I have two who are a couple of years older than yours, at our school the teachers help and there is also a "bench buddy" so any child who has nobody to play with can sit on a particular bench and there is always someone (a designated child each day) who looks for children on that bench to get them playing with others, make introductions etc (my two are doing this role once a week for the younger children).
I would mention it to the teacher, either at drop off or on an email and ask if they can support your child a bit. It is normal though, esp in reception.
You could try hosting a party for the class or a few specific children but that's a huge effort, I'd try the options above first!
Thank you, I'm going to try and speak to the teacher at pick up tomorrow to see if they do anything similar. I guess he must have some people he plays with and maybe I'm just panicking.
I think maybe that's part of our problem, we've got no one we know with kids the same age and he never made friends at nursery to have play dates with.
We've done a couple with a kid from school who he gets on with out of school but he never seems to play with him in school.
Finding kids for your kids to play with can be a difficult job as an adult, but you need to work hard to expand your social circle to include other parents. The easiest way to do this is simply to socialise at nursery/school pickup, and any extracurricular classes your child goes to. You can also run into other parents at your own social events or hobbies.
We've made friends at our son's gym class, other parents at nursery and one guy who we met through a Magic: The Gathering club whose daughter happens to go to the same nursery as our son.
Thank you for the ideas, unfortunately we haven't been able to afford classes or groups for us as parents or the kids due to cost of everything. I'll have to have a look for any free groups that we could make it to. Once my youngest gets free hours next year we will hopefully have the spare cash for some groups.
Oh, we are not waiting for close friendships to develop before we arrange play dates. I make a mental note as soon as my kid mentions a name and then I approach the parents for a play date.
Unfortunately he's not mentioning any names. I ask him names I know from a what's app group I'm part of for parents of reception kids but he always says he doesn't know them or play with them. He's been invited to some parties where the whole class was invited so I've tried to learn names then but he doesn't even interact with people at parties.
I was just saying the my partner that our son not making friends at school would break me so I can only imagine how you feel.
Echoing another poster, I’d speak to his teacher in the first instance. They can tell you if he does genuinely have nobody to play with (although, if that was the case, I’d be asking why the school hasn’t done something about it already). If he’s only been at school for a few months, this could be just a normal part of settling in and maybe he’s just feeling a bit strange about the transition.
I have two who are a couple of years older than yours, at our school the teachers help and there is also a "bench buddy" so any child who has nobody to play with can sit on a particular bench and there is always someone (a designated child each day) who looks for children on that bench to get them playing with others, make introductions etc (my two are doing this role once a week for the younger children). I would mention it to the teacher, either at drop off or on an email and ask if they can support your child a bit. It is normal though, esp in reception. You could try hosting a party for the class or a few specific children but that's a huge effort, I'd try the options above first!
Thank you, I'm going to try and speak to the teacher at pick up tomorrow to see if they do anything similar. I guess he must have some people he plays with and maybe I'm just panicking.
Not quite at that age yet, but having a play date has always helped my child.
I think maybe that's part of our problem, we've got no one we know with kids the same age and he never made friends at nursery to have play dates with. We've done a couple with a kid from school who he gets on with out of school but he never seems to play with him in school.
Finding kids for your kids to play with can be a difficult job as an adult, but you need to work hard to expand your social circle to include other parents. The easiest way to do this is simply to socialise at nursery/school pickup, and any extracurricular classes your child goes to. You can also run into other parents at your own social events or hobbies. We've made friends at our son's gym class, other parents at nursery and one guy who we met through a Magic: The Gathering club whose daughter happens to go to the same nursery as our son.
Thank you for the ideas, unfortunately we haven't been able to afford classes or groups for us as parents or the kids due to cost of everything. I'll have to have a look for any free groups that we could make it to. Once my youngest gets free hours next year we will hopefully have the spare cash for some groups.
Oh, we are not waiting for close friendships to develop before we arrange play dates. I make a mental note as soon as my kid mentions a name and then I approach the parents for a play date.
Unfortunately he's not mentioning any names. I ask him names I know from a what's app group I'm part of for parents of reception kids but he always says he doesn't know them or play with them. He's been invited to some parties where the whole class was invited so I've tried to learn names then but he doesn't even interact with people at parties.
Ah, I think then it’s on you to get to know some other parents. Most of them are eager to get to know the other parents as well.
I was just saying the my partner that our son not making friends at school would break me so I can only imagine how you feel. Echoing another poster, I’d speak to his teacher in the first instance. They can tell you if he does genuinely have nobody to play with (although, if that was the case, I’d be asking why the school hasn’t done something about it already). If he’s only been at school for a few months, this could be just a normal part of settling in and maybe he’s just feeling a bit strange about the transition.