelings that cannot be explained but are billowing out. Seeing inside of a house instead of just the outside shows a child who is very internal and sees things in exact detail where seeing the outside of a house shows a child who is external, extroverted if you will, and sees the world in a bigger way. There are so many ways to interpret their drawings.

 Also, children begin to question and want to know more about where they came from. Not in a sperm/egg sort of way - but in a higher power sort of way. This provides a great opportunity to talk about angels, and your spiritual beliefs. Even if you are an atheist the child needs to be reassured that they came from somewhere and be left to make their own spiritual decisions.

 So many changes at 6 years.