Hi,
DD started reception in September and is due to turn 5 in a couple of weeks. She has a very close friendship with a boy who she was at pre-school with, and is generally a bit reluctant to make other friends, although she does talk to the other kids and plays with them, but only when he is not 'available'. The thing is that I am concerned this isn't really a healthy friendship for DD anymore. I have always tried to encourage her to play with other children as well (usual conversations about it's nice to have lots of friends, you might not always want to play the same game as x so how about playing the other children, etc.), but she still really focuses on him. He has now started to be a little bit mean to DD, I think because he knows she will always be there at his beck and call. They only ever play the games he wants, she ends up being the character or person who she didn't want to be, etc.
How can I encourage her to make other friends, to not play with this boy if he is being mean, and how can I help her understand that if a friend is being mean or making her sad, they're not really a very good friend at all. I know they're still only little, but I am kind of worried about how it might affect her self esteem if she lets this boy kind of dominate her.
She is naturally quite timid and I want to do everything I can, whilst she is still young, to learn to recognise how good friends behave versus those who aren't really very good friends. Any thoughts on how I can do this?
I do arrange play dates etc. with other children, but a lot of her pre-school friends kind of scattered to many different schools, so that's not really helping with this situation.
Any ideas for how I can help her be brave enough and strong enough to stand up for herself with him? Any ways I can encourage her to play with other kids? Are there any books anybody can recommend that I can read with her to help her understand?
D