Has anybody else had an able daydreamer as a child,how do you handle it?

[MilaMae]

Just starting to realise that dd is like me and a book obsessed chronic daydreamer. I daydreamed a lot at school/uni and always did the bare minimum of work.

Whereas I love dd for who she is I'd like to gently try and get her to focus more consistently but don't know how to.

Any ideas,she's 5?

TIA

I thought all 5yo girls were chronic daydreamers?
I think you need to give it time before you figure out if there's a problem that needs a solution.

I'm an ex KS 1 teacher believe me not all 5yo girls are like my dd. She would happily take half an hour to take her coat off,put her lunchbox away etc children are always sent to fish her out of the cloakroom.

Today she came out minus a blouse and bookbag and was clueless as to where both had gone.

On a good day she does fantastic work on a not so good day she will happily just switch off and you wouldn't think her work was from the same child. She's an able child and I'm worried she'll spiral into not being pushed later on,then get bored, then daydream more.

She has a fantastic teacher this year who really seems to have her down to a t, next year she might not be so fortunate so wondered if there were any techniques others had come across that I could do at home to help her focus more.

It's not a lazyness thing and she gets loads of sleep,she adores books,fairytales, witches,princesses etc and does love make believe. I think she thinks a lot too, we've had a lot of sensible questions re Haiti. She's sociable and has plenty of friends, it's nothing serious but would like to try and help to get in the habit of focusing when needed.

Milamae - hello Nice to meet another book obsessed chronic daydreamer. I am one, so's my twin, as was my mother, my father, and now it appears also my 5yr old daughter. I knew my daughter was a daydreamer recently when she asked me about the day dreams she was having. It doesn't appear to affect her work in school, yet.
All i can say about the focusing was that i became a lot better at it when i was older & in Uni & actually really seriously interested in what i was studying.
Books: they're like being in somebody elses daydream aren't they?

Another book-obsessed chronic daydreamer. It definitely has been a problem for me - perhpas less so as I hit my 30s. But many lessons/lectures have gone by and I haven't registered a word.

I can see dd is a daydreamer but as yet I'm not sure if she's going to be as extreme a case as I was. I hope not. I try to engage her fantasies as much as possible out in the real world - talk about them, draw them. My own mother was uneasy about this habit and it drove me more into myself - I never talked about it or externalised it in any way. That, I'm afraid, is the only tiny strategy I have been able to come up with.

Hello, we're another family of book-obsessed chronic daydreamers. My 5 year old DD took half and hour to put her trousers on this morning - and that's with a lot of 'encouragement' from me! She too has a brilliant imagination and her role playing games are very entertaining!

I've left lectures realising I haven't taken in a word, but did well academically. And in work, I've daydreamed through entire meetings, but had a successful career with lots of responsibility. So perhaps I wasn't as bad as I thought.

I think the key is finding things that spark their interest and imagination. I can still remember brilliant classes in school and uni years (and years!) later. But, like Acinonyx, I'm sure I became more focused as I got older.

We survived, so I'm sure your DD will do just fine!

Actually, I'm worse than I thought, it took me half and hour to press the 'post' button.

I was just the same: book-obsessed and dreamy. I now write novels for a living. So I say it was all in a good cause.

My son is equally dreamy and sometimes it is a pain when I'm trying to get him to remember what his maths teacher told him class about solving simultaneous equations.

My DD with similar daydreaming tendencies seems to havet turned a corner now at 9 ! She now makes notes in lessons to help her concentrate - a technique that works for me in boring meetings which I suggetsed to her. I make her repeat back intructions. She is worse when she is tired. She concentrates very well when singing, playing an instrument so things like times tables we learnt with a song CD. Frustrating as it is, in reception I would let it go - they have so much to cope with and daydreaming may be her way of coping. I have accepted now I am on my third that you should expect little of them in terms of organising themselves when they are that young and anything that they do remember/not lose/find again is a nice surprise !

Another one here, I coped fine in school until the latter stages of high school when my performance started to drop off due to my lack of focus. I wish I had had some input from adults to help me focus and concentrate, DS2 is a chronic dreamer and I an about to start training him at home by using a kitchen timer to gradually increase the amount of time (in very small increments) that he can concentrate on his homework and spelling practice.

I always found academic work easy and could catch up easily but what was harder was aquiring skills that require you to live in the moment, they were a real challenge (driving in particular) but I also had more of a sense of achievement as I had had to struggle IYSWIM.

Try activities that your daughter finds challenging rather than easy, give her lots of encouragements and do your best to teach her that setbacks and mistakes are not to be scare3d of. Also try her on activities, like dancing and singing or throwing and catching balls, that require you to live in the moment.

I also encourage DS2 to draw to share his ideas with others (we are working on writing but he is dyslexic and finds it difficult).

PS; I ended up at Art College!

Ah yes, driving! I sometimes gesture while driving because I am 'talking to someone' in my head. Dd commented on this the other day and dh totally rolled his eyes - he's always telling me to concentrate and pay attention. My body language totally gives me away.

Then there are the (mercifully fairly infrequent) occaisions where I find myself driving down a road I didn't expect to be on with no recollection of how I got there...

I think we've all done that.