What are your 8 yr old girls doing at the moment? Boredom & sadness has set in :(

[millionaireshortie]

My 8 yr old's mood has deteriorated so much the past couple of weeks. She's managed so well up until now and has kept herself busy with drawing, crafting, schoolwork, cycling and baking but is now absolutely fed up to the back teeth of it all.

I know things are opening up now but we actually don't know many people where we live to socialise with on walks or in gardens/parks.

I'd love to know how your 7-9 year old girls are spending their time? How's their mood? I have at least another 2+ months to bare the brunt of her moods and need some new ideas.

Were the same here. DD will be 8 in September and initially seems to just get on with things and seemed fine. She still has days where she is ok but I have noticed the last week she seems a bit more quiet and wants to shut her self away watching videos and playing games on her iPad. We have a newborn at home too but offer to sit and play bored games etc but she’s sick of them all now. We have done so much baking, colouring, bike rides etc but she’s just missing school/her friends and swimming/gymnastics.
Do you have any of the mums from her school on Facebook or their mobile numbers. Arrange for her to have a Skype chat with a friend or even a socially distance walk in the local park or woods.
Our DD also is into art and craft and has been creating lots with boxes, toilet rolls and paint etc. She has been enjoying kids Zumba videos on YouTube put on the tv so we can dance around. Have you got anywhere you could take a bucket and net to go pond dipping or maybe a scavenger type hunt that she could tick things off somewhere you haven’t walked before?

Board games *

Generally it's school work morning then afternoon is roblox. Often whilst face timing her friends. Some days she will be on phone good couple of hours.

She also likes to call her grandparents and have chats with them.

Also watching endless YouTube hack / prank / roblox videos.

She also goes to a childminder 3 afternoons a week for a break.

DD 9 was doing great but fed up now too.
We were doing daily bike rides but she's now a bit fed up of this too.
She's spending a lot of time on Roblox chatting/playing it with a friend.
We have just started doing film afternoons where we close the curtains and prepare some treats and watch a movie. ( I'm quite happy with this as I can lie on the sofa and have a nap (not often) although DC do argue over which movie to watch.
She's also started rearranging her bedroom and moving her toys and books. A bit of a project for her that she enjoys.

It's really hard - my lovely sweet 7yo had periods of clearly being so fed up with it all. If she's not already I'm not sure whether joining brownies/cubs etc at the mo would be an option (I don't know if they are taking on new members?) The weekly zoom meeting is the absolute highlight of my dd's week (and she was quite new to brownies before lockdown so didn't have hugely significant relationships with many of the other girls). They have set a little task each week. I'm also hoping the badges will keep us occupied/give us a little structure over the summer holidays when school are not setting work.

7 y old is fine and getting on well with everything except maths which causes a massive stress so we're now doing the work using concrete materials and me scribing the answers on the sheet.

9 y old has adhd and hyper focuses on books and computer games so trying to get school work done, and done well, and limit the time on the PS4 is a bit of a flash point.

Otherwise, they have each other and they have spent time talking to the kids on the street, as well as their cousins, so aren't lonely, luckily.

I'm glad it's not just us. We've done most of the suggestions but Roblox and kids Zumba are new ideas so will definitely suggest those to her. I'll be so glad when/if normality returns. She really needs to get back to school now.

My 7 year old DD has been asking for Guinea pigs for ages. Lockdown seemed a good time to get them and dd spends a lot of time cuddling them, cleaning out the cage, reading about them etc.
I realise this might not work for you OP but it's really worked for DD.

Dd1 is 9yo. Her time is spent doing schoolwork with added in Joe Wicks or Cosmic Kids Yoga depending on the day. We go on a walk every lunchtime.

In her free time she reads a lot, watches you tube videos, plays with Lego, builds toys and mazes for her pet mice and she is really enjoying a film project where she is writing and starring in a film.

We also has a socially distanced picnic with another family on Saturday which she enjoyed.

My DS is a bit older (turned 10 in lockdown) but guinea pigs have been the lockdown stars here as well, @rory786. We have even subscribed to Guinea Pig magazine, as well as buying the Olga da Polga books and a guinea pig colouring book!

My DD sees a friend in their garden for a playdate once a week. They stay outside, don't get close and no food/drink/toilet. This has changed her mood x1000 for the better.
Poor poppets, they need to play with their peers, it's quite simple.

My dd is 7 and she is watching a lot of you tube.

Its not ideal but she seems to be quite happy. There are lots of girls doing gymnastics etc and she finds them quite inspirational so i don't mind too much.

We have also in the last week met with friends for a socially distnaced meet up and it is has helped so much.

My dd is 9 and its starting to get more challenging. She keeps herself busy but is really missing her friends

It’s a hard age for them- my DD is slightly too old to be entertained by toys and playing all day like her younger sisters, but too young to be able to meet up for walks with friends etc. She’s used to being very busy as she’s very sporty so that’s not helped either!

We bought her an airtrack matt for the garden so she’s been enjoying practicing gymnastics when the weather has been nice. I also introduced her to the world of Pinterest (uh oh!) and am letting her plan a bit of a room renovation- nothing major as all of her furniture and carpets aren’t being replaced but she’s enjoying deciding on colour schemes and I’m going to let her help us with the painting.

@Blueberryblueberry

It's really hard - my lovely sweet 7yo had periods of clearly being so fed up with it all. If she's not already I'm not sure whether joining brownies/cubs etc at the mo would be an option (I don't know if they are taking on new members?) The weekly zoom meeting is the absolute highlight of my dd's week (and she was quite new to brownies before lockdown so didn't have hugely significant relationships with many of the other girls). They have set a little task each week. I'm also hoping the badges will keep us occupied/give us a little structure over the summer holidays when school are not setting work.

Make enquiries. Some units will, some aren't. My Brownies are doing virtual meetings and new members have joined us. Our county has also launched remote Guiding for the county which may be a long term thing to manage demand where waiting lists are too long. www.girlguiding.org.uk/information-for-parents/register-your-daughter/

My scouting group has had a harder time so aren't all systems go.

Mine are boys so different interests, but at 7 and 9, it's worn thin a long time ago. They don't cope with phone calls and video calls, and between other people's busyness, priorities and fear, I've struggled to get any real life social experience for them

@Lifeaback where did you get this from. We have a trampoline but she is really missing gymnastics.

Mine is 7 going on 8 and hit a real low point a couple of weeks ago. Luckily by then we were allowed to meet in parks and gardens so I have had several outdoor playdates for her. They’ve been pretty good at distancing surprisingly.

She’s also discovered she can use Teams (which the school uses for video calls) to message her friends so there have been lots of emojis and gifs being sent! She seems to find that easier than a video call, and it keeps her in touch with people.

@ThreeCubesBalancing the magazines sound brilliant. Thank you for the idea. I love Olga de Polga! Such a cutie!!

OP I have an 8 yr old..for the first month all was well she was happy,engaged and occupied,Then we had a crash,she was so not herself,she was argumentative,then would cry about such daft random things,sleep was all over the place,awake til 1am sleeping til 1 pm and started bed wetting again. I was beside myself at how distressed she was.Took a week to get her back to normal,no tv no social media whilst she was around,just fun stuff all the way,We got over that til 3 weeks ago and same again,She had heard some of her friends whohad a social worker had been allowed back to school and as my dd loves school she was devestated she hadnt been chosen to go,Its hard for me to state to her without going into detail as to why she couldnt go and her friends could.I didnt want her to know her friends had problematic home lives and as to why..I didnt want her to view her friends differently mainly.Anyway school work went out of the window and moods and bedwetting again,I was totally at a loss so was her dad.In the end I rang school out of desperation for some advice and omg the change in our girl is unbelievable.The headmistress rang her for a chat to see how she was doing and they chatted for 40 mins.The hed explained things i couldnt find words for and fibbed a little too! Then her class teacher rang the next day to check in see how she was and somehow although nothing changed she must have felt reconnected.Her class teacher has rung 3 times in all and all of us are amazed at how much she is doing better for it.I have my girl back again,hapy positive engaged and wanting to do things to please her teachers and us. She is amazing.I know its not much help but you could try that,,call school and schedual a call ours have been wonderful truely they have.I cannot thank them enough.They rung on the pretext of calling all students to see how they could be getting ready for year 4..a fib but it worked.I know how hard it is to process all that has come with this virus for us adults so it must be doubly hard for young minds to try to fathom out.I didnt realise she was seeing and hearing the news so much and the constant scare stories by the media day in and day out must have terrified her senselss thats why we dont have the tv on now when shes around ..netflix etc fine but no tv. I feel we have turned a corner with our dd hope you do too.Its so hard for the kids bless them.Good luck and best wishes sent x

My DD had a friend round for a socially distanced picnic. They sat on separate mats, and played various games. Lots of giggling & chatting.

Really helped.

We have had to give in and let her play on Roblox . Not a fan of screens really but it has been a Godsend cos she will facetime her mates at the same time. Can literally talk all afternoon to each other! But we do schoolwork in the morning so tick that box first.

I would send her to a summer holiday club as soon as they open for a few days a week. She needs structure and to socialize with her peers.