What does your 10/11 year old boy like?

[PartTimeWriter]

I have an almost 8 year old boy and he likes his Switch, Pokemon, reading Beast Quest, riding his bike. His friends like Minecraft and Roblox. He goes to Cubs and has swimming lessons.

I’m writing a book (fiction) and want the main character to be slightly older (10/11) than my DS for various reasons and I know the interests/behaviour of an 8 year old will be different to that of a child a couple of years older.

To make it as believable as possible can I ask you what your 10/11 year old (Year 5/6 at school) is like?

What are they reading?
What are they playing on their games consoles? (Do they have a switch/x box/ PlayStation?)
What topics are they learning about at school?
What are their interests? What after school clubs do they go to?
Do they have stuffed toys on their bed?
Do they have crushes on girls? (Do they talk to you about girls?)
Do they go on sleepovers at friends houses?
Do they have their own phone?
Do they walk to school on their own?
Would they tell you if they were being bullied?
Have they picked up any swear words (and if so, would they use these in front of you?)

Any information would be really helpful, thank you!

Depends on the character! My DS is a bit of a nerd so likes completely different things to his sportier classmates.

But in general he’s in Y6
School - SATS year. Sat in May they form the focus of the year with lots of maths and English and practice. After SATs there would be a class play, a residential trip, and lots of work on transition to secondary (but all cancelled :( )
Some of the class walk to school on their own
Some have phones
Some of the class are starting to be boyfriend/girlfriend

DS knows some swear words (and is allowed to watch certain 12A films which contain swearing) but he would never use them in front of me.

I have a 10 year old ds op - answers below:

What are they reading?
David Walliams, all the Wimpey Kud books and the 9 Storey Treehouse series.

What are they playing on their games consoles?
Fortnite on the Xbox. Occasionally he’ll dip back into FIFA, Minecraft or Roblox but for him and ALL of his friends, Fortnite is king.

What topics are they learning about at school?
The rainforest is the main one right now, Coal Mining (Welsh specific history though), Mean/Median/Mode, Poem formation, Air resistance (he had to make a parachute).

What are their interests? What after school clubs do they go to?
Fortnite, football and Athletics (in clubs/teams for both). Also the local general youth club where they do sports, table tennis, chess, general mooching about.

Do they have stuffed toys on their bed?
Just one - his favourite bear. It sleeps with him every night...and gets moved into toddler ds’s room whenever he has friends over so that they don’t know! He’s very fastidious about moving the bear out of his room and then getting it back ASAP when friends leave 😂

Do they have crushes on girls? (Do they talk to you about girls?)
He talks about girls all the time. X is his girlfriend, now she’s not, now it’s someone else etc. All very childlike though.

Do they go on sleepovers at friends houses?
Yes - about 5 times a year, basically when ever one of the boys has a sleepover on their birthday.

Do they have their own phone?
Literally just had one on his 10th birthday and he’s thrilled. The plan was always that he would have one on his 11th birthday, the same as ds1 did - because I think this is early enough. However, dh and I decided to get him one on his 10th birthday last week because of the lockdown. He what’sapp video chats his friends every single day.

Do they walk to school on their own?
No, we moved a year ago so live a 20 minute drive away.

Would they tell you if they were being bullied?
I honestly don’t know - I would hope so but we’ve thankfully not had this.

Have they picked up any swear words (and if so, would they use these in front of you?)
This is a hard line here - no swearing of any kind is tolerated by us, even though they occasionally hear one slip from me or dh. Ds values his own safety too much to even attempt swearing because he knows our rules on it - although he’s open about the fact his friends do and I’m pretty sure he knows ALL the words as a result!

DC is 12 now, but I've answered for last year when he was 11 in year 6.

What are they reading?

Sherlock Holmes and murder mysteries.

What are they playing on their games consoles? (Do they have a switch/x box/ PlayStation?)

No, although I'm sure he would like one. We don't have any consoles. He liked clash of clans and other tablet games.

What topics are they learning about at school?

No idea, couldn't get any information out of him.

What are their interests?

He loves art, photography and animation. He plays hockey for his school and an out of school team. He plays the violin and piano. He likes fighting his siblings and climbing trees. He likes reading.

What after school clubs do they go to?

Hockey, art, photography and music lessons.

Do they have stuffed toys on their bed?

Yes. His one favourite.

Do they have crushes on girls? (Do they talk to you about girls?)

I don't think so.

Do they go on sleepovers at friends houses?

Yes.

Do they have their own phone?

He has a basic phone (not a smartphone) to call me in an emergency.

Do they walk to school on their own?

Yes.

Would they tell you if they were being bullied?

I hope so.

Have they picked up any swear words (and if so, would they use these in front of you?)

I'm sure he has, but he wouldn't use them in front of me.

DS is 10 and in Y6.

What are they reading?
He likes fantasy action-adventure books. And would prefer no romance in there at all. Ever.
He tends to hate the books they read in school. And he loathes poetry.

What are they playing on their games consoles? (Do they have a switch/x box/ PlayStation?)
He plays with his friends (online) on the switch. Mostly he plays fortnite and rocket league with them. He plays Pokémon on his own. And also likes minecraft on the pc. He plays rocket league on the PS4 too with DH.

What topics are they learning about at school?
You could look up the Y6 curriculum. Today’s maths was calculating the area of parallelograms. This week’s English is writing balanced arguments. Science was evolution before half term.
Before lockdown, loads of it was SATs focused. He has done so many maths and English SATs past papers it’s ridiculous.
He’s at middle school, so there’s no transition to be done. He did that at the end of Y4.

What are their interests? What after school clubs do they go to?
He’s a competitive swimmer. In non-lockdown times he trains 5 times a week and does swim meets at least monthly (it was fortnightly from February to the start of lockdown). He learns piano through the school music lessons service.
He likes riding his bike, climbing, generally running around if you can persuade him away from the following:
He also likes to play video games and watch YouTubers playing video games (minecraft, rocket league and fortnite mostly).
He likes watching tv programmes that involve competition. Especially ninja warrior type stuff, but also cooking/baking competition tv. He even enjoyed that thing in Netflix about glass blowing.

Do they have stuffed toys on their bed?
Yes, but he’d hide if his friends came round. He’s got two stuffed toys he’s had since he was a baby.

Do they have crushes on girls? (Do they talk to you about girls?)
No. He thinks girls are annoying. He knows every boy within +/-3 years of him at swimming but barely knows the names of the girls that swim in his lane.
He’d never talk to me about girls.

Some of his friends are interested in girls and have girlfriends though.

Do they go on sleepovers at friends houses?
Yes. Sometimes. Little in the way of sleep occurs.

Do they have their own phone?
Yes. He mostly seems to have loads of WhatsApp groups related to school and swimming. But he mostly ignores them as they’re too busy.
He talks to his friends on WhatsApp video sometimes.

Do they walk to school on their own?
Yes. Actually he walks 5 mins in the other direction to meet his friends at one of their houses, and then walks back to school (which is at the end of our road).
He runs home from school, sometimes alone, sometimes with a friend.

Would they tell you if they were being bullied?
Don’t know. He isn’t being bullied. Never has been.

Have they picked up any swear words (and if so, would they use these in front of you?)

I’m pretty sure he knows all the swear words going. He certainly hears them. But he doesn’t swear where I can hear him.

Have an almost 12 Yr old ds

What are they reading? Tom gates

What are they playing on their games consoles? (Do they have a switch/x box/ PlayStation?)

Xbox lots of different games, favourites are fifa and City skylines, fortnite, they're all getting back into Minecraft again at the moment too

What topics are they learning about at school?

Recent topics: renewable energy, drugs & alcohol

What are their interests? What after school clubs do they go to?

Football club, climbing, tennis. Plays out with friends a lot (not at the moment obv!), usually football or bikes/scooters but often big games of hide & seek and the likes

Do they have stuffed toys on their bed?
Yes

Do they have crushes on girls? (Do they talk to you about girls?)

Not at the moment, talks about girls - yes

Do they go on sleepovers at friends houses?

Yes, although we host more often than not

Do they have their own phone?
Yes

Do they walk to school on their own?
Would they tell you if they were being bullied?

Yes and yes

Have they picked up any swear words (and if so, would they use these in front of you?)

Yes and no

My DS is 10, will be 11 in July. He's a young year 6, very geeky and not at all sporty.

What are they reading?
He's a big reader. Recently read the His Dark Materials Trilogy and is waiting for the new Skullduggery Pleasant to arrive from Amazon. He likes fantasy and adventure, enjoyed Lord of the Rings, Mazerunner, etc.

What are they playing on their games consoles? (Do they have a switch/x box/ PlayStation?)
We've got an XBox and he plays Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft mainly.

What topics are they learning about at school?
They did a WW2 topic at school this year, but he's most interested in science and maths.

What are their interests? What after school clubs do they go to?
He builds/plays Warhammer with his best friend and loves hanging out in the Warhammer shop with all the big geeks.
He goes to Scouts and quite enjoys cricket and dodgeball afterschool clubs. Loves swimming.

Do they have stuffed toys on their bed?
Yes. 2 snakes, an owl, a falcon and 'sleepy dog' -- his comfort toy from when he was a baby. He doesn't cuddle them but he's attached.

Do they have crushes on girls? (Do they talk to you about girls?)
He had a few quite close female friends until recently, but now the mere mention of GIRLS seems to embarrass him. Still plays happily with his younger sister though.

Do they go on sleepovers at friends houses?
Yes, most often with his best friend (they love camping out in the garden together) or with extended family.

Do they have their own phone?
We're just in the process of setting up my old phone for him. We were going to wait until he started secondary school, but have caved as he's missing his friends badly at the moment.

Do they walk to school on their own?
He’s allowed to walk home alone (10 minute walk) but usually chooses to seek me out when I’m waiting for his little sister. He’s recently started popping to the local shop for us and we are happy to leave him home alone for short times.

Would they tell you if they were being bullied?
I hope so, but he’s pretty inscrutable and self contained especially when upset. He seems pretty oblivious to anyone being mean, but I’m not sure whether it’s just self-protective.

Have they picked up any swear words (and if so, would they use these in front of you?)
I’m sure he must have done. He’s a big fan of toilet humour but doesn’t swear in front of me even though I’m pretty free and easy about ‘bad’ language.

My DS is 10 and in year 5.

What are they reading? Wimpy Kid, Tom Gates, Skulduggery Pleasant
What are they playing on their games consoles? (Do they have a switch/x box/ PlayStation?) Fifa, Fortnite, Minecraft, MarioKart (on a switch)
What are their interests? What after school clubs do they go to? Football is the main one, cricket in the summer
Do they have stuffed toys on their bed? No
Do they have crushes on girls? (Do they talk to you about girls?) Yes, he has a 'girlfriend' but that doesn't mean much! They haven't kissed or anything.
Do they go on sleepovers at friends houses? Yes, not often but occasionally
Do they have their own phone? Usually he would get one for his 11th birthday, but because of lockdown he got it a few months early to keep in touch with his friends.
Do they walk to school on their own? We don't live close enough, if we did then yes.
Would they tell you if they were being bullied? I hope so but who knows
Have they picked up any swear words (and if so, would they use these in front of you?) No, not that I know of

Thank you for the really interesting and helpful replies, lots for me to consider!

Good idea re looking at the curriculum online, I'll check it out.

Is there an obvious increase in homework? Do teachers send home SATS practice papers?

Do you put any restrictions on phone usage? Do you check their phones? Can I ask what sort of phone they have - is it iPhones, android phones?

DS2 is 10, youngest of 3
What are they reading?
Skulduggery Pleasant series, Alex Rider series.
What are they playing on their games consoles? (Do they have a switch/x box/ PlayStation?)
We have a Switch and a PS4. He's way more into the Switch. Crash Bandicoot, Spyro reignited, Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart, Fifa, Pokemon.
What topics are they learning about at school?
Working out the area of shapes. Experiments with solids, liquids, and gases. Writing styles in non-fiction texts. Anglo-Saxon history.
What are their interests? What after school clubs do they go to?
Interests: Trains, specifically the Tube. And he's been dinosaur mad since he was a toddler! After school clubs are coding and gym. Usually he'd meet friends on a Sunday morning and they do a couple of hours of football/cricket/rounders depending on which parent is supervising.
Do they have stuffed toys on their bed?
Two
Do they have crushes on girls? (Do they talk to you about girls?)
Not really. He has 2 close friends that are girls but no sign of crushes on them or any others in his class.
Do they go on sleepovers at friends houses?
Occasionally, maybe every 2-3 months or so.
Do they have their own phone?
Yes, recently 'upgraded' from a basic phone to DS1's old phone (first smartphone for DS2)
Do they walk to school on their own?
He walks on his own to his friend's house (2 streets away) and walks with them
Would they tell you if they were being bullied?
I hope so! I think he would but luckily it's never been something we've had to deal with.
Have they picked up any swear words (and if so, would they use these in front of you?)
Oh he must know them. Never heard him say anything worse than 'crap' though, and that was only once!

Is there an obvious increase in homework?
No. DS gets hardly any homework as far as I can tell and he just gets on with it himself.

Do teachers send home SATS practice papers?
Ordinarily, the probably would have. DS1 got revision packs etc over Easter when he was in Y6.
DS2 has been doing them in class and his maths teacher sends them home and I have to sign them.

Do you put any restrictions on phone usage?
Not really. He doesn’t use it that much.

Do you check their phones?
Yes. We’ve also put various parental controls on it. I check what he watches on YouTube too.

Can I ask what sort of phone they have - is it iPhones, android phones?
He has his dad’s old iPhone. I think it’s an iphone6.
I was going to get him a cheap Android at Christmas, but his dad upgraded his phone and gave the old one to DS.

DS 10.5

Reading- Not much tbh. Although his mates are into 'How to Train Your Dragon' and mythical creature type books.
DS prefers fact books such as Guiness World Records and Ripley's.

Consoles- PlayStation. Loves Fortnite.
Occasionally plays Roblox on his Amazon Fire.

Interests- Fortnite and chatting to friends on Fortnite. Loves collecting things like the Fortnite Cards and Top Trump's cards.
Loves watching the gamers on YouTube.

Stuffed toys- Yes but they are 'cool' gaming merchandise soft toys/cushions. i.e loot lama.

Crushes- No way! Disgusting (would be ds's reply).

Sleepovers- Once or twice. Not a big thing among his group of friends.

Phone- Yes. Apparently Samsung is the only phone that's cool. Watches YouTube.
Rarely calls/texts friends.

Walk to school- Yes with me. Friends live in other directions.
I don't know any who walk alone/with friends.

Tell if bullied- No, I don't think so.
He will tell me if he has had a disagreement with a friend though.

Swear words- Yes. Uses them occasionally if he is upset.
Can often be heard shouting the likes of 'shit' whilst gaming with friends. We receive a weak apology when we tell him off about this.

No obvious increase in homework.
No SATS papers sent home yet.
I have controls on phone and I need to give permission for downloads and content.
No restrictions on phone time but must be handed over at bedtime ( 9 weekdays 9:30ish weekends).
Samsung Galaxy

I have a girl but she is a bit of a tomboy. She was Year 6 last year. Among her and her male friends they were very into Manga books - Pokemon, Zelda etc. Computer games massively popular especially Roblox, Minecraft, Pokemon. Books - I volunteered with reading at the school and the boys generally weren't keen on reading novels but read masses of fact books like Guinness World Records and Pokemon character guides. There was always massive excitement when it was something like the Football World Cup and lots of discussions about teams and players.
As for the girlfriend thing. I found in Year 5/6 the general opinion of girls from the boys was "girls are bossy" (the girls opinion on boys was "immature, annoying and smelly"). I don't think there was any sense of 'dating'.

I have two 11 year old Y6 boys.

DT1 - likes Fortnite and being silly with his littler brother. Still sleeps with a special teddy. Cuddly and loving.

DT2 - likes Fortnite and him and little brother clash all the time. Bit more grown up - eager to be going through puberty and I have found ‘nked boobs’ searches on his phone (don’t worry, we talked about it and his phone is locked down anyway!). Much less likely to want a cuddle but still loving in his own way. Much more independent than his brother and would jump at the chance to go to the shops on his own and stuff like that.

Both have had girlfriends but that means nothing other than a declaration as far as I can tell!

Both are very open with me when things are bothering them which is so unlike me as a child.

Thank you for further replies! I will be living through this in a couple of years with my DS so interesting to read from that point of view too.

Thinking about what PP said about her DS searching for boobs online, (and I know this will probably vary quite a lot), but have they reached the stage of feeling self conscious about their bodies at that age?

DS will happily prance around naked at home and would not think twice about stripping off in front of people eg on the beach, at the swimming pool etc.

What are they reading?
David Walliams is a massive favourite, also recently completed all the Harry Potter books.

What are they playing on their games consoles? (Do they have a switch/x box/ PlayStation?)
Minecraft and Roblox

What topics are they learning about at school?
N/A at the moment!

What are their interests? What after school clubs do they go to?
Cubs and music lessons

Do they have stuffed toys on their bed?
Yes

Do they have crushes on girls? (Do they talk to you about girls?)
Nope. Still in the phase of girls being gross!

Do they go on sleepovers at friends houses?
Yes

Do they have their own phone?
No

Do they walk to school on their own?
No

Would they tell you if they were being bullied?
Yes

Have they picked up any swear words (and if so, would they use these in front of you?)
I think he knows most of them but would never use them (either in front of me or otherwise at the moment)

We don't have sats in Scotland so no pressure here at this age.

Mine has an old iPhone 6, I check it occasionally but never found anything untoward, mainly utter drivel on whats app, he doesn't actually use it much compared to some of his friends, mainly to keep in touch with me when he's out.

Not particularly body conscious, usually hangs out at home in his pants! He wouldn't strip off in public though or in front of girls.

Wimpy kid and David Walliams.

Body concious

Minecraft

Swears

Dd's y6 class paired off. Just chatting on the benches.

Ds's class didn't. Was full of silly boys.

Play football after school

Some walking to school, especially by the end of Y6

All had a phone inY6. ( Dds year) or lots in Ds"s

Ds1 is 11. He loves to dance-street and plays a few instruments. He's pretty academic. Is currently playing rocket league on the Xbox with his school friends.

He loves swimming and going to the gym he also goes to performing arts school. He's been 'asked out' by a lot of girls at school. One told him she was his girlfriend and he didn't argue, I asked him about it and he didn't seem to realise he had a choice-that one requires more conversations! He has friends both girls and boys.

Still has teddies on his bed and makes up little role play games with them and the Lego figures occasionally on an evening.

Sorry, forgot to add, he did tell me when he was being bullied.

This was our time to work on independence. The summer term before seniors.

He's well behaved and easy going.

What are they reading?
Alex Rider and the Gone series

What are they playing on their games consoles? (Do they have a switch/x box/ PlayStation?)
Fifa, clash of clans

What topics are they learning about at school?

At mo, dont know, but normally his school would be thinking a lot about SATs ghen after that running an enterprise business project and concentrating on year 6 production at the moment

What are their interests? What after school clubs do they go to?
Bouldering and he's in football club that trains 2x week and plays sundays.

Do they have stuffed toys on their bed?
Yes, one old favourite and we have a tub of others in his room.

Do they have crushes on girls? (Do they talk to you about girls?)
I would guess he doesn't like specific girls he knows but is starting to clock girls he doesnt know eg on TV

Do they go on sleepovers at friends houses? Just got his first invite but was cancelled cause if lock down

Do they have their own phone? Yes
Do they walk to school on their own? Yes
Would they tell you if they were being bullied? Yes
Have they picked up any swear words (and if so, would they use these in front of you?) Yes and yes

@PartTimeWriter it was me that mentioned the boobies online and no, he is not at all self-conscious of his body! Quite happy to do naked rolly pollies.

Although he reckons he's really grown up the only signs of puberty are him talking about it and the occasional smelly armpit

DS age 10, Y6.

What are they reading?

Wimpy Kid, Alex Ryder, Tom Gates.

What are they playing on their games consoles? (Do they have a switch/x box/ PlayStation?).

Fortnite online with his mates (mainly shouting on his headset), Fifa on the PS4. Also has a Switch and plays Lego City on that.

What topics are they learning about at school?

He’s been doing relationships this year, sex education, puberty, wet dreams, consent. He’s worried his penis will be odd shaped post puberty

What are their interests? What after school clubs do they go to?

He’s very sporty, runs, swims, athletics and rugby mainly.

Do they have stuffed toys on their bed?

Yes, we have ‘ooo ooo’ the monkey. But definitely not to be taken out of the house or admitted/discussed anymore!

Do they have crushes on girls? (Do they talk to you about girls?)

No, but he’s young for year (end of August). Some of the boys are starting to show interest and DS keeps getting texts from girls

Do they go on sleepovers at friends houses?

He doesn’t really, he’s been on a few bit think it’s more a girl thing.

Do they have their own phone?

Yes and most of his mates do too.

Do they walk to school on their own?

We’re starting to let him get himself home from school after sports matches to build up to total independence in Y7.

Would they tell you if they were being bullied?

Yes, absolutely but thankfully not an issue at his school.

Have they picked up any swear words (and if so, would they use these in front of you?)

Yes - swears like a trooper to push boundaries. It’s our single biggest issue at the moment and leading to a lot of screen bans!

at naked roly polys!

Thank you for the additional replies, really appreciate everyone’s input!