entertaining a five year old....help

[hmb]

My five year old is a bright, and loving child. However she expects to be entertained every moment of the day and is unable/unwilling to entertain herself. She will play well with other children, but never alone.

As A child I was expected to just 'get on with things', but we all seem to do so much more with our children nowerdays.

Is this a common thing? And does anyone have any ideas how to get her to play alone, so that I can get some jobs done

hmb, my oldest son was like this, too. He is now almost 8 years old and will play by himself, sometimes. Hurray!! A gameboy is a favourite, and also drawing and painting. He also likes watching TV or videos by himself, but this did not happen until he was about six. Quite a late age compared to his friends.

Even now, he never takes himself off to his bedroom to play with his toys. He prefers to chat to me in the kitchen. He is, I think, simply a people person.

We do not have a computer or a playstation, but I think if we did, he would enjoy playing on these alone. As it is, he will curl up on the sofa with his gameboy. Your daughter is younger, but some similarly entertaining technology appropriate to her age could help her get into the habit of playing alone.

And, if my son is anything to go on, things do get much better from five years onwards.

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