Our granddaughter is a bright, funny, intelligent and extremely pretty little girl, but is very shy - which would be fine but for the fact it really bothers her. My son and daughter-in-law are real kind, caring and fun parents, they have two little girls, the youngest being 2 1/2, who is extremely outgoing and confident. At home Olivia is loud, funny, irreverent, confident but even with all of us grandparents, she can be very shy, not so much with me for some reason. Despite being shy, she goes to Brownies and also to a tap and ballet class, doing a stage show with them a couple of months ago - something I or her parents have said we couldn't do. It's when she's with her classmates it seems to affect her the most, and she said very sadly the other day that her baby sister is confident and she's shy. I was painfully shy as a child and well into adulthood, I'm 71 now and still shy in certain circumstances, so understand the pain and the longing to be outgoing with friends and family. She has improved a huge amount since starting school but there is still that reticence, even within the extended family. We so want to help her come out of that shell before she has to go to secondary school. My son always says it breaks his heart that she can't show her true, lovely personality to the outside world. Does anyone have any thoughts on games perhaps that we might play or any other way of helping her without her realising what we're doing and why. She's very good at pushing herself physically, for example, will always climb to the top of the highest climbing frame, you'll hear her whisper "I can do this" to herself., but just can't seem to push herself socially. Sorry for the long post.
