When it comes to making friends, homeschoolers often raise questions such as, “Do homeschoolers have friends?” Homeschoolers can and do form strong relationships with friends, including homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers alike. Let’s take a look at how and why homeschoolers make friends, and how to maintain the friendships.
How Do Homeschoolers Make Friends?
Homeschoolers make friends in a variety of ways, and the main option many turn to is through extracurricular activities. Joining clubs, sports teams, homeschool groups, and other activities such as piano lessons or even volunteering, offer homeschoolers the opportunity to meet people and build friendships with them.
Depending on the values and interests of the parent and child, homeschoolers may look to enroll in online classes, attend field trips, or even sign up for summer camps and participate in field-based activities such as scouting events. While it may sometimes seem intimidating to find friends as a homeschooler, a great way to enter into a friendship with someone is to reach out and make the effort to speak to them. Showing interest in other people’s lives and getting to know them through conversations and activities is a great way to form lasting friendships.
Forming bonds through local church fellowships and other service organizations can be incredibly beneficial for homeschoolers as well.
Why Do Homeschoolers Need Friends?
Homeschoolers need friends for a variety of reasons including learning how to communicate and interact with others, understanding relationships, practicing conflict resolution, and socializing with peers. Friends can provide comfort and support during tough times and are essential in helping children learn how to interact with different personalities and backgrounds.
Just like students attending traditional schools, homeschoolers benefit from being around peers their own age in order to understand appropriate behavior and practice social skills. Today, homeschoolers’ social circles are more extended than ever before due to the vast possibilities created by technology. With access to phone, video chat, and other social media platforms, homeschoolers can stay in touch with friends from all around the globe with relative ease.
In fact, many homeschoolers create support groups, forums, and other social outlets to discuss their curriculum and struggles so they know they are not alone.
How Can Parents Help?
In addition to the activities and services mentioned above, there are many more ways in which parents can foster friendships for their homeschooled children. Parents can look for events and activities organized specifically for homeschoolers near them to give their children an opportunity to meet and interact with other homeschoolers. This could include playdates, field trips, library meet-ups, classes, museums, and more.
Personal connections such as family, older siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and even close family friends, can also be great avenues for creating friendships. Not to mention the power of the internet when it comes to connecting with people with similar interests and values.
How to Make Friends and Keep them?
Making friends takes effort and maintaining those friendships takes even more. Building friendships takes time, patience, and understanding.
Listening and communicating are essential, as is respecting and appreciating different points of view. Homeschoolers need to learn that compromising is also an important part of friendship, and maintaining healthy friendships relies on both parties practicing these skills. It’s also essential to practice gratitude and appreciation with friends, as well as forgiveness.
Showing appreciation and care for one another can help friendships grow and foster a sense of trust between friends. Finally, having common interests and goals, such as shared hobbies and activities, can help homeschoolers to develop meaningful and lasting relationships.
Conclusion
Homeschoolers can and do make friends just like anybody else. Through extracurricular activity, classes, volunteering and making an effort, homeschoolers can form strong relationships and learn invaluable social skills such as communication, negotiation, compromise, care, and trust. With hard work, homeschoolers are able to establish meaningful and lasting relationships, both in their local area and beyond.