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Hi all, just wondering from those who homeschool preschool/kindy age, My DD4 is very social, has struggled to make friends at kindy though and I'm 90% sure I want her at home until school starts for her in 10 months. I have already withdrawn her, just not enrolled her anywhere else.

My only concern is not socialisation, but how often do kids this age need to see the same kids to form friendships, is once a week fine - less? I am thinking about a montessori for 3 mornings a week (the minimum) just so she has the opportunity to meet some new kids and spend enough time to make friends with them. The teachers seem to be quite proactive in that area. She does do gymnastics and music but I've found over the past year the nature of the classes don't lend themselves to the kids playing/chatting so although she is well liked in these groups she hasn't made friends with anyone, I'm only now starting to get friendly with the parents myself. But I am socially challenged.

She will be doing a half day gifted group once a week, and I'm wondering if that with play date here and there is enough. She does have a little brother at home too.

Please note I'm not worried about her developing social skills -just that she does actually have a chance to make her own friends, other than the 3 kids I set her up with. She is far ahead of 2 of them and a little behind the other. Sometimes the ones she is ahead of can be awkward visits. She is all extrovert so she def needs these social contacts!

typing this out it seems to me that keeping her home would be fine, but I really would love to hear first hand experiences and get a little reassurance. Home schooling even at this age is very unusual in my community so I don't have much in the way of local examples to draw on.

At 4 most kids are best friends with those their families socialise with rather than I dependant relationships. Friendships are also quite fluid and kids unintentionally upset each others by choosing to play with someone else. I wouldn't worry too much about her making her own friends at this point.

thanks to you both - I think the answer seems to be stay home - good grief, if you can't tell by my other posts I'm currently experiencing complete decision making paralysis. Usually I go with my gut, but I guess I'm going through the freak out, just realised I was a gifted kid with a horrible schooling/social experience, gotta get it right phase of parenting. Ahhh this too shall pass.

When I homeschooled I had my son participate in a homeschool PE program sponsored by the county parks and rec dept. And in another town there was a program sponsored by the city parks and rec for homeschoolers that was a combination nature and crafts program...they hiked or had some sort of extension program (like the zoo might bring some small animal for a talk or the museum, it was different every week) followed by a craft. They had to listen when appropriate but there was plenty of time for conversation and friendship development. In both of these programs the children were divided roughly by age groups...older kids in group one, middle age in group two and youngest in group three so that the activities could be tailored to the groups. Then afterwards in both groups we stayed later for another hour of free play. Playground for homeschool PE was right there. Sometimes with the nature/craft group we had to reconvene at the park.

With that and scouts...it was enough for my son.

That's reassuring Cookie. There seems to be a great young kids group that meets once a week we could go to but it's right in the middle of my wee ones' nap time so I guess I can keep that on the back burner. The one good thing about our local Montessori (and at first I thought this was a huge negative)is that it doesn't close for the school holidays so if she needs more interaction away from mum we can slot her in anytime.

Thanks everyone

My oldest is very sociable. We find that once or twice a week is plenty of time for him to form friendships at cubs, our homeschool play group that meets twice a week, at taekwondo, at swimming - all his activities actually.

AS their needs change you can change the environment to suit their needs. Even with being a social kid I find that sometimes Aiden needs a few days here and there where we don't mix with others at all.

His best friendships are still formed when he is around other kids who get how he thinks - ie other gifted kids. And those interactions really don't need to be more frequent - they just need to be happening enough for the kids to have free time to chat, play etc together.