Year 2 boy friendships, what are they like?

[Barbararon]

EDIT- I meant year 3.

Parents of Year 2 kids, specifically boys, what’s your experiences of friendships at this age (so 6-7). Just trying to navigate what seems to be lots of changes of friends at the moment with my son often upset.
He’s had the same friends more or less since nursery but grown closer to a few more since then, but in Year 2 we seem to be getting a lot of “so and so doesn’t want to be my friend any more”, then a period of upset, then they’re friends again. Is this normal?

Fairly common OP, it’s the start of when kids (boys and girls) start to have different likes/ interests and simply start to grow apart from children they may have played with without issue when younger.

It’s a tough stage and you’d do well to help build his resilience and encourage him to develop a wider friendship group. Boy friendships at this age are still fairly basic, ie which group plays what games in the playground that your DS prefers.

He’s old enough to start choosing his own friends, it’s ok if he’s not that keen on his old group (and vice versa), as long as you guide him how to do this kindly. It doesn’t need to be a big falling out with existing friends, it’s a gradual move away.

i work in Primary education, it surprises me at this age the number of parents who still decide their children’s friends for them (largely because the mums are friends). It causes issues in the playground with the kids being stuck in a group they don’t enjoy.

I used to say regularly “perhaps they’re having a bad day, if they don’t want to play it’s ok to find someone else who does want to play with you”.

How good are the school at including DC in activities? Ours had a friendship bench for anyone feeling a bit alone and Fit Fridays where they had some activities run by one of the Teachers.

Does he play football? At that age my DS mainly played with whoever was playing football that day.

@TinyMouseTheatre no hates football and sports. Loves art, playing and games. Most of his friends are the same and he’s got some lovely little pals, but I like @Nofrogslegs advice, to let him pick his own friends and just get on with it. My mother would never have got involved in friendship stuff and I always made loads of friends, but it’s sad when I’ve made such good friends with the other mums. It is what it is!
Thanks both