Sherry Hagen

Hi Folks,

I have a one child a 6 year old boy. Before school started our home and
the neighbors where often the center on children coming to visit. Once
school started no one comes over. I wasn't impressed with most of the
children. The next door neighbor girl who is 8 gets along well with my
son and both sets of parents like knowing where our children are, which
house and such. Another neighbor recently moved in two houses down that
has a 7 year old boy that we've had over, which may be helpful. Most
of the other parents just want to make sure their children are within a
two block radius. Unfortunately when you get more than two children
particularly schooled children they start to only want to play with
kids near their age or gender. My son has friends of many ages and
genders. My son doesn't always react in ways they'd expect, he's
somewhat high energy and physical. It's been helpful that he has a pet
turtle and this gives others something to relate to.

Since school started and the other kids are gone it's been difficult and
he says he misses the kids. I have a hard time not letting him wander
and he sometimes goes farther that I find acceptable. It's fortunate
that we don't have much traffic on our streets. I know he can handle
himself it's the other kids I worry about. We do schedule daily outings
(this helps both of us). We are doing weekly outings with another
homeschooling family, nature walks and such.

It's tricky unschooling an only child at times. Does anyone else have
an only child they are unschooling?

Sherry