Recently, as I was sitting at my computer writing, I overheard my five-year-old daughter trying to teach her two-year-old little sister to play soccer.

In her most bossy voice, my oldest instructed my youngest, “Okay, watch me, and I’ll give you a lesson. You put it near your toe like this, and then you pull your foot back and kick it as hard as you can, like this!”

The next thing I heard was a swish and a hard thud, as my five-year-old went sprawling across the floor.  It sounded painful, and I fully expected tears, but instead, she simply picked herself up off the floor and dusted herself off as she inspected potential boo-boos.

The next instructions to her little sister were, “Well, not like that. If you do it like that, you’ll hurt yourself.”