DS(12) home ed / social opportunities

[ModerationInEverything]

Ok, so DS(12) has been home ed - Interhigh- since Easter this year. It's going well and he is a different child in terms of anxiety and well being. I'm wondering how to support him in making/having/maintaining friendships now he doesn't mix with his peers.
We're not on the dreaded fb so not really in the loop with any local home ed groups. Not sure where else I can encourage his social skills? FWIW he seems happy with the variety of (adult) company we encounter day to day.

Where do you live?

I'm in the yahoo group which is always listing events where kids (and parents) get together for meet ups, group activities etc fairly locally.

If he's happy, are you perhaps trying to fix a problem which doesn't exist?

In the long term, surely it's more important that he should be able to get on with adults than with twelve year olds, isn't it? So he is probably developing all the right social skills in meeting and interacting with grownups.

Be guided by what he wants. If you wonder whether he's getting what he needs or whether he is lonely, ask him.

My ds(14) doesn't have many friends who are teens, but through being Home Ed he now has at least 100 friends of all ages. He panics in a class of teens and since he doesn't plan to to become a teacher, we are happy to ignore this very tiny life skill since we are HE and don't need it. He plans uni but that is a few years hence and a different atmosphere and he will steel himself to get on with it when the time comes. In the meantime he is taking time to "find" himself and he's turning out to be a sensible and popular young man.
If you plan to continue with HE and provided your DS can make friends of other ages- why worry?

ps -My ds is soooo happy!

If you DO want to encourage him to mix with people of his own age, you might want to think outside of the HE networks and look at what's available in the community. My ds rarely meets up with other HE kids now. He does martial arts with a group that meets at the local church hall, drama a the theatre in town, science at a museum etc etc. There is usually a lot of stuff happening that you can tap in to. But I agree with others, it depends on what he wants to do and if he's happy with the social contact he's got, why change it?