My child has no friends

We are social beings. From the moment we are born we make distinction between the people around us, between relatives, friends and strangers, and start to communicate.

The friendships children have with each other are different than those they have with parents and relatives. Of course, learning and social support result from relationships with parents, teachers, and other adults. But they don’t substitute for other relationships and it is among other children that kids learn how to interact with equals.

Why friendships are important
Children need other children to learn valuable social skills. Through interaction with (school) friends they learn how to do things like join groups, make new friends and deal with competition and conflict. Children need friendships to develop their own indivduality by providing them a supportive context in which self-exploration, emotional growth, and moral development can occur.

But what should you do if your child is finding difficulties to make friends at school? Some children are very shy and may, even around kids they know fairly well, hesitate to comment or participate. Highly intelligent children may also have difficulty making friends. Their intelligence, especially in verbal language may make it difficult for other children to understand them. Sometimes children are behind in social development, and merely lack the skills required to make friends. Also causes like removing, problems at home, a new teacher, a new kid at school can the inhability to make friends.

Whatever the reason is, it is very important that you talk to the teacher about this. He or she will most likely be aware of this situation and may be able to give you information about any options available at school. More attention and guidance in the classroom towards both your child and the classmates can make the hughe difference.

What can you do?
Let your child know that you feel friendships are important.
Provide a safe and loving environment for your child, make him or her feels loved and supported.
Encourage your child to invite other kids at your home.
Organize nice things to do for your child and some schoolchildren like the pool or have an adventurous quest in your yard!
Respect your child’s social character; some children do best with a host of friends, and some do best with a few close friends.
Make arrangements for your family to spend time with another family that has a similar-age child.
Encourage your child to develop interest and hobbies that will help to build self confidence.
Encourage your child to seek out kids that are “friendly” in the classroom.
Help your child to meet new friends outside of school.

Do you have good suggestions for parents who are facing this problem or do you want to get your questions answered? Get involved! Join our Family Forum to talk about this issue (or other topics).

Friendly Glubble Fox

As a little tribute to our friends at Firefox, the web browser Glubble is designed for, and to our own cool Glubble Foxes we’ve created a special Friendly Glubble Fox as a free gift paper doll for you. You can download the Glubble Fox here as a PDF file.

Glubble Gotcha Play Art Dolls are part of Glubble for Families. The Play Art Dolls come in various collections and can be downloaded for FREE from the Kids Interface of Glubble, GlubbleNews or through the special Glubble Gotcha web site which you can find here. The Gotcha Dolls are not only cool collectibles, but also great toys to enjoy with your family or friends.

Marley & Me

The movie version of Marley & Me begins shortly after young John (Owen Wilson) and Jenny Grogan (Jennifer Aniston) tie the knot. Moving to the warm weather climate of Florida and taking jobs at two of the local newspapers, Jenny and John don’t feel ready for a baby yet so John surprises Jenny with a golden Labrador puppy for her birthday.

From the start the cute little clearance pup is a mess waiting to happen as he tears through belongings, races away from his owners, and goes berserk during thunderstorms. John and Jenny try to get Marley trained at obedience school but he gets kicked out faster than you can say “Hello Kathleen Turner.” (The Academy Award nominee plays Marley’s beleaguered dog trainer in a brief sequence.)

Later, as John and Jenny’s family grows with the arrival of three kids in short succession, Marley continues to be a headache for the Grogan household. At one of the few less-than-idyllic points of their rosy married life, an exhausted Jenny demands John send Marley to live somewhere else. John complies, but Jenny quickly realizes that Marley’s real home is with them, even if living with him means being on constant clean up crew.

Of course any life story where the protagonists are played by affable and photogenic actors like Wilson and Aniston is going to have a surreal glossiness applied to its storyline. However, the depiction of the richness and true love pets provide to their owners is realistic enough.

World’s worst dog has never looked so good. “Marley & Me” is an excellent movie for dog lovers as well as those who were die hard fans of the book, which you don’t need to have read to enjoy the film. So do yourself a favor, much like your adored canine companion, let this movie into your heart.

The DVD has not yet been released.

The best wishes for 2009

Dear all,

2008 has been a roller coaster year for us. We worked really hard on a totally new experience that will provide families with children a safe and fun on-line gathering place. After our launch in September we received very positive publicity and we see the number of families joining us grow every day.

But the thing we are most proud of is the way you have helped us improve on our service. We have hundreds of active users dropping by our Glubble community on a regular basis. With your help we have detected issues and resolved them and we have improved the service by adding new features you have requested.

We hope you and your family will have a wonderful 2009. We also hope you will continue to enjoy Glubble for Families, invite extended family (grandparents, uncles, aunts etc) to your family page to have fun and interact with you and your children. Please keep giving us feedback to further improve the Glubble for families experience.

We have some spectacular new family services coming your way in 2009 and we can’t wait to tell you more about them. But for now…

The Glubble team wishes you and your family all the best for 2009!

Alexander

Free Nativity Set from Glubble

This Glubble Paper Doll Nativity figure set displays all the wonderment of the Christmas season. Each figure has been meticulously designed, giving this contemporary look while keeping with the rich coloring and detail you have come to expect from Glubble’s Gotcha Paper Dolls.

This set is a special gift from Glubble to you as an appreciation for all the support and kind words we have received for our continuous effort to offer a free service and Firefox add-on to bring families together online and keep young children safe and FREE surfing the web.

This special set contains the Christ Child, The Virgin Mary, The Father Joseph, The Angel, The Three Kings, and a friendly sheep for you to download, print, cut, fold and enjoy with your family this Holiday Season.

We here at Glubble wish all of you a very special Christmas and/or Holiday Season and hope your families will stay safe and happy the coming year wherever you are or from whatever walk of life.

Kind regards, The Glubble Team (San Francisco, Palo Alto, San Jose (Costa Rica), Birmingham, Amsterdam, New York, London)

You can download the individual figures for the Nativity Set as a PDF file here:

• The Virgin Mary
• The Christ Child
• The Father Joseph
• The Angel
• The Three Kings (1)
• The Three Kings (2)
• The Three Kings (3)
• A sheep

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