Play with older age kids

[Anonymous]

DD5 is friendly and she can play with any ages. She loves to play with girls the most, and she likes to be a copycat. She will be in K in the fall, and she will attend aftercare good for K to 5th grade kids.

The other day, I am caught surprised that a 10 year old girl would want to play with her for an hour while we were watching her sibling game. They ran away to nearby playground that was like 50 ft away and she followed her running around to do this and that on a soccer field. It was the first time they met, and I was a bit worried & tried my best to make sure that she is still kind of "within my eyesight". When she attend aftercare in the fall, if she plays with other older girl. What things should I know in advance that I should be mind watching out for? Do ES girls talk about boys or do anything that is inappropriate these days? I am a bit worried because she is a copycat, and I am not from here. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Just like some kids are mature for their age, some are immature for their age so will be more comfortable playing with slightly younger kids. Also, some kids are just born leaders and have no problem bossing younger kids around to organize a game.

No big deal.

[Anonymous]

Girls at their sibling’s game will gravitate towards any other girls there. Even more so if they’re close in age, but my girls (5th) would much rather play with a much younger kid at the park than watch whatever sporting event their sibling is playing. One is now the “older kid” leading her group of younger admirers, but she was once the younger kid.

It’s less likely to happen at after care where there are more kids if the same age. For the most part, they’ll break off into age based groups and not play together.

[Anonymous]

My 9 year old really wants to be a babysitter/camp counselor and loves playing with younger kids and organizing games for them. Totally not how I was growing up, but she’s great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 9 year old really wants to be a babysitter/camp counselor and loves playing with younger kids and organizing games for them. Totally not how I was growing up, but she’s great.

There is a sweet 11yo girl who is the sister of a boy on my son’s baseball team. She always offers to play games with the little siblings and keep them occupied.

IME elementary age kids will generally play with whoever is available. And my DD and her friends (6-7yos) LOVE babies and will dote on any of their friends’ baby siblings whenever they have the chance.

[Anonymous]

Oh, but I will add to just keep lines of communication open with your child. My DD naturally shares a lot, and I encourage it. Once at her brother’s sporting event, she played with a few girls who were 2-3 years older, and they asked my DD if she had ever kissed anyone (this was when she was as 5). We never saw those kids again, but if we had I would have encouraged DD to find other kids to play with.