How often do your kids....

[Gentlemommy]

Socialize?:tongue_smilie:I know, I know, age old question for homeschoolers lol. (as an aside, my iPad auto corrected 'homeschoolers' to 'home hookers'! Glad I caught that one!)

Ok, back to the question. My dd1, is a BIG extrovert. Big. I am a HUGE introvert. I am trying very hard to fill her need for time with friends...tell me if this sounds ok for a 6.5 year old.

 

Monday we usually have a play date with another HS family, lasting about 3-4 hours. Lately, as the weather has been nice, we meet at the park. If it's too hot or raining, we go to each others house, or the science center.

 

Tuesday we have HS coop, which is at a park (it actually alternates between two parks).it lasts about 3 hours and is free play.

 

Wednesday nothing planned, but since dh is working we do try to call a friend to hang out. I'd say every other week we meet up with another HS family on a wednesday morning.

 

Thursday gymnastics class and we stop at a friends house (she is 5 minutes from the gym) to play for a few hours.

 

Friday daddy is off, and we try to do family stuff. If he is working, we plan an afternoon play date.

 

Saturday nothing planned.

 

Sunday we go to church, and she has a class she can go to, but lately has wanted to stay with us during service which is fine.

 

We just moved to a great new neighborhood with lots of kids. There are a few community playgrounds, and we bike ride to one just about everyday. We play for about an hour there. We have met a few kids, nothing on a regular basis, but I'm hopeful.

 

So basically, she has on average 4 times a week where she has about 3 hours of free play with one or more friends. Does that sound right? I'm not concerned with her being unsocialized, just with being able to meet her need to socialize, kwim? She is constantly asking for a friend to come over to play, and I feel like I can never get her friend tank full enough. At some point, we need to just chill or do school or house stuff, and I can't be entertaining or driving her around all the time!

Edited November 16, 2011 by Gentlemommy

[Farrar]

First of all, that sounds like plenty. All but the most die hard extroverts would be satisfied by that, I think.

 

My kids socialize about that much as well. We see friends 3 days a week for various things and there's always free play before or after. We have church on Sundays, so they see kids there and dance another day, so more kid time. Plus, it's not uncommon for us to see people for a field trip or park day. I have one introvert and one extrovert... and they're both good with it. :)

[KarenNC]

It sounds good to me. I am an introvert, daughter is an extrovert. Here's our face-to-face interaction time with other kids in her general age range (goes a couple of years to either side of her age):

 

Sunday: church, including youth group or potluck approx 2-3 hours, sometimes aikido class 1.5 hours

Monday: twice a month science class at nature center 1.5 hours each

Tuesday: weekly classes with hs group, 3 hour-long classes, 2.5 or so hours free to hang out as I coordinate this and have to be there the whole day; twice a month Girl Scouts, 1-2 hours

Wednesday: usually park day, anywhere from 2-4 hours depending on weather and who else is there; once a month book club at library, 1 hour

Thursday: once a month book club at library, 1 hour

Friday: once a month homeschool rollerskating 2.5 hours

Saturday: weekly aikido, 1.5 hours, and often hanging out afterwards with friends from there for another up to an hour or so; once a month family game night with several other families, about 8 hours

 

It's a good thing that's not all in the same week (usually!):001_smile:. It also doesn't include incidentals like the field trip we did last week, the GS class she's doing this Saturday, the birthday party this Saturday, etc. She has some casual friends in the neighborhood, but that seems to go in spurts. Most of the above is with a couple of girls whom she's known since she was 4 plus others who have joined since that time (known them anywhere from a few weeks to a few years). Since she's an extroverted only child, I have consistently pushed myself to give her more opportunities to hang out with other kids.

[Mama2Many4]

They socialize whenver we leave the house. Which means to Wal-mart or Church etc.

 

So far, all of my efforts to get them signed up with different groups have fell through. They didn't like Karate, or Cub scouts, or .....you get the idea. I havn't tried sports yet so that's next. They speak without being painfully shy when out and will play with children they just met. I'd say they're doing fine.

[go_go_gadget]

That sounds like a great arrangement to me.

[Dahliarw]

Sounds reasonable to me. My ds does Bible class on Sunday and Wednesday (his good friends are there), swimming on Tuesday, gymnastics on Wednesdays, cousins occassionally, and then seasonally sports and such. He seems happy with that and he's way more extroverted than I am!

[3peasinapod]

That is more than we do. We do 2 hours on Wednesday night for Awana, 2 hours church on Sunday, homeschool group once a month. Average of once a month playgroup. There is playtime at various restaurants randomly, visits to stores, visiting family. We used to do soccer, but the girls didn't like it (though they want to try again).

[MissKNG]

My girls are actually very social even though there aren't a lot of things in our very rural community. During the summer, my big girl participated in soccer and recreation. Right now, she just joined a 4-H group. We also have church activities. That's about it. They also make friends at the playground too but it's getting cold so we aren't heading out as much anymore.

 

I also have my niece down to spend the night often, so they play with her too.

[2_girls_mommy]

Looks more than enough to me. We do less, and we are pretty active. I am satisfied, and so are the kiddos.

 

Summers are a little tougher as the activities slow down, but we make more playdates and do more going places like zoo, museums, parks, and family visits, plus they get extra stuff like VBS and daycamp and vacations for a few weeks.

 

My girls have 1 scout meeting a week, 1 day at co-op, 1 day at church and Sunday school and 1 playdate usually.

 

Occasionally there will be a bday party and a group field trip in that and an extra church event. And right now they have 1 night a week choir rehearsal through Christmas.

[Ellie]

Wow. :blink: That much time away from home with other people, during the day, would be a bad thing for us. Even as an unschooler/relaxed homeschooler, I would not have been able to do the things with my dc that I hoped to do.

 

For many years our schedule was this:

 

Monday and Tuesday: Official School Days. Stay home. No exceptions.

 

Wednesday: Library. We arrived around 9:30-10, and stayed for at least an hour (usually a library in another nearby community that was very large and very kewl :) ). We came home, had lunch. On rare ocassions we might go to a friend's house. Otherwise, we just stayed home and read our books and goofed off. Dds might do school work.

 

Thursday: Field trip. Usually just us, but if I wanted to go somewhere that required a group, I'd invite just enough people to make the minimum number.

 

Friday: Clean house; once-a-month park day.

 

We had church on Wednesday evenings; dds had Missionettes. There was a dance class one evening a week; a couple of years dds did soccer, so there were practices two late afternoons a week and a game on Saturday.

 

Family goofing off on Saturday. Church on Sunday morning (including Sunday school for dds) and Sunday evening.

 

We kept our Monday-Friday schedule year round, including summers; dd could play with neighborhood children in the afternoon, if we were home.

 

So your schedule of being gone and with other people so many days a week would have been a bad thing for us. And my younger dd was very social; nevertheless, that much time would just not have been ok.

[blondeviolin]

That's more than ours! We do swim lessons on T and TH, a playgroup for the littles on TH, church on Sunday. We usually eat at a place with an indoor play area once a week, and if the weather's nice we're at a park once a week at least too. But never for more than that. My kids seem fine with it...

[momto2Cs]

That's way more than us!

 

We have a piano lesson once a week, and dd8 plays with the piano teacher's dd7 (also homeschooled) while my ds learns piano.

 

Every Friday we head out to park day with a group of friends. There are generally about 20 kids. We're there for at least 4 hours usually. During the rainy months, we'll sometimes go roller skating, to a nature museum, etc. with the same group.

 

Once a month, we have our Spiral Scouts meeting. We have our meeting and then the kids play for a couple of hours.

 

We also go to the library once a week, they play at the park with my mom while I'm at work, etc. Sometimes there are extras, like ds going on a sleepover last week, or a field trip somewhere, but I think we're all kind of homebodies.

[justLisa]

Wow. :blink: That much time away from home with other people, during the day, would be a bad thing for us. Even as an unschooler/relaxed homeschooler, I would not have been able to do the things with my dc that I hoped to do.

 

 

So your schedule of being gone and with other people so many days a week would have been a bad thing for us. And my younger dd was very social; nevertheless, that much time would just not have been ok.

 

Us too. I have to have a couple days a week where we do NOT have anything to do during the day.

 

Right now it's

Monday - art in the city which means leave at 12:30, arrive for class at 1:30, class out at 2:45, 45 minutes drive home. We do a brief math lesson in the am but I've just decided trying to get anything else done while they need breakfast/getting ready etc is just not feasible without rushing through it. When we get home they are tired from a long art class which is mentally and physically exhausting for them. We usually just read together and that's it for the day. We often have a friend over for a short time before dinner.

 

Tues, wed we are home all day. Wed we have a standing afternoon at grandma's house at 3:30 where several of their best friends live. Thursday we sometimes have a park day, or a coop member over for a short time later in the day. Fridays again we go to grandmas after school.

 

Most of our social time is with our closer friends/family. I just don't see the need for organized socializing just for the sake of it IYKWIM.

[Tarreymere]

When the weather is nice we will usually go to a playground once a week or so. One kid plays soccer in the fall with the YMCA. Right now Sunday School at church is about it for us. We don't have any co-ops or playgroups or anything like that.

My kids are fine. They can always play with the neighborhood kids (public school kids) if any are outside after school and the weather is decent, but the public school kids don't seem to be outside much during the school year. I don't worry about it, I think 'socialization' is way over-rated. I'm sure if I acted like I thought their social lives were a concern I would hear a lot of whining about how they don't get enough time with other kids, but as it goes right now they just enjoy the times they get to spend with other kids and don't complain about it not being enough. They know to behave appropriately around other people and that is what is really important as far as I'm concerned.

[boscopup]

We have Bible class Sunday morning and Wednesday evening, and library day on Thursday. Speech therapy is Tuesday at lunch time, but no other kids involved. DS1 has hockey practice Monday nights and games early Saturday morning, but he's not really playing with kids. He is happy playing with his brothers at home, thankfully.

 

I would go insane with the OP's schedule, but if it works for her, great! :) I think that's more friend-play time than most b&m school kids get!