Friendship is Magic: Share your tips for helping children build lasting friendships with the My Little Pony: The Movie - chance to win £300 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

To help celebrate the brand new My Little Pony movie, the team behind the film would love to champion the beauty of friendship - and learn about the tips you have for helping children build lasting friendships with their school mates, neighbours and pals from clubs etc.

Do you gently suggest ways of making and keeping friends, encourage play dates to deepen friendships, or have other ways to guide them through the sometimes tricky path of childhood friends?

Here’s the movie synopsis

“A dark force threatens Ponyville, and the Mane 6 - Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity - embark on an unforgettable journey beyond Equestria where they meet new friends and exciting challenges on a quest to use the magic of friendship to save their home.

The film has an all-star voice cast including Emily Blunt, Kristin Chenoweth, Liev Schreiber, Michael Peña, Sia, Taye Diggs, Uzo Aduba and Zoe Saldana. The movie features original music and songs performed by Sia, Diggs, Saldana, Chenoweth and Blunt."

Rated U

Add your comment to this thread and you will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get a £300 John Lewis voucher.

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

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Lots of conversations about being kind, not leaving people out, generally trying to be a good friend. Recently my daughter was trying to do something creative as a surprise for one of her friends, and involving other friends in it. I pointed out that if she wasn't careful the friend the surprise was for might feel like she was being left out, which I know wasn't the aim.

We practice 'joining in' when other children are playing by asking 'what are you playing?' rather than 'can I join in?' (which could result in a 'no' response!).

We have maintained playdates with nursery pals even though they went to different primary schools. This has been helpful as he's never found kids 'just like him' at school and eventually they will all end up at secondary together.

Taking a friend out for the day to a park with a picnic, the beach, cinema or to a theme park at the weeknd or during the school holidays is a great way to form a good friendship bond and when they are slightly older having a sleepover is fantastic, especially in the summer if they can sleep in the garden in a tent.

You need to be a good friend to make good friends.
Shared experiences lead to friendship so arranging to do things together outside school. As a parent if you can host a little get together for Easter or Halloween or Xmas it is much appreciated.
For kids, including people who are shy or on their own or new. Taking turns to decide what games to play, dd and her friends have a rota for playtime, they also have a rule to always say yes if someone else outside their normal friendship group wants to play. Being kind. Sharing. Friendship is a skill that has to be learned! Some of my friends I've had for over 40 years, friendship is a valuable commodity that money can't buy, treasure it!

My faveourite tip is to have plenty of photos and canvases on your walls and a photo album for your daughter or son of their close friends. If they haven't seen them in a while it's lovely to keep that bond. My little boy is 18 months and looks at his friends in photos every few days and will pretend he's phoning them on his toy phone and asks for them randomly.

It's so important for them to grow up having their special people in their lives as much as possible and crates confidence and happiness.

Find what works for your child.
My girl was very shy, I found 1 to 1 play dates worked best for her.
She was a bit clingy when I would drop her off to her play dates , so I would give her something she could share with her friend. Something to make her feel special.

Play dates and birthday parties, so far. I am starting to make friends with some of the mums which I think will help too.

Going to other children's birthday parties & having parties ourselves with children & other parents especially as we have no relatives nearby.

Play dates are the best way. DC have a lot of similar age neighbours on the doorstep so don't often have school friends round as they all live miles away.

Birthday parties are good in the first few years.

I also taught DC to be generous, kind and helpful towards their friends.

One of the things I try to teach my daughter is that friendships can be tricky sometimes, and that's ok. But being a good friend is working through any difficulties to restore harmony. Falling out, or not wanting to play, doesn't mean a friendship is over, it's just hit a little bump in the road. It's the friends' job to work together to get rid of the bump.

I've just written a note in my daughters school bag to give to a classmates mum!
She will only play with her brother at school which limits her making friends and he is getting a bit fed up too!

So I've arranged for her friend to come round on Friday with her mum for a play date.

Hopefully this will get things going

Encourage them to be honest, kind and treat others how they would like to be treated. And teach them to look out for the underdog.

We encourage them to play as much as possible and take them to busy new places at the weekend

Being kind and wanting to play with lots of different children. DD has just started reception so trying to go to all the birthday parties too!

I encourage my DC:
-to be themselves and that if people don't like them for themselves, then they are not true friends

• that it's not important how many friends they have or if they have a BFF
• that true friends like you for who you are, not what you have or what you give them
• to listen properly when a friend speaks and try to understand their thoughts and feelings
• that you may sometimes have to make decisions which go against what your best friends think, but to always do the right thing
• to understand that we are all different and that is s good thing
• that even if you don't get on with someone, you have to be civil and not unkind
• to understand that friendships have good and bad times and that is okay
• to always treat friends with respect and you will earn respect

I encourage my children to think about how others are feeling, never leave anyone lonely- ask them to join in. Talk about what a good friend is.

We do alot of clubs which means they meet children from other schools.

For a child to be able to make and keep friends is so important. When my children were sitting and playing we 'took turns' with a toy, sometimes we had tears, but with praise and kisses the tears were a distant memory. So when my eldest started school, he quickly made friends and I had good reports from his teachers that he was a polite child, who played nicely, and was a child everyone wanted to be with. I feel that good friends can help where parents cannot, at school against bully's, as a confident, and someone to share those silly jokes we just don't find funny. I try to have children over for tea when I can, and special friends can have sleepovers at weekends. I still have friends now which I met at at primary school, and we have such a special shared history, which I would love for my child too.

Being a friend doesn't come naturally to all children, so they may need it modelled through story books or positive role models. That said, one of my BFF is incredibly shy and has proved their worth several times over

From a practical point of view I encourage them to have friends over, join in school clubs and outside clubs. Our house is not open all hours but if kids knock they are alway invited in and never kept on the step (I used to hate this as a child / teen).

From a behaviour point of view I teach them to be kind and tolerant of their friends. I find that they naturally find the people they enjoy spending time with and when they do I encourage them to be a good friend which means (on a child basis) not leaving people out, not being unkind and playing nicely.

I discuss friendships I have, a few longterm ones where we show mutual respect.
My dd appreciates what makes a good friendship and has discussed with me behaviour that she doesn't like, such as pushing.

We encourage her to do random acts of kindness, which is often a great icebreaker

My Mum always told me to treat people how I would like to be treated. I say the same to my kids.

one thing is I've always said to my son is that friends can have other friends and so can he, but what makes a strong friendship is that you always go back to each other. I usually let my kids "battle" their own Battles with friends and try not to get to involved. they tell me everything that happens but I always ask what is your feeling on it

I encourage DD to share and be kind. She can be shy at times so we have been working on introducing herself to other children (at soft play/ park etc) and asking if they want to play. It has been going well.

To not leave people out and to sometimes play group games that all her friends can also join in (rather than just her and her best friend).
That it’s ok to like different things and still be friends (ie: not picking the tuna sandwich she didn’t really want just because her friend picked a tuna sandwich).

I have also been explaining how friendships should be a two way street. That sometimes you play things they want and other times what you want. That she should stand up for herself when needed and not everyone who appears to be a friend really is. (We’ve had an issue recently with a neighbour kid ditching her when someone better comes along).