Hey, I've been meaning to ask if you know of any tricks or things Frank and I could implement to help with an overly needy child? Attention seeking is a bit strong, but my step daughter needs a lot from us, and we can'T always give it to her. Both kids have trouble entertaining themselves for some reason and just don't want to do anything alone unless they absolutely have to. Step-daughter seems less independent and requires more attention and takes more than we can give. We were wondering if you knew of anything we could do to help her be able to help with that.
It's hard to tell sometimes because we only have them one weekend out of two, but this Summer we'Re going to have them an entire month and we've already started doing a few things when we do have them, adjusting our approach to certain things, which has helped my step son with cognitive thinking. So I mean, I'm sure we can figure something out for this too.
Have you tried giving them a prize if they can self entertain for a bit?
For instance, set her up with something, a coloring page and crayons for this example, and say you'll give her a sticker on the calendar if she can color it beautifully for 30 minutes. Set a timer. And tell her if she gets three stickers that day, she gets a prize- bedtime story with both you and Frank, a board game before bed, something with your attention. She'll learn that by doing that thing solo that day, she'll be rewarded with primo attention time that night...
That's a good idea. Any ideas for fun rewards for preteens? lol I think one of our major difficulties that Frank and I are facing is that she's in that transition phase where she's not doing kiddy things anymore, but she's not a teenager yet. She's 11, going on 12 in September.
She does enjoy colouring and making drawings. Maybe I can make it a Rosie-approved activity too. And we can remind her of the things she enjoys doing on her own.
That actually gave me some ideas. :) Thank you!