cathmom Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 How successful have you been at finding homeschooling friends whose dc are the ages of your younger children? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 Very-- Dd has friends from a nature group and Girl Scouts, and at church. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted October 6, 2010 Author Share Posted October 6, 2010 I didn't really mean the dc, I meant the adults. Are you friends with your dd's friends' parents? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenneinCA Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 Actually the homeschooling friends I have made mostly have kids the ages of my younger kids. It is kind of hard sometimes because my daughter is the only girl and the oldest by a significant margin. I like these ladies a lot and we love to hang out and talk but they want to schedule a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch with their boys (ages 6 and 8 and ages 5 and 7) and it just isn't as interesting to my dd12 and ds10. My little guy ds6 thinks it is wonderful, but... Dd12 needs to get her schoolwork done. Just a different stage of schooling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted October 6, 2010 Author Share Posted October 6, 2010 Actually the homeschooling friends I have made mostly have kids the ages of my younger kids. It is kind of hard sometimes because my daughter is the only girl and the oldest by a significant margin. I like these ladies a lot and we love to hang out and talk but they want to schedule a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch with their boys (ages 6 and 8 and ages 5 and 7) and it just isn't as interesting to my dd12 and ds10. My little guy ds6 thinks it is wonderful, but... Dd12 needs to get her schoolwork done. Just a different stage of schooling I could see that being an issue, but my older ones are old enough to be left home...in fact they would probably love it if I took all the little ones out so they could have some peace! :tongue_smilie: Frankly, I'd love it if someone took them out so I could have some peace LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaillardia Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 What do you mean? I have children with wide age range -- 25 to 9. Okay, the older ones don't count anymore. So now we're down 4 kids: 16 to 9, and I have tried, but no, it just doesn't always work. I usually have friends that either don't have kids, or their kids are my age :tongue_smilie:. We do have a family with kids that match 3 of our kids in age, and two of our kids have two of their kids as their best friends. We are very fond of them, they homeschool and attend the same church, but unfortunately we don't socialize too much with them, they are pretty busy. I get along very well with mr and mrs., so does dh. I had another friend who hsed her son, he and one of my sons were good friends. He was the only child she had left to hs. It meant my other kids would either stay home with dad or be sort of bored if we went to their home to visit. Sometimes I just don't hit it off with the parents. Since moving here I haven't met that many people hsing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted October 6, 2010 Author Share Posted October 6, 2010 gingerh, when I first started homeschooling, we joined a group and met people. So their dc are around the ages of my older dc. Then dh and I had several more children. There's a five year gap between the two "sets" of children. I realized recently that my younger dc have no friends. We were friends with two other large families with dc roughly the same ages, but they moved away. So I have to make a concerted effort to find my younger dc friends, and I'm just kind of worried about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaillardia Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 I understand. Our child, 16 tomorrow, has struggled to keep friends. One good friend, not hsed, moved away years ago and within the past year have struck up an e-mailing relationship. This child does not like to use the phone! Other kids like to hang with the kids they go to school with and it really has hampered what could have been some connections for her. I don't want my two youngest to have to depend on each other for their only friendships and fortunately, even though they still hang together with others, there is a girl in the neighborhood and some girls from church they are friends with. Nobody gets together too much though. Our kids are in their 20's (2), teens 18-14 (3), and the littles: 10 and 9. We feel we have three generations here. Sometimes our kids will be lonely. But I remember being lonely and I went to public school and had friends. I worry about three of ours. One child has high expectations of everyone, in language, in modest dress, in morality. Oh, I don't worry about that child, let me say I worry because there are hardly any close friends. Everyone is an acquaintance. One is quiet, yet emotional, and inexperienced but still young, and the other is older and has issues that I don't know what to do about. I've seen similiar threads on "what to do with my whatever child who has no motivation, or whatever..." I'm not one of those parents who is going to say "let me help you pack while I tell you what you're going to be facing out there..." I think church and religious colleges for the most part are going to be the safer places to send our kids for college. Gee, this went off on a tangent. I'm sorry, cathmom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah CB Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 It takes some effort. It wasn't until the last year or so that I made a big effort to find friends for my 8 and 10 year old boys. Before last year, they would just play with dd's friends' younger siblings. Now they have their own friends and it's great. Last week I had a "Kindergarten Playdate" and it was so much fun. Three moms came - all were fairly new to homeschooling and in two of the families the K student was the eldest! Ds (now 5) loved having friends his age over and I really enjoyed spending an afternoon with moms who were so new to homeschooling and who had little ones toddling around. Sarah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted October 6, 2010 Author Share Posted October 6, 2010 It takes some effort. It wasn't until the last year or so that I made a big effort to find friends for my 8 and 10 year old boys. Before last year, they would just play with dd's friends' younger siblings. Now they have their own friends and it's great. Last week I had a "Kindergarten Playdate" and it was so much fun. Three moms came - all were fairly new to homeschooling and in two of the families the K student was the eldest! Ds (now 5) loved having friends his age over and I really enjoyed spending an afternoon with moms who were so new to homeschooling and who had little ones toddling around. Sarah That's a great idea. I have thought of setting up a park day near our house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NanceXToo Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 I have a 5 y/o (next month), a 10 y/o, and an 18 y/o. A lot of the parents in my hs group have a pretty mixed aged family, too. But it really doesn't matter to me. My 18 y/o does her own thing. My 10 y/o and 5 y/o are easy to find friends for- they go to the homeschool group, library programs, gymnastics, my daughter's in Girl Scouts, they've got friends on our street, etc. And as for me, I couldn't care less what age someone else's kids are, if I click with a mom, I click with the mom, and we'll be friendly at homeschool group get togethers, and sometimes we'll get together outside of them. One of the closest friends I've made in my hs group has kids ranging from an infant to a 7 y/o so they've got kids in my son's age range, but not exactly my daughter's. But she doesn't care, she'll play with them when we get together, and the adults love to get together and socialize. They always say that one of the GOOD things about hs is the fact that people AREN'T segregated by age, right? :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted October 6, 2010 Author Share Posted October 6, 2010 I They always say that one of the GOOD things about hs is the fact that people AREN'T segregated by age, right? :D good point! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 I'm not very big on IRL "girlfriends", but the moms I am friendly with tend to be older than me by 5-15 or even 20+ years. Most have at least a child or two close to my own kids' ages. Some have older children (several with grown children and grown stepchildren), some don't. I had my first child at 21. Many had their first children in their late 20's to early 30's, and kept going into their 40's. That's what happens! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 I have trouble with this in many ways. First, I don't have the option of befriending homeschooling families. No one else with young children homeschools in our little, very rural community. It's either public school families or no friends. Secondly, my family is bigger than most. Thirdly, most of the families who go to toddler and infant events don't have elementary aged kids, but if they do, their older kids are in school when we go to toddler/infant activities. On the flip side, the families with elementary aged kids don't have the same toddler/infant restrictions that we do. It's a struggle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 I have friends with children of all ages. I like and get along with people 5-10 years younger, but do find I have more in common with people who are 5-10 years older than myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EarleneW Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 We have actually been very lucky. We have 2 families that have 4 kids too the same ages as ours. It's nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 I was older when I had my first child, so I'm a *really* old mom for my youngest, LOL. I do happen to know other moms my age (and a couple even older). However, most of the moms with children the age of my youngest are older than me. I don't really think that *I* have to be friends with the mom in order for our children to be friends and play together.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 How successful have you been at finding homeschooling friends whose dc are the ages of your younger children? I have terribly unsuccessful...sigh... The families with kids my older kids ages are either finished or have sent their kids to school. I just don't have the energy to find new friends. God provided wonderful neighbors for us who have 2 little boys, a little younger but still fin for my 2 little guys. They don't homeschool, but are wonderfully supportive. Faithe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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