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.

My 8yo dd is totally fed up too. DH and I are working from home, and DS we’ve back to school last week (Y6). Schoolwork, Minecraft, Fifa, digging holes in the garden, FaceTiming Granny..... I wasn’t working today, so we did some baking. Best of all though - cricket practice had re started! No games, no matches, just net training. She saw one of her best friends for the first time in weeks.

My dd was like that. She’s back playing with her friends and cousin and the difference is amazing.

9 year old girl - a lot of roblox and recording herself doing dances, making things and drawing. She has also bought herself a skateboard so practising riding that. She has started going to childminder 2 days a week last few weeks and has really helped her mood. She gets to go back to school 2 days a week for the last 2 weeks and she can't wait.

Mine is 8.5.

She uses her Kindle Fire for Roblox, she watches YouTube videos (her current favourite are magic tricks and Tiny House conversions)

She watches some Netflix (like nature documentaries, the one with Bear Grylls where you choose what he does next, and Floor is Lava)

She draws - tracing paper was a huge hit!

She crafts - we give her free access to the recycling stuff and she has her own glue/tape/scissors so goes off and does that.

She loves a bath so now has a longer bath before dinner, rather than a short one afterwards.

I've taught her to play chess, she plays Guess Who with her little brother.

The other day I made them down screens and basically forced them to help me with the housework. We all worked solidly for 90mins and the whole house was sparking afterwards. She mainly did the dishes (all of them!), put away laundry etc.

She helps with dinner. Bakes scones etc.

My DS is 8 but has SEN so is now back at school part time.
He struggled with dance class before lockdown but now asks when his Zoom street dance class is.
We made a habit of taking porridge in a flask to the park on a Friday morning (only had a couple of really wet weeks) but now it's one of his/DD days in school (she's in Y1) so we may revive it in the holidays.
They have SO enjoyed outings - beach, NT place, walk up a hill.
I think we will do some Cub badges with DS over the summer (we think we've done what he needs for Nature Lover). DD was due to join Beavers but hasn't but I might ask the leader if she can, probably just for the badges (she wouldn't be fussed if they had a Zoom meeting but I don't think they do).
She had a Zoom birthday party which they all loved. I'm hoping her football may start again - but it was indoors.

My dd is 8. She goes to childminder 2 days a week. She loves crafts so we have bought a few new things eg pastels, pens for decorating glass / stones, clay. Done stuff like papier-mache.

YouTube for Crafts tutorials and drawing LOL characters, and dance videos she copies.

Makes her own videos with the iPad.

Plays with lol dolls or other little toys for hours and makes them houses and clothes.

Writes stories.

Bakes with supervision.

Facetime with best friend.

Lots of things she loves doing but she still gets restless and bored. School work takes a long time as she has ASD.

Pokemon (reading about it, watching it, going on walks to find them so we can talk about it some more...)
Video chats with friends where they do quizzes / play a game (it doesn't work if left unstructured)
Not very into crafts but has daily photography challenges that go down well.
Typing game online.
Colouring and making little cartoon books.
Spends some time "helping" grandpa in his garden locally (very good at distancing - don't get closer than the rake )
In the summer planning to teach them to cook some simple meals independently.

Is there a link to the photography challenges or did you just make them up?

8yo girl here who is beside herself with frustration, tiredness and boredom. Won't engage with the schoolwork anymore. She's full on tantrumming most days like a toddler. Sleeps well but never seems to get over her tiredness. She's started having some outside play dates with her best friend and that's the only thing that makes her happy at the moment. She's so miserable it's heartbreaking. She's going in to school for 2 days next week so we'll see how that goes.

@Rockbird my DD is the same. Its heartbreaking.

7.5 here. Started to break last week. Full on tantrums which is not her. Wont engage in school work and isn't happy. I'm wfh so its really hard going now.

All sounds v similar to my 7 year old (10 and 1 year old sibling and both parents WFH). Can’t really get her to do school work on her own and can’t particularly support her much myself due to work. She plays a lot of Roblox and watches a lot of dumb videos on
Youtube (of people playing Roblox, Norris Nuts, hacks, pranks, etc). None of which is particularly age appropriate. She is completely fed up and also very disobedient now - she was a delight before all this. I’m not surprised though given the lack of attention / structure in the day /boredom.

@MutteringDarkly what are the daily photography challenges please? It sounds like something my dd could enjoy.

@FinallyGotAnIPhone we have Kids YouTube for 8-12 set up for DS and we took the YouTube link off the smart TV (we can get it if we look deep in apps and it has a code on now) for basically this reason.

Mine has just turned 9. Her behaviour has been dreadful recently and she's regressed - carrying teddies around with her, "needing" Ewan the dream sheep to get to sleep etc. She is back at school a couple of days and it's been really good for her. I'm dreading the holidays, especially if we're locked down again.

@1Pinkfluffyelephant I also bought an Airtrack mat for my 9 year old gymnast- we did have to wait over a month for delivery as we had to pre-order. Cheapest I could find whilst still trusting the quality was at www.cannonsuk.com/a/s/products/cannons-uk-air-track-pro-air-floor-3m-x-1m-x-10cm

I have had similar issues with my 9 year old being bored, and I feel so guilty some days as I am WFH full time too. She has just been perfecting her gymnastic tricks, doing tik toks and practising sketching.

My girls will be 8 in September. I am so thankful they have each other, they fight and argue sometimes but then having each other had been a life saver. The do school work, play together, play separately, we go for long walks. Neither have asked to go back to school or for their friends.

Oh I’m so sad for them all. I’m very concerned about how this is going to affect my children long term. I’m so lucky mine have each other to play with but they’re getting fed up and I don’t blame them.

Haven't read the whole thread but yesterday my 9 year old learnt how to knit and that's definitely made her happier, planning all the things she wants to make.....audio book and knitting (or finger knitting) or me reading to her if I have time.

One thing we did was rearrange my DS bedroom I got him on Pinterest looking at paint, pictures shelves, ikea bedding for what cost us approx 50-70 we revamped his room, moved his bed got some new lamps and just spent the time together planning and decorating. We even got him a house plant and cactus and some smelly diffuser thing which he loves and his room looks fab.

So he feels like he's got a new space a fresh start and his mood has lifted so much.. all for the price of a weeks fuel that I'm no longer spending!!

See if that works?

Sorry forgot to say if it's something you like and enjoy a good diffuser with essential oils is also really interesting, again my DS love theirs you can buy different oils for mood boosting, their room smells lovely they can mix and work with different smells they like and it can help with sleep and relaxation try lavender oil in the evenings.

The power of a good smell, Amazon sell them as well as the more expensive ones from neals yard and neom.

Oh and you can get ones that light up and glow different colours.

@MutteringDarkly - any suggestions for daily photography challenges? We recently bought DD a camera so this a a good idea for her

Mine is enormously struggling, and her behaviour reflects this.

@treefrograbbit that's a nice idea! I'll look into that but don't really know where to start. I'll check out amazon and see what they have.

My lot are struggling now too
We have ds 8 dds 9,11,12 then 11 yo is at school 4 days and both schools have been great with setting work / calls home
Yesterday we had one of dds friends over to do her school work and she was so so happy.
Booked a tennis court and played tennis
Did hula hooping
What about aiming for a Blue Peter badge with one of her craft projects ?
Also have been out playing bingo set out a grid with things like : a bird that is not a pigeon, a child on a bike, someone wearing bed etc..
lots of friends also reporting struggles this week / last - it’s all too much now

Red not bed obvs ...