My 10 year old son has friends (all older and public schooled) but none that he would really consider close friends. He told me a few days ago that you could even call them "estranged" friends during the school year because he doesn't get to see them very often and they forget about him because they are busy with things like band and other things that he can't participate in because he is homeschooled. Several of these friends will be going to high school next year and one is taller than a lot of adults.
Most of his friends were in his musical theater class and they are all talking about quitting now so that might be the end of any opportunity for socialization with other kids.
I told him that I thought his adult sister thought of him as a friend as well as a little brother because she talks to him a couple of hours every day about anything and everything. I asked him if he considered her a friend and he said it was more like a "forced" friendship. He was not about to admit that he likes talking to his sister.
