Robin Clevenger

From: "Karen McLaughlin" <karenmcl@...>
>We're working on finding some
>homeschooled friends (there aren't a great many unschoolers around here)
but
>the local homeschool drop-in which we attend sporadically hasn't led to any
>new friendships yet.


One thing I'd say that I've noticed in our homeschooling group is that the
kids who regularly attend lots of events end up knowing each other more,
establishing deeper friendships, and inviting each other over more. I guess
it's a question of familiarity more than anything. New kids are definitely
welcomed into our group, but I can see that it takes time before the kids
who know each other well have figured out who the new kid is, how they like
to play, and which of the kids generally ends up being more compatible with
them for individual playdates. That's hard to do on an occasional basis.
Most of Mackenzie's good friends now he has been playing with for over 2
years at various homeschooling events.
So if you're looking to find friends for regular get-togethers and
playdates, you might want to try attending consistently and letting him get
to know the other kids better. That might spark some new friendships more
easily.

>Noah really values the friends he has now (most of them have played
together
>since infancy or toddlerhood) and I'm hoping there will be some way to
>maintain these friendships despite school but I sense there may be a lot of
>difficulties ahead.

Hope you have better luck than we have. Mackenzie says he no longer wants to
play with his two good neighborhood friends. They both went to kindergarten
this year and it really changed everything.

Blue Skies!
-Robin-