Friendship

[pigscanfly82]

DD currently attends nursery and will be starting in reception in September. She will be going to a 2 form entry school and they're approximately 16 children going from her nursery to this particular primary school. Out of the 16, 10 will be in DD's class.

DD has two very strong friendships with 2 girls. Both of these girls will be in her class at school. The other two little girls are very different - one is quiet and the other is very confident. They both compete for DD's attention and don't play with each other only DD.

I am just a little concerned that the very confident one dominates DD to the detriment of DD forming other friendships. I was chatting to other mums today with other children in DD's class and I didn't know the names of the other children as DD only really mentions the 2 girls that she is friendly with. I really would like to encourage DD to play with other children and to form other friendships. Am I worrying or will the dynamics of the friendships change once they're in class?

I wouldn't worry - they'll be lots of new children, new activities, children would have grown over the summer, what they like now they might not like then, children can be very fickle - best friends one minute, don't want you to come to their birthday party the next.
Plus they often do small group work with children so she'll be socialising with other children all the time as often the groups are just random.
She may well stick to these other two girls initially as that's all she knows, but I don't doubt as she gets older, more confident and gets used to the reception set up she'll branch out and play with others too. - but also don't expect her to be able to tell you, it's tricky for little ones to remember so many names when first starting so she may still tell you she only played with X and Y as that's all the names she can remember!

Also who is to say these two other girls won't have moved on come September, one might bond with another child better and the confident one might be so absorbed in all the new experiences in Reception that she is just off meeting new friends and playing here there and everywhere.