how are you coping in lockdown with...

[higglepiggley]

A only child who won't play or entertain themselves for even 5 minutes.
She's almost 5 and driving me potty. Anyone else ? She's been unable to play alone since she was 3 no matter what I do and the screen time is so much at the moment .
She had started reception in September.

I have the same problem with an almost five year old, only I have his one year old sister to chase after too. They don’t play together so that’s no help.

All day he wants me to play with him. TV is the only break I get so he does watch too much. Incidentally he’s awaiting assessment for autism. I think things will be so much better once schools reopen and they can play with friends again. We just have to hang on in there meanwhile.

At school she plays with her peers and plays Independently to.
It's just when she's at home
If I sit down and ignore she sits nexts to me and taps my leg or arm constantly and talks to me in a whiney voice
If I stop drawing etc she stops to most of the time

It's hard op.
Can she read yet? Dd1 was like this. I spent £££££ on toys to encourage her to play.
Learning to read was a real game changer for us because then there was always something to do.
Dd2 is a bit better at playing but again likes real world games like mums & babies and apparently it's not the same to play with teddies....
Can you make screen time productive. Cosmic kids/go noodle etc. She can watch x prog if she plays y for x time. Teach her numbers setting timers / telling the time on a clock. It's a bit pavlova dog but worth a try?

She can't read at all

She just can't understand blending at the moment even basic words like mud, at, cat, dog.
She also has no interest in learning to read tbh
It's a massive hassle to get her to engage in anything to do with phonics/ reading

She is very into maths and numbers though

@higglepiggley I feel your pain. My four year old’s teacher has made some brilliant phonics videos. He has magnetic letters too and we get him to write in flour or foam to make it more fun. And still he’s always “so tired” or “so hungry” and upset/angry if we try doing more than five minutes of phonics.

My 4 year old is like this and it's all a sulk to get the tablet. The only thing that works is tablet free days. We are both working full time so we say no tablet all weekend. He acted the same until a few times in and he knew we meant it.

We cant give him 1 or 2 hours a day of tablet as he will scream and tantrum the rest of the time. It's really all or nothing.

Try it at the weekend. Might take a few weekends but she will get used to it. Also make sure you tell her it's a no laptop day rather than just amusing her with other stuff.

My son does have a sister but he wont even play with her if he thinks he might get a laptop. He tends to scream more than sulk though. Good luck.