I have almost 5 year old BGG's and they'll be attending pre-k this year. This is their first time at school but have been in Sunday School, AWANA (a church group and they were all in their own class), Vacation Bible School, and we're in some mom groups so they have play dates quite often.

My girls are pretty social and good at making friends but my son has a hard time. He's pretty sensitive and shy, letting his sisters make the friends and then joining in. He does not initiate friendships. He went the whole school year at AWANA and never really made a friend.

From what I've observed, he seems to always be on the defense at first - as if he's expecting another child to be mean to him so he's sort of mean first. And I don't really mean "MEAN mean" but more not friendly. He might frown at them instead of giving a friendly smile.

The other day we had a friend over - a girl the same age who we've known since they were all little and seen quite a few times. My son was anxious to show off his room and the train table in there but apparently when she tried to play with the trains, he took them from her. (He's sort of anal about keeping things like he likes them. Not ridiculously so, but ...). Anyway, she came down in tears.

So it's just things like that. I worry about him going into pre-k and not making friends.

What can I do to help him?