[quote=Nes] I will keep looking for an appropriate play group for Lucas. I have noticed already that he doesn't relate well to kids his own age and would rather chase the big kids on the playground (he's such a flirt!!). Unfortunately I don't know allot of people with older children that are appropriate playmates for him, so for now it's just his beloved dogs. He does have a little initial shyness around adults, but he gets over it in about 30 seconds of hiding beside mom. I do want to nip that in the butt as I'm quite shy and really don't want him picking up that bad habit from me.
/quote]
My 11 year old son didn't go to daycare or preschool. He was two before we put him in Sunday school and once when we picked him up from that class we heard him tell one of the other 2 year olds I'm a b-o-y and you're a g-i-r-l. He didn't really fit in with the other kids physically either because of motor delays. I was worried that he might become shy like me if he didn't get the opportunity to be around other kids.
He stayed home with me during the day but we often went next door to see his grandparents and we all went grocery shopping together and to museums and did fun things together, so he never had a problem with shyness around adults. His very pretty sister is 18 years older and he always flirted with her friends. At four he joined a community children's musical theater group and two of the older girls would fight over him. He loved that. Musical theater was the best place for him because it was a mixed age group--ages 4-18 and most of the kids were also academically gifted. He fit in very well with that group of kids and they are all still good friends. The musical theater teacher was very strict and expected a lot out of young kids, but my son learned a lot of good things from this group like working together for a common goal, doing his best because the quality of the performance depended on everyone doing their best, memorizing quickly, improvisation when things don't go right because the show must go on (this was one of the most valuable lessons in my opinion) and feeling good about all the hard work and sometimes long, difficult rehearsals they did to produce a good show. Occasionally we see some of the older kids, now in college, who have aged out of the group and they are always happy to talk to him.
My son was probably on the computer a little too much but he always seemed to be happy and learning and there were no other kids for him to play with.
