Ideas for helping ds to make friends outside of school please

[claw2]

Ds has started his new school and there are 2 boys who ds seems quite friendly with.

Both are keen to come to our house. However although ds really likes the idea of being friends with them, he doesn't want them to come to our house. Ds is very over protective of his bedroom.

Any ideas on where I could go and what I could do with them in this weather? One of the boys also has ASD.

Claw, iirc you're excellent at this type of thing.

Something structured requiring simple rules!?

Bug collecting? Scootering/bike riding a route?

Perhaps look up geocaching? (Weird thing IMO but might appeal to geeky boys!?)

Treasure hunt around the park that they have to solve together? Don't hide clues but they have to collect letters to spell a word (ie. the second letter on the park bench under the oak tree....)

Any good?

I was hoping for something warmer and not weather dependent!

I will probably have to keep it short to start with and im a bit worried that a short 'play date', wont go down too well with other parents.

My fear is if it pours down, I will have to abandon and bring them home!

How about an indoor activity e.g. snowdome type place or book a lesson at an indoor climbing centre. Both let the boys have fun without too many social demands. We find weekday early evenings tend to be quieter and so more successful for our two than weekends at this sort of place.

Museum or aquarium, would involve a few trains and would be a long day. This would also be a first 'play date' and im not sure just how well they get on and for how long and yes defo one at a time!

I was hoping for a short play date to start with, then gradually building on it. Im not asking for much, am I!

zzz all the boys are 9, I don't know them well. Don't really know their interests or triggers for the other boy with asd.

For ds his interests are very limited x-box, pokemon cards and animals. So I assuming the other boys might have one of those interests. His triggers are anyone wanting to touch his x-box or pokemon cards or going into his bedroom. Noise and mess, don't go down too well either. He also frets a lot when having to leave the house.

Ds does love Mcdonald's chips and milk shake and if I could persuade ds to eat in Mcdonald's, do you think a 'trip' to McD's for a first meeting would be appropriate? If I do it after school, then it would have to be short and wouldn't look so 'odd'?

Phew great! I was thinking a bit uninteresting for anyone else but ds! Im really hoping once we make a start, we will be having trusted friends round to play in no time.

Boy with ASD did make me laugh, he approached me last week, shook my hand, introduced himself and asked could he come to ds's house, on a Saturday at 12! I hope he isn't going to be disappointed at the change from his already worked out plan

We don't usually sit in McD's to eat, although to have friends ds is going to have go a little outside of his comfort zone, otherwise we will end up doing nothing! We usually get chips and milk shake on a Friday after school and he eats driving home. He is pretty rigid with his thinking and if he hasn't finished by the time we get home, it has to be thrown away, as McD's is for eating in the car on the way home, you cant eat it once out of the car!

Pokémon don't have a land, although they do have stadiums.

Ds is adamant that he doesn't want his friends coming to his house and would rather not have friends if it means they come here.

Just makes it really awkward to do anything with friends. As ds doesn't like leaving the house either!

God these poor friends, this is going to be the most boring play date ever for them!

Some excellent ideas to try. I am going to have to take the bull by the horns and venture outside, after chips in the car of course!

Thanks everyone I have scribbled down all your ideas and I will ask ds which he fancies the most, then to decide which friend to take!