...and he was sitting by himself, while other kids were playing just a few feet away. It kinda broke my heart to see it. He told me he was being punished for doing something, which he didn't say what for but... my son is usually around a lot of kids his age, as he has a lot of family.

My question is... is there anything I can do to make HIM more "popular" at day care? He's a great looking kid, and is very smart, and I just don't want to see him sitting by himself on a playground full of kids.

I was thinking about bringing in ice cream, and root beer for him, and his classmates one day. I love him hella lot, and just want him to have a healthy childhood, and be accepted by other kids.

how old is your kid? 22?

The best thing you can do for him is to love on him as much as possible. Catching a kid doing something right is MORE important than catching him doing something wrong. Praise works wonders for a kid, especially when an adult they look up to goes ape sh!t crazy about something cool they did. Even if it's just 'kid stuff', playing it up will make an impression. Treats are occasionally nice gestures, but the more you accept him as a "little man" the more he'll pick up on how to deal with other kids. Give him time too. It might have just been a bad day for him.

A big mistake most parents make is thinking that their children ought to think in abstracts as they do. They haven't developed this in pre-school and it doesn't even fully develop until late adolescence, so patience is essential. This means they think in the now, not the yesterday or tomorrow. Social skills are abstract skills so model them for him as often as possible and they'll sink in.

Thank you RT, greatly.

i can not tell you how many times i have come into the daycare and saw one of my little ones sitting in time out for something they had done.
it is just something that you can never go in expecting to see.

it doesn't mean that your child isn't liked or isn't popular... it means they got in trouble.

something you could try, is when you pick him up and he isn't in trouble...reward him. go right up and say hello to your little man and give him a hug or a high five and ask him how his day was. talk the whole way out of the daycare.. what was for lunch? what did you learn today? who did you play with today? did you guys get to go outside?
my kids eat it up when i ask them all about their day.

I think that your kid getting in trouble and being forced to sit out, early in life is a good thing. Its means he's likely an alpha and was doing something social and ******dly that AFC society doesn't condone.

He was likely being overly loud & obnoxious.