A day in the life of an 8-9 year old boy....

[gameboy]

Can you tell me about yours please?

My DS doesn't seem quite like his friends and I'm beginning to feel that I don't understand him any more/ I don't REALLY know what he likes or dislikes (sometimes I think he just says what he thinks I wnat to hear).

I'm just wondering whether this is normal, and just a phase...

So,

What are their favourites toys?
What do they do after school?

• at home
• outside of home

What hobbies do they have?
If they have friends round, what do they do together?

What sorts of things are they interested in?

My ds is 9, he doesn't really have any favorite toys. He likes playing with the xbox, mainly driving games. He uses the pc again for games and also to search for items of interest latest ones being tanks and bike lights! He spend time outside on his bike with other children who live on the estate.
He enjoys building things with lego. He enjoys drawing usually cars & lorries. When he has friends over( he doesn't have a "best" friend, he tends to play with 3 or 4 different boys) they usually play on the xbox, ride bikes, climb trees, play army. When he's with me he enjoys helping out in the kitchen, chopping veg, frying onions that sort of thing. He also likes to bake. I don't consider him to be very streetwise, he's quite sensitive and naive.

OK, I guess I should answer for DS

• Toys - seems to be growing out of them a bit. Still some lego/ construction/ robot type stuff

At home - plays on the computer/ the Wii/ his gameboy

Practices his guitar

Doesn't really go 'out' to play in the garden unless someone persuades him - really isn't into football/ ball sports etc in the garden.
In fact he doesn't seem 'able' to just mess about in the garden like I see other kids do?

Likes bike riding at weekends with us.

Don't really know what he and his friends do when they get together - mostly Wii/ computer games etc.

That's it really -I feel as if he should have some 'hobbies' like I did when I was about this age?

Ds is in this age group and these are some of his favourite things to do

Toys: Lego, art, GeoMag, infernal bloody Dr Who Exterminator cards, also the dread DS Lite
After school at home: whingeing about homework, doing homework, eating cheese and watching telly. Or doing his Nintendo or Club Penguin on the PC
After school outside home: Footie club, Cubs

Hobbies: reading, computers, Lego, day-dreaming about world domination and a career as an international spy
Things he does with friends: wrestling for no apparent reason, Break Dancing , spy games, war games, football, Lego, card-swapping, Dr Who games

He is also keenly interested in anything that is None of His Business

My DS is 8 - he goes to an afterschool club every day, so we very rarely have friends over to play. I take him to tennis and swimming during the week - and he loves both.
Weekends, he has rugby on Sat morning - sometimes goes to another boys house in afternoon - where they seem to play outside all day on bikes etc. Should say we live in a village, no other kids nearby, so he never plays out on streets by himself.
At home, he LOVES lego, and making things - playing playstation - (only its broken at the moment) DS games, Scalextric etc. Reads books about how things work etc, and story books ar night when he should be sleeping.
Eats all the time too!

He sounds fine to me gameboy - ours is a reasonable garden messer-abouter but not with friends round. They just seem to yap on and on about Dr Who for hours

DS is 9.

He plays with lego for hours. He draws, mostly 'super cars'. He reads alot, Roald Dahl is his fav at the moment. He also reads the Beano religiously.
Plays out with his mates making dens. He can't ride a bike yet, alot of his friends can and they enjoy this so DS practising so he can go out with them on bike rides.
He likes playing on the playstation. Going for walks with us in the countryside etc. Board games and top trumps cards also.
Him and his friends seem very into Doctor Who. They do swaps of some or other collectable cards alot.

He has no particular hobbies, but does after school clubs most nights, basketball, badminton etc and loves these.

My ds is 8. Doesn't do any 'formal' after-school activities at the moment. Loves reading fiction, lego, playstation, painting model soldiers etc; still likes 'imaginative' play, where a soft toy is a 'real' character to him. Loves taking care og his guinea pigs and fish
When outside, loves tree-climbing, running, football.
When he is with friends its usually football, playstation, fighting games, racing

Gameboy, your ds's activities sound quite healthy and normal to me. What makes you anxious?

Forgot to mention he does football & netball club at school, and also goes to the gym's family sessions twice a week.

Well, I have two in that age bracket (lucky old me).

They don't really 'do' toys - though ds2 does like fiddling with Lego, Hama beads (!), Magnetix etc. Ds1 still has fingers like planks, so doesn't join in.

Both like reading a lot. And fighting with each other a lot.
And watching Raven-type stuff on telly.

Outside the home, they do football and tennis - to excess!
Ds1 does cubs.

Ds2 has lots of friends. Ds1 has two good friends and a small band of mates. If they come round, they just mooch and run about and talk about football/computers/how hungry they are...

Hello

My DS is nearly 9.

Still very much into Lego, also likes Club Penguin and Mini Clips on computer (we don't have a games console, but am tempted by a Wii). Anyone else have hundreds of Kinder egg toys??

When with friends, ride bikes in park, plays footie, climbs, runs about, shouts.

Goes to cubs, likes swimming, showing interest in cricket, generally likes school (but not homework).

Eats a lot, grows a lot.

Can easily default to non-stop telly watching if not monitored!

OK - this s mking me laugh -they're all the same!

I think th bit that worries me is the tendency towards the more sedentary stuff PC/ games. I guess I'm comparing him to friends' boys who spend every waking minute of free time in the garden playing football.

He does do some sport/ exercise - swimming/ rugby, and sports at school, but he wouldn't do it if we didn't take him etc.

It just seems to me that nearly all the boys at this age are into football, ndhe absolutely isn't!

Marina - DS is soooo into so may of the smae things especially spy-related!

Gameboy, I secretly like the ones who aren't into football.

Not one of the sheep, if you know what I mean

Gameboy, my DS is not into football at all, and I worried about too. But not everyone has to be sporty, do they? He does a bit of swimming and karate and is just learning to ride a bike, but is happy just to bimble in his room with lego(Glad to hear that Seashells' DS is only just learning bike riding! I was worried about that too).

But mostly DS likes doing drawings of Dr Who, making models of Dr Who monsters, writing stories about Dr Who, reading about Dr Who, talking about Dr Who with his equally crazy friends and watching Dr Who. I'm quite fond of David Tennant, so not complaining!!

My ds (8) is not into football (hooray). He is into guitar, cricket & swimming (in a swimming club)and riding his bike. He's nuts about Dr Who and those flipping cards and is now collecting those bug magazines too. He's a pretty good cook and a far better gardener than me. He's got some good friends but no 'best', he seems to alternate who he wants round.
Looking at it written down he sounds lovely but he can be unspeakably annoying .

ooh - bug magazines sound interesting - what are they??

ds2 is nearly 8 - he's not particularly sporty but does like swimming (he's not v good, bless), cycling (goes to cycling club on sat am) and cricket (plays in the garden/park whenever he can persuade one of us to join in)

he loves lego - if he had his way he'd spend his entire time in his room making lego models - he's v creative and makes lots of little intricate models from his own imagination

he reads a lot (especially when he's supposed to be asleep )

he likes playing lego games and funnygames on the pc

he has 5 or so good friends from his class - they usually play cricket, occasionally football, lego star wars on the xbox

his best friend is from the year below and they spend hours playing with lego (there's a theme here I think )

loves star wars and has watched all the films about 50 zillion times - will draw scenes from star wars too

My ds will be 8 after Xmas. He is not hugely into football either although he will play it sometimes.

He still plays will lego and also bits and pieces of plastic tat that he sets up into battle-type situations in his room. He has a younger sister and will also get drawn into her games - mostly imaginary where they pretend to be things and make dens. He has just got into pokemon cards, he also likes playing board games with us.

After school - playstation (rationed) , cricket club, woodcraft folk, tv. We try to go to the park after school as much as possible and always meet some kids he knows - he will run around, play football, rugby or tag, or climb trees. He also loves reading and often just sits with a book before tea, or will read to his sister.

If he has friends home he'll play on playstation with them, do lego, play spy games or just go and plot in his room......

These boys sound great. I teach Y5 - it's a fab age. xx

Hi, my son is 10 now and has just started getting active withing the last 8/9 months. He rides his bike after school and at the weekends down to the park with his school friends who are also neighbours. Before that NOTHING.

I tried to get him to do rugby and football in clubs but he hated it.

He wouldnt go out onto the play equipment, swings, slides, monkeybars in our garden EVER! We bought a trampoline for both of my kids in March and they hardly ever go on it! They don't like going into the garden on their own?

My ds used to really like BeyBlades(had all of them), YuGiHo Cards(had 1,000's)but last year 8/9 stopped playing with them.

My DS was a real nerd, playing on the PS2 but doesn't do that so much now. He does have a DS and sometime prefers to play on that as he does like his own company.
When he was 8/9 his friends used to come round after sch and play with YuGiHo and battle.

Gameboy - if it is any consolation I have exactly the same concerns - but inverse!

My ds (8) loves football, rugby, swimming and messing around outside. He has little interest in the computer apart from a driving game (but then there is intense competition for the computer in this house, so maybe he just misses out!) and will slouch for hours given a chance in front of the tv.

He is not into lego, drawing or anything finnicky. I took him to a brilliant book fair on sunday and they had illustrators doing kids books and a huge array of books and video shows for the kids. He was just not interested and when I offered him his choice of book, illustrated personally and dedicated to him by the author/illustrator he sighed and asked if 'he was OBLIGED' to have a book! All the other kids - boys and girls - seemed to be in literary heaven. The only thing that impressed him was the half baguette jambon sec sandwich he had for lunch

If we put our two sons together we would end up with a model 8 year old!

Well my ds is 10. Not much older. He is into anything electronic! x-box, psp, computer,gameboys ect. which I do have to limit else he would be on them forever. Loves pokemon and draws loads. Would play outside a lot on his scooter if he had friend nearby but unfortunately they live further away. Loves football at school and swimming. Even cricket also. Very competative and loves to agrivate his sister! When friends come around they definately head to the electronics and then later I have to jump in and kick them out to play before their eyes turn square. Now got into the captain underpants books and for a long time loved the horrid henry's. Collects pokemon figures and loves games like monopoly and simpsons cludo

ds1 just ten, ds2 nearly eight.

ds1: computer, Poke-blardy-mon EVERYTHING - cards, trading, computer sites, games on dreaded DS. Dr Who. Not lego that much though. Jumps wildly on trampoline, has little opportunity for much outside independent play though. Chess. Reading - Lemony Snicket, the Angel spy series, Tolkein, Jacqueline Wilson (strange, but true). Loves The Simpsons. Plays Clarinet but won't practise. Draws Pokemon, eats Pokemon. Wants more sweets. Plays Rugby, goes to an Art Club, plays in a Wind Band but would rather stay at home and stare at screens, hopefully with Pokemon on them. Oh and eats a lot too. And likes The Beano. Not many friends, seems to have a small group, no best-friend. If they come round they jump on the trampoline, play on the Wii, trade cards. Would rather scoot than bike ride. Regularly says, 'I need a wood or a river please.'

ds2: still plays imaginative games, hates lego, likes crazy bones, Pokemon (sigh), hates football. He likes musicals, sings Les Miserables whilst wandering about in his pyjamas, avid reader, fast talker, also hungry a lot of the time, grumbles about any sport, likes singing, drama, and hanging upside down off the furniture asking me 'would you rather be in Les Miserables or Oliver, if you HAD to be in one.' Eccentric. Has lots of friends, very empathetic, gets cross a lot, likes to stay at home.