Advice for my shy kid?

mauceddie

DD (4yo) is very shy. She's gotten much better in the last year since she's been at daycare, but is still extremely guarded around adults. Any advice to help her? This is actually one of the reasons I am a workign mom- she really needed the socialization of daycare. Is there anything outside of daycare I can be doing to help her in kindergarten next year?

hopefulmom

Is she OK with going into a setting where there are new kids and new adults?  You could get in a library storytime (they are usually early evening).  Or church nursery/preschool hour.  Our church has classes for different age levels and they do a story and a craft and the rest of the time is basically play.  This is while parents are in service.  I would take her wherever there are adults.  A trip to the firestation, museum, bakery, etc.  (call in advance so you can kind of have a short "tour").  If she is OK at daycare then she'll probably be fine in K.

mauceddie

Thanks! I should add that church is what's been concerning me. There's one assistant that she'll go to, but everyone else she just hides her face when she sees them. Sunday school is in the church basement, and they bring all of the children upstairs to be blessed before coming back downstairs to go into their individual classrooms. I can not for the life of me, get her to go upstairs with the other kids. Once they are in the classroom, I stay until they start an activity and she tells me it's okay to leave.

Last week we were there early to help set-up, and even walking down the hall if there was an adult walking towards us, she'd cover her eyes.

hopefulmom

You know some kids do much, much better without the parent present.  We see this all the time (especially at church).  We have  one way windows we can look into the classrooms but they can't see out.  You'll see little ones cry when parents first leave (and the ones that cry the longest and hardest are those that have parents that "linger").  Staying longer does not make things better.  Have you tried NOT waiting until she tells you that you can leave?  Maybe what you could do is tell her that you will meet her UPstairs when she comes up with the other kids...and then she can go back to the classroom.  She's going to be doing a lot of this in K.

Is it possible you can get her involved in an activity (like when you go early to help set up...she could place some chairs) and you be somewhere else in the room?  That way she won't be even near you if another person enters the room?

I'm kind of at a loss for other ideas...but maybe a teacher on here will have some good ones.  My kids were always very social and not shy at all (sometimes I wish they were a bit more shy).