PFB or genuine concern?

[HenriettaTurkey]

My DS is 2 next month & is, mainly, doing wonderfully. He is healthy, has a great vocabulary, is friendly & funny. He has a good attention span - e.g. He will choose a book & sit on my knee whilst we read it, and then repeat with several other books.

But I have one concern. The last few weeks I've been off work with ill health, but the illness I have means I can still attend the occasional group session with DS. You know the sort of thing - library singing, children centre playing etc.

DS likes to play with the cars/read books/cook in the toy kitchen/paint and is very kind & generous, great at sharing. But he really really struggles at circle time. As soon as the song bag comes out he starts running around in the middle of the circle, or focusing on the group leader, distracting others, pushing in when it's time to select the song object, and generally not responding to instructions. I have tried various different tactics & methods to encourage good behaviour, but to no avail. It's weird because it's so out of character. It's also weird because he loves songs & actions - but won't take part at group!

Am I making too much of this - and any tips on how to deal with it?

My just turned 2 year old is the same. Apart from the sharing that is. Totally normal for the age.

Totally normal at 2 I think. Dd will sometimes join in with singing as that's her favourite thing. But listen to a story at toddler group or follow instructions at gym, no way. And she loves stories and gym. Ds started to get it at coming up to 3 iirc. Don't think there's much you can do except wait it out! I'd take dd out if she's being really disruptive, but I think it's expected there's a reasonable amount of chaos at toddler things.

Completely normal, I'd say. DD is 25m, we go to a football class and though she loves it and gets ridiculously excited when we go, she has very little concept that it is a group or that she needs to listen to instructions or wait her turn. (Not that the group leaders are expecting anything really from a bunch of two year olds!)

I try and stand or sit with her and encourage her to listen to the coach, or to copy what another child is doing, and sometimes that works. If his language skills are up to it you could try starting to explain that 'now we need to sit down for a minute'. But it all sounds completely normal and if he's not disrupting the class I'd let him keep playing. If he is disrupting the class, though, you probably need to take him away from the group, depending on what you want to do re time out etc.

Thank you all! It just seems as though all the other DC are so good at joining in and behaving. I was quite surprised to see how difficult he found it to sit down at the right time, when he so enjoys sitting on my knee for a story.

Thank you for your reassurances...we tend to take him away from a situation and count to 10 if he throws/hits out etc in temper, and then say simply e.g. 'we did that because you threw your cup of milk when we told you not to' but I thought at his age, a more substantial time out would be lost on him.