Hi all,
I have two daughters, 7 and 9. We are having a problem at the moment because my 7 yo does not have particular friends at school and considers her best friends to be her sister's friends - so she tries to hang around and play with them at every playtime. My 9 yo has limited patience with this and tends to go off in a huff, the other girls are kinder but I think it is wearing - we hear this from both my 9yo and the mum of one of the other girls who we are close to. I am not sure what to do to help. We have spoken to our oldest about being kind, considering how hurtful it could be to her sister if no one wants to play with her, and also about being proactive - pointing out other children who look lonely or are playing a game that can be joined in. We have talked to youngest about trying to give the older ones some time to play together sometimes, i.e. not always hanging around with them, but I don't want to hurt her feelings - any advice would be really really good.
It is a school with relatively small class sizes, my 9yo has a great class with lovely children, the 7yo has a smaller class with few other girls and we don't' really know them as well.