What do your 7yo girls do at home?

[Givemestrength23]

Dd 7 has never been interested in playing with toys or games. She will do craft stuff if forced but only really wants to be on a screen while moaning she is bored. She is anxious and I'm sure screen time isn't helping but struggle with the battle of getting her to do something else in the house without me doing it with her.
Inspire me - how do I get her off the screen and find something that she wants to do?

Mine is 8 but she's very into the piano. If she has nothing else to do she will almost always go to sit down at the piano.

Also plays with her little brother a lot, reads, and occasionally draws.

We've always had a set time for Switch/TV and though she loves it, they're both used to the rule and don't ask to do it at other times.

When my daughter was 7, she would watch a bit of TV, kick a ball around the garden with her brothers, do cooking/baking, a little bit of craft. She'd spend hours on the trampoline. She loved going out to the park. In the school holidays, we would try to have a friend round as much as possible, or she would go to a friends, and they would chat/play/watch TV together. She wasn't hugely in to toys, although she did like board games.

After school she went to two or three activities a week - swimming, cubs, karate.

If she was bored at home and I didn't have time to play with her, then I would ask her to help with whatever I was doing - so she'd dust, help change beds etc, which she actually quite enjoyed. If none of that was appealing, then she just had to be bored! She'd usually find something to do if she was bored enough.

Mine is a boy but anytime he can build a Fort out of sofa cushions/chairs/throw blankets he is happy and will spend hours under there.

Otherwise he likes to kick a football about until he gets told off for playing football indoors.

Play out in the communal garden.
Sequin -art kits (the easy ones)
origami kits.
but mainly Lego and colouring/drawing when inside.
get her to help with household tasks whilst still young enough to find it fun!

I have the same problem, he likes jigsaws and lego but won't do them without someone with him. He does like colouring, mazes, he has started doing 4 by 4 sudukos. I can sometimes get him to play with something if its 'new' ie he's not seen it for a while.

Hey, my 9 year old was like this at 7/8 too. She games on the pc more now, as well as the Nintendo switch occasionally. But through gaming she's discovered she's great at creating characters for in game (she plays minecraft and roblox mainly as well as some other games) but shes very creative and creates different worlds, animals and scenarios etc.
She also loves to read and reads a lot too but is writing her own book now as well.

I do limit how much she's on the pc as her anxiety and moodiness started getting quite noticeable, so week days she gets a couple of hours, then we chill and watch TV together or just chat about her day so she can express and think about feelings.
She also does karate and on Sundays when we have nothing on, I make sure we get out to the beach, local park, duck ponds, etc.

As for anxiety, I've also started her on some vitamin drops, they're aimed at 0-5 but vitamins are vitamins, and these go in her drink unnoticeable (shes a bit funny with flavours and some foods) and I've noticed a massive difference this month since being on them as has school.

Mine likes to sit with audiobooks and draw/write stories.

I would do a full digital detox. If she's anxious she's using the screen time for dopamine, I do this myself! It'll hurt for a few days but then she'll find herself and start to do more of other things.
See if she can help you with food prep or even cleaning and tidying, she might love the results.

Colouring in
Loom bands
Air dry clay
Origami
Yoga
Drawing
Reading
Write stories
Gardening
Puzzles

Go out when possible
Get her to join in with chores
Cook/bake together
Craft stuff with an aim - making Christmas cards?
Start a hobby- weekly swimming/gymnastics/karate- Leisure centres are cheaper

But ideally, set the boundary. You decide how much screen time she gets, she doesn’t have to like it. It might be hard at first but if it is for her benefit, it is something you have to do.

Screen time is banned during the week - she plays with her Barbies, soft toys (she has a crazy imagination so can make up endless stories), making cards, reading books, helping to cook tea.

What do you do as a family at the weekend? Does she do any clubs? You need to find something that interests her.

Puts on magic or fashion shows, drawing, colouring, writing stories, plays or does homework on her kindle, reads books, watches TV/films, plays with toys (sylvanian familes, Barbie, baby dolls, OG dolls - her favourite thing to play is schools.

She also loves her scooter

Mine is just 8 and dances a lot so she’s always practicing her routines, making up routines, stretching, singing or on her air track. Otherwise she likes drawing, colouring, making up stories/scripts, reading, Spirograph, loom bands, other craft sets. She will also still play with toys like Barbie and Playmobil.

Tricky age isn’t it!

Mine has limited tablet time as she was becoming too reliant too- I actually banned it for a month to detox her! The change in her was amazing. She has about an hour a day now but longer on a Saturday morning as a treat.

I felt very emotional the other month as she cleared out quite a lot of toys 🥲

However, she kept a lot still and enjoys certain ones-
—Dresses up barbies and does fashion shows to show me, likes making little scenes and houses with little toys e.g. dogs/ polly pockets (in her doll houses etc.- or the floor 🤣) bastard to hoover around them. Enjoys playing teachers with her stuffed toys. As well as…

• Crafts- anything!
• painting
• remote control car
• Her walking pig
• colouring
• stickers
• writing stories
• generally making random things
• Playing on her piano book / karaoke machine thing
• makeup salon/nails ( kids products)

Dont be fooled though, there’s days she says there’s ‘ nothing to do.’ This is when I refer to the above and say she’s being silly as there’s plenty. She’s an only child so become very good at playing alone/ imaginative play. I just ensure play dates happen etc. and of course join in when I can!

She also has 3 clubs a week- swimming, dance and musical theatre

I find this age a little strange- still young but also growing up. Found Xmas hard this year! But I’ve bought her a keyboard, big robotic dog with a remote control that is amazing! (Reduced from £60 to £30 something on Amazon) and a robotic plane as her bigger presents. Hopefully likes them

x

She does love a screen, particularly watching Disney plus and playing Roblox with her older brother. Independently she will always choose colouring/scratch art/drawing etc. She plays with her hatchimals/lol dolls, particularly making little houses for them. Sometimes does jigsaw puzzles. With an adult enjoys Lego and board games. Plays outside with her older brother and a friend on the road with football/basketball/scooters and a trampoline in our garden.

Mine loves sequin art too! She has an old egg box to divide the colours in.
She also likes friendship bracelets, lego with her brother and her bike. We don’t allow screens apart from occasional family film night and the kids do a fair amount of sport.

Board games, sometimes Lego for a short time. But to be honest being in the house for long stretches is hard so lots of extra curricular activities to keep busy and walks/park/day trips when we can. In theory it feels tiring and some 'downtime' would be nice but in reality that 'downtime' is harder

Take away all screens. They have to go through the boredom to find ways of entertaining themselves.

Nearly 7

Still loves babies /dolls and got all her peppa pig stuff out the other day as had a 3yr over and great fun playing with it

Crafts
Music game on iPad
Trampoline /swing when dry
Reading
Tv
Painting
Dressing up

She's an only child so has a good imagination bless her

And writing stories /songs and then dancing to them

You have to take it away for a bit and encourage her to become creative and more resourceful, then only let her have it for short periods of time. You don't want it to replace her brain & become reliant on it. Try and get her interested in reading real books as well, they're great for escapism and imagination. Even the simplest things like a chalkboard and chalks, fuzzy felts, playdoh etc.. Think of what you liked doing when you were her age and try & recapture some of that magic & wonder with her .You might have to spend a little time doing stuff with her to start with, but that will help her gain confidence eventually.

7.5 year old DD loves board games and card games, making up tunes on the piano, baking, playing schools with her soft toys (ropes in the cat if he’s around), and although technically it’s screen time she loves doing ‘how to draw’ videos on YouTube which have really helped her gain confidence with drawing on her own.

Occasionally she will help with jobs like hoovering but I find that’s a good way to get her to find something else to do: “Oh well, if you’re bored you can always help me clean the bath…” usually has her up to her room within seconds!

She does swimming and Brownies weekly, has a bit of iPad time at the weekends and is allowed 20-30 mins of TV after school but only once homework is done.

Oh yes PP, playdough is a great one! Ditto slime and making potions!