How to help DS age 5 make friends

[katedan]

I am hoping someone will be able to help me. DS is now in yr1 and seems to only have 2 friends. These two friends do not seem to be a very good influence on him and I would like to encourage him to not limit himself to two friends but have lots of different friends. He does not get invited to other childrens parties and when I ask him who he as played with that day he gets very cross. I have watched him with other children and when they say hello to him he just ignores them or tries to play fight them. This seems odd to me and I can see why the other children would not speak to him again. He wants a party for his birthday but cannot understnad why I will not hire an entainer for him and just two friends. I have tried to use the party as an incentive to befriend more children so he can invite them. I have very few friends myself and was never popular and I do not want this for DS. I think he gets picked on a little as he is quite short (109cm) and cannot run very fast. Advice please.

Awww bless him. My DS was the same in year R and got picked on because he always has a runny nose. It's heart breaking isn't it? He was also a daydreamer which meant that the other children would lose patience with him. He is now in year 1 and finally seems to have settled in. His group of friends has widened and he now has 13/14 really good school friends. Do you know any of the other mums at the school or any of the children in the class? I have read somewhere, that at this age children are very keen for their parents to approve of their friends so we talked a lot about the other children in DS's class which encouraged him to play with them. With regard to the play fighting, I think this is just what 5 year old boys do. My DH took DS to Tesco and bumped into one of DS's mates. DH was shocked at how aggressive they were towards each other with the play fighting, but they are really close friends. You could also speak to his teacher and see what s/he thinks. They will see how your DS interacts with the other children during the course of the school day. If there are any concerns I'm sure s/he will let you know.