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S/O: What are you planning for social opportunities for 7th/8th grade?


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One cool thing my homeschool group started doing this year was having a teen get-together every week.  So far this year we've gone to:

Dave & Buster's

Bowling

Archery 

Laser Tag

Go Karts

Japanese Hibachi

Movies

Mini-Golf

Medieval Times

Trampoline place

and have an Adventure park (ziplining/rope bridges) and a rock climbing place on the calendar.

 

Plus, a bunch of teens go to various co-op classes (philosophy, debate, etc) or single classes (e.g. seal necropsy at the aquarium), weekly parkour class with other teens, and participate in ongoing volunteering and fundraising to help animal shelters and rescues get pets adopted.  

 

And there's always regular social extra-curriculars like sports, dance, theater.  

 

Also, by the time my younger dd was in middle school, she was content spending the majority of her time with her best 1 or 2 friends.  My ds is fine with small or large groups, but is more of a homebody than my girls were at that age.

 

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Mine gets most of her social interactions via theater - she does a couple of main stage productions a year - and horseback riding, two afternoons a week at the stable, and she'll be doing sleepaway advanced camp this summer.  Other than that, she has  a couple of close friends she gets together with - so nice they can call each other and arrange it on their own now! I am so bad at "play-dates."  We have a group we go camping with a few times a year with lots of kids, but they're all younger. She has started to hang out with the adults, which can lead to some interesting situations late-night after the littles are in bed!  (Nothing grossly inappropriate, but the moms and dads do tend to let their hair down after they put their kids to bed - it's actually been quite an education for Shannon).  We have a local group of friends we hang out with once a week or so during the summer, lots of kids around her age.

 

I feel fortunate that at this point, it's been plenty for her. She's like me, more of a homebody, and more of a couple close friends kind of girl rather than constantly needing to be with people.  Kind of an old soul. I'm so glad she's not in middle school, her brain, body, and social maturity have just never been in line with her chronological age.  I'm glad she doesn't have to try and be somebody she's not to fit in.

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Sports. He is on several middle school teams (track, cross country, Nordic skiing) and competes in many races where he knows other kids. I'd like to find him some group academic opportunities, but ours is a tiny community and so far nothing of interest to him has come up.

 

He is looking forward to participating in a middle school book club next year, and we'll both be involved in a library bookstore.

 

Mostly I feel fortunate that he doesn't need or want many social opportunities.

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All the girls participate in Girl Scouts, 4H, and Cross Country. DD13 and dd8 will have band coop and archery next year as well. DD13 attends Dancing Grits monthly which is a ballroom dancing and etiquette class (they, also, learn lots of line dances). There is a winter semi-formal and a winter formal, as well. I am looking into a coop for next year and asked dd13 if she would be interested in Civil Air Patrol or Sea Cadets. Those last 2 are up in the air still.

 

It sounds like a lot, but cross country is in the fall and archery is in the spring. 4H and Dancing Grits meet once a month. Girl Scouts is twice a month. Coop and CAP/SC are once a week if we decide to do those, and band is once a week.

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My 7th grader is not one that I have to worry about when it comes to social opportunities. In the fall, his "social" extra-curriculars will be a competitive cheer team and a club volleyball team, which will both practice at least 2x a week and have several competition/tournament weekends. Ds has really clicked with a bunch of the girls (and the one other boy) on his cheer team this year, and he gets together with them several times a week after or outside of practices. His best friend will be on his volleyball team, and volleyball tournaments involve a huge amount of waiting around, so I expect that to be a fairly social experience as well.

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I love the planning threads for academics, and many of us posted extracurricular activities too.  But not all extracurriculars have a social element.  So, where or how will your 7th/8th grader have social opportunities in the coming school year?

 

Ah geez! Are you telling me I have to plan more? Can't I just keep them locked in the house all day like homeschoolers are said to do? We have to to to, gulp, socialize? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:lol: 

 

My 8th grader has friends through co-op and the tween/teen activities there. We also get together with friends at their homes. Does karate count?  

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I regret not giving my older girls more social opportunities.  They were often lonely.  I'm an introvert and we struggle financially.  Plus, we used to have a lot of doctor's appointments.  Thankfully they have spread their wings and are making friends in high school and college.

 

I feel so fortunate that my youngest (13yo) made friends with two other homeschool girls in our tiny neighborhood last summer.  It has been a huge blessing!  Along with another friend, I call them dd's posse. :)

 

The BIG thing every year is our little (800?) city's summer program.  There is a daily free lunch at the park adjacent to our back yard and twice a week there are activities for kids from 5-12.  This past year they had separate activities for the young teens and older teens too.  The younger kids stay at the park doing crafts, having visits from the county librarians, having water fun on hot days, etc. while the teens go bowling, to the coast, to the zoo, to movies, to play paint ball, etc.  The summer program has helped my 13yo daughter bond with the other neighborhood kids.

 

 

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It's great to read all the different things y'all are doing.  It seems like most of the activities my dd does during the school year are one-on-one (piano lessons, etc.).  I need to start looking into other things.  And, I guess I feel the need to be deliberate about it because we don't live in a "neighborhood" and it takes ~30 minutes or more to drive anywhere.  Additionally, I'm reluctant to tie academic goals to social goals because they don't necessarily fit together well.  Anyway, thanks for the replies.  It's helpful!

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It's great to read all the different things y'all are doing.  It seems like most of the activities my dd does during the school year are one-on-one (piano lessons, etc.).  I need to start looking into other things.  And, I guess I feel the need to be deliberate about it because we don't live in a "neighborhood" and it takes ~30 minutes or more to drive anywhere.  Additionally, I'm reluctant to tie academic goals to social goals because they don't necessarily fit together well.  Anyway, thanks for the replies.  It's helpful!

 

Same here. The kids that do live around here are too scheduled to have any free time. It can be difficult when every time you try to set something up (cause kids don't just play outside anymore) the response from parents is "not that day, or this, or that day either." I eventually gave up. That's why I drive over an hour to the co-op we go to. My kids find friends there. 

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My seventh grade daughter had quite a few activities this year. We might scale down next year, lol

 

Music:

 

Private piano lessons

Band at local private school two mornings a week for 50 minutes

Private voice lessons once a week

 

Sports:

 

Basketball at a local private school

 

Church activities:

 

Youth activities- once a month

Choir each Sunday

Church homeschool group/ activities- once a month

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One thing I'm learning is that kids want to make their own friends and find their own wat socially. And some kids need to be prodded to get out and keep trying.

 

Sports teams: eventually after a while they get to know each other and there may be team parties and such a few times per year. Although there isn't tons of social interaction the kids trust and respect each other from all the hard work and over time this definitely builds camaraderie.

 

Youth group:

Our church has an ok youth group. The boys are snobs and don't talk to anyone but the kids they already were friends with, so this has not proved to be very fun. But we are still encouraging our son to keep trying. They do all sorts of fun outings and get togethers as well as service projects. On most cases this should be a great opportunity. Youth leaders today do a LOT with the kids. They put their hearts into it.

 

Classes- if you have opportunity to enroll in classes that's a good idea.

 

Clubs- robotics club, math club etc ...again it takes time for friendships to bloom so sticking with things for a year or two helps

 

I would say in general friendships don't bloom overnight and it's better for your kids to be cautious about whom they befriend. :)

 

Homeschool groups are a good option as well ...ours doesn't have much for teens but it's an idea

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Ds is 12/ turning 13 early Jan so more activites will be available to her:

Drama Camp and Tantara (Festival of One Act Plays in Jan, even though technically she's too young, she rocks on stage)

Shakespeare Camp this summer

TeenPact State Class in Feb. 

Ballroom Dancing every other week once she turns 13- 2 hours of dancing and then DQ for area high schoolers every other week/ Volley ball in the summer

STOA Speech and Debate. 

 

She'll be doing CC Challenge A in the fall and there is already a well-formed group that truly like each other. 

We also do a local (we live very rurally, so drive "to town" for most stuff) homeschool co-op - we meet once a week for classes and field trips through the school year- hope to get together this summer, too. 

 

 

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Youngest dd is turning 12 next month. She's already in AHG and our new church will have a larger youth group. We have a weekly park day that includes most of her homeschool BFFs. In the school year there's also a 2-hour homeschool roller skating time, which she was reluctant to try but has really enjoyed.

 

We're planning on adding a children's chorus group, one that sings classical music and teaches theory. And we're debating on adding competitive speech, which will be a BIG commitment.

 

Now that I have only one child who needs curriculum and chauffeuring, we are widening our scope a bit. 

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