9 yr Old Showing Little Interest In Activities She's Always Loved & Is Good At - Normal or Not ??

[rockinhippy]

My DD is 9, creatively very "gifted" at School & has always been very pro active with anything creative at home, she also sings, dances acts etc & again has a natural talent for these too & an interest in music

I'm used to her ALWAYS being interested in making, drawing painting, sewing, you name it, she loves to try it & will spend hours, even days with her head buried in her latest project & I love seeing the joy on her face when she's pleased with her work & has pushed herself to achieve something new. loved entering competitions & often winning too :)

BUT in the last 6- 8months or so, this has all stopped & its impossible to get her to do anything creative at home at all - until recently we used to get creative homework projects, I loved these because at least I knew she HAD to do something creative that week, but the battle to get her to start became a nightmare - but once she did, she threw herself into the project & did amazing work, which she was always very very proud of & loved to take into School :)

No creative home work any more, so she will not do anything, despite having 2 parents who are both creative & encourage her & challenge her with suggested projects :(

We have always put her in for a weeks Summer School, last few years its been Stage School one with a show at the end - she has LOVED this & loved taking a lead role & learning something new - this year she's not interested - she wanted to learn to play instruments, which we supported - but she can't be bothered to practise

Nothing seems to stimulate her interest at home, bar shite TV - we switch the TV off, but she just mopes around - she used to be an avid reader too, but she won't even do that ATM

I feel like her creative "passion" has all but disappeared :( yet when we can get her to do something, or she does something at school, she is so proud of herself & gets a real buzz out of it

I'm very creative & have been lucky enough to make a career out of it, which since she could talk DD has always said she wants to do - as a DC I buried myself in arts & crafts 24/7 & never lost that passion & do feel that is what helped me make a success of it

I'm not saying that at 9 she should know her career path, but it saddens me she no longer seems to have any interest in stuff she loves & still insists she wants to do when she grows up - well not quite that, she IS interested, but seems just can't be bothered with anything that requires effort these days :(

Is this normal at this age, or should I be looking deeper ?? - I ask that as she did have a bullying problem with her friends a while back, she was set upon by the whole group under the lead of 1 girl, with another as a side kick enjoying the show IYSWIM - thankfully this has all resolved itself now & they are all friends again - BUT part of the problem turned out to be that there was jealousy over DDs creative efforts - flouncing over looking at DDs work & then things like " no point in us trying, as you always win, your mum did that, etc etc" this was only a small part of the problem though, so the bullying wasn't entirely centred around DDs creativity.

I'd be grateful for any in put as to whether or not this is just a "normal" 9 year old thing & what I can do to help her, or if I should be working on this being fall out from the bullying she had earlier this year

TIA :)

Hmm. I have a 11yo that sounds not dissimilar.
She's also had problems with bullying this year, not really resolved, more a uneasy treaty perhaps.

She's just had an audition for the year 6 play. She loves performing, can't usually wait to do this sort of thing. And the year 6 play is a huge thing at the school-she's longed to do it since year 3.
Suddenly, she wasn't even sure she wanted to audition. I am sure it is down to the comments she got. She feels if she gets a big part she'll have sneers from a certain person of "well you always get it", if she doesn't she'll have "ne ne" sneers, so she feels she can't win. I'm not even sure whether she did the audition or not. She kept saying "XX will laugh at me".
We've had huge issues over the leavers' book. I'm sure most children are just shoving anything down. She's trying to be honest in her choices, but not put down anything that she could be teased about. They had to describe themselves and I suggested "musical"-apparently her class have been saying to her that it's stupid to be "musical" -because she is blatently very musical. She has got so upset about something that is meant to be fun for them.

It's just little comments that she makes that make me realise how big an issue the "nasty comments" have become. When she doesn't want to do something due to comments she might get, for her that's a huge thing as she's never been effected by opinions before.

What I'm doing is trying to encourage her to continue out of school, and in to a certain extent. Her teacher is on board, but as so much happens behind his back/quietly, there's not an awful lot he can do-particularly as dd1 won't tell anyone, and will even deny if it is raised. I encouraged her to do the audition, but as I said I don't know that she did it in the end, or she may well have done a bad audition on purpose.

Can you start some craft stuff while she's around and "ask" for help from her to get her going? The can't be bothered to practice, we make a non-issue. You practice. Full stop. Dd1 practices before school which works very well. Give her a choice on summer school-would she like this one or that. Maybe choose a different type if she's not wanting that one.