DD is just 2 and currently at home with me. She is registered to start pre-school in Sept when she's 2.5, just a couple of mornings a week at first but it'll be a start.
The problem I have is that I am getting paranoid that she is getting a) bored and b) lonely.
We do 2-3 activities a week, music and art-based, so she does come into contact with other toddlers but in a fairly formal setting. I have tried playgroups with her but the children come and go and she is, I think, the sort of child who will only be comfortable mingling with other children when she actually begins to recognise them. Playgroups are also all incredibly hectic and noisy and it's impossible for her to really 'play' with any particular child. I think the groups are more about the mums tbh, and so I don't see DD getting any really good little buddy-ships going at any of them. Hence we have stopped going to those and just go to our other activities.
ALL my ante-natal friends went back to work months ago (I work from home while DD sleeps) so we have no local friends for playdates on weekdays. Weekends either we want to spend time as a family as she doesn't see DH much in the week, or we see extended family, so not much chance for playdates then.
My other friends with children similar age are few and far between (most have older kids) and anyway live quite far away, we don't get together v often with the children sadly.
So how on earth do I get opportunities for DD to have a social life until she starts nursery, 6 months from now??! It's just not obvious how to do it, practically speaking.
She sees (and adores) her slightly older cousins but only about once a month.
I just worry that she is starting to get bored with me at home. I do as much as I can, we go out to the park, we paint, bake, read, library, play i the garden, potter with her toys... but the days are long and it still feels like we watch too much CBeebies which ultimately I think she is a bit bored by IYSWIM. Today we read a book about a nursery and she was fascinated and said she would like to go to one... broke my heart a bit that she is a bit lonely and needs some friends :(
A HUGE issue, even if we had more practical options, is that she is an uber sensitive child with major separation anxiety at times, she is ONLY comfortable and relaxed with other people when she really knows them and she doesn't like sharing etc... (obv she won't learn to share until she has more opportunity to, and she won't learn to interact with other kids until she has more oppotrunity to, so it's a vicious circle). So even if we DO have an opportunity for a playdate, she will almost certainly get in a state about the newness of it and spend most of the time curled up on my knee getting annoyed at the mere presence of others, until roughly 15 min before we have to leave when she will start having a wonderful time and then kick off big time when dragged away...
It sounds silly but 6 months feels like a LONG time and I just feel she is getting to the point of really needing something 'else' to stimulate her and widen her horizons.
Any advice, or just reassurance? I worry that she's somehow missing out on social skills she will find it hard to catch up on.