10 Things To Teach Your Daughter Before She Turns 10 (Part 2)

Dolapo Marinho

Previously, I shared 5 things to teach your daughter before she turns 10 (read here). Find 5 more below.

6. Technology

Tech savvy girls are more than cool! The way the world is going, if your daughter wants to compete with her peers around the globe, she will have to have some nifty tech skills. Allow your girl to have controlled access to the Internet. Let her explore her passions using YouTube and learn from the World Wide Web. Teach her to type and use search engines and if you can, teach her to use code. You never know, you might be inspiring the next Facebook or nurturing the new Twitter!

7. Self Love

More often than not, society directly or indirectly crushes a girl’s self esteem.  From a very early age, she wants the long blond hair, perfect figure and the lightest shade of brown skin. The dark skinned girl in class is called ‘blackie’ while the light skinned one is carried and placed on teachers’ laps. It is a mentality problem that can leave many girls feeling less than beautiful, with many growing up trying to fit into society’s lopsided norms.

With the current epidemic of skin bleaching by celebrities and role models, impressionable young ladies begin to think that in order to be accepted, she must change her appearance and essentially, who she is. It is therefore of utmost importance that you make sure your beautiful, intelligent girl knows, accepts and loves the person that she is.

Note that you have a crucial role in achieving this. If you are happy in your skin, then she will see that whether or not she fits with society’s image of perfection, she can confidently live according to her own script.

READ ALSO: 6 Things to Teach Your Son Before He Turns 18

8. Swimming!

Sport in general is very important to a girl’s development.  We all know too many girls that lack any kind of physical dexterity! While this is unfortunate, the truth is, many girls do not find sport interesting.  I do believe however, she should be encouraged to learn to swim. Swimming is another of those life skills that, if taught early enough, can be richly rewarding.  The ability to handle oneself in a body of water could be lifesaving.  Teach your little girl not to fear the water and dive in!

9. Tolerance and Humility

People always talk about leaving a legacy.  I have to be honest, I have never felt a desire to leave a physical mark on the world.  I guess the legacy that I would like to leave behind is that of instilling tolerance in my daughters.  By that, I mean a respect for humanity, understanding and accepting other peoples’ differences, and never being afraid of what is unfamiliar just because it looks and sounds different to you.

I like the idea of that kind of legacy. This is what I hope to instil in my daughter before she turns 10, so that she does not judge based on the amount of money a person has, or the car they drive or where they live but on the amount of tolerance and humility a person exhibits.  We all share the planet and always will, so the sooner we understand how to live together and help one another progress, the better for us all.

10. Ride a bike!

Recently, I was surprised to find out that a number of my daughter’s friends are unable to ride a bike! While this might not seem like the end of the world, there are many advantages to teaching your daughter to ride before the age of ten.  Firstly, she is less inhibited by fear and so the thought of falling over does not scare her much!  Also, she is less self conscious about failing at that age because the hormonal cocktail that is puberty has not come raging through yet! Riding a bike is like a rite of passage, isn’t it?  Don’t worry about her falling and scarring her flawless long legs! Teaching her would be worth it.