Is it normal for kids in reception not to have one or 2 'special' friends?

[peggotty]

My dd doesn't seem to have a 'best' friend or couple of friends as far as I can gather from what she tells me. She seems to circulate between the same 8 or 9 kids from one week to the next. i'm not particularily worried but have noticed that a lot of the other kids in her class have either 'paired up' or adopted smaller groups. She seems perfectly happy dotting about between groups but just wondered what other people's experience was?

My DD2 is like this.She chooses which game looks like best fun,rather than who is playing it

I've always been told that friendships are usually very fluid at this age, so sounds very normal.

ds1 always had a 'best friend' in reception, but tbh I would have rather he hadn't. It is only reassuring to have a best friend when that friend is around and wanting to play with you. It can be pretty traumatic if they are off school or not as into exclusivity in the relationship as your child.

ds2 was a completely different kettle of fish. No best friend just really good mates with most of the class. Much easier all round, and imo, much healthier.

It remains to be seen how dd will be in reception. At the moment she only likes playing with boys who are a good year or two older than herself (she's just turned 3). Children of her own age, and girls in particular are "a bit weedy". Comes from having 2 big brothers I suppose, but I do wonder what the future will have in store for her!

DS was in reception last year. Girls & boys played together depending on what was most fun. This also applied in class when they had sessions of 'child-initiated play'.

Later in the year many of the girls got into best friend scenarios which proved a bit of a nightmare when they started telling the boys they couldn't play with them.

Ask DS now who his best friends are now and he names 3 of the girls consistently. He declares them tomboys! He enjoys football and tig and so do they.

My experience is that friendships are ver fluid at this stage anyway.

I am always a bit wary of anyone who insists their DC are in a specific group of 3 or 4 pals.

My Ds2 who is now in yr 2 was friendly a number of boys in FS2, but now his closest friends at school only include one of those boys.

Similarly with DD, very friendly with 2-3 girls in FS2, now (yr 4) still close to one of those girls but also has a whole different set of friends.

OP yr DD sounds like she is playing the field in a sensible way!