Unschooling + Friends

[llinos]

Hello, I'm new here and looking for some insight from you Unschoolers!  My DD is only 19 months old so I have lots of time but I'm worried about DD not making friends.  I by no means feel school is the answer but I'm an expat living in France where it is really hard to make friends and homeschooling is very rare.  I feel very passionate about unschooling but I'm worried about the friend issue. 

I'm quite shy too so that doesnt help because it's not from me that she will learn to be social! 

There are a very few homeschooling families who try to meet up once every couple of months but they all live so far away, and mother toddler groups dont really exist here either.  There is something on once a month maybe but nothing where I can get to know people.  My husband is french and his family are an hour away but there arent any kids near DDs age.  I'm already worried that she doesnt see other people enough especially kids. 

Would we be crazy to Unschool? Dh and I really would hate her to go to school, alternative or not.

[Greenmama2]

I'm pretty shy too and so I started going along to homeschooling groups when my eldest was about your daughter's age. Not for her, but for me because I take a long time to connect with people and an even longer time to feel comfortable in new situations, especially new types of situations (which hs groups were to me). So my suggestion would be if there are groups, even if they are infrequent and hard to get to, I would go. Once every few months is probably actually perfect for you right now. We had the option of weekly groups, even different things several times a week but if memory serves me correctly we turned up to a park day once every few months from then until DD was closer to 3.
When she gets older, if you feel the need for more frequent events you can organize them

[Piglet68]

Even if you don't have homeschooling groups in your area your child can still participate in activities and classes, such as Scouts, community centre courses, clubs, sports teams, etc. Depending on how large your community is she may start seeing the same kids in the same places and get to know them well enough to become friends. 

[llinos]

Thanks for the replies!  I'm feeling a bit better about it.  Well actually I just need to stop worrying because we just moved across country so we dont know many people here yet and we have a while until DD will need friends.  I'll worry again in a year or so!!  There are a lot of activities she could be involved in also.

Thanks again!

[LauraN]

Parks! If I remember correctly, the French love to take their children out to parks, even in winter. Go regularly enough, after school hours, and you'll start seeing some of the same people over and over. Even without approaching them at first, they'll soon seem familiar enough that it won't be as hard to talk to them :)

My sister homeschooled her kids in small-town France for a year and found the socializing very difficult. But she also found that homeschooling is no longer regarded as being as weird as it once was. Your daughter's still young, so really the best thing for now is for you to start working--slowly--on forging friendships with moms who have children in a similar age range. As you get to know them better, it will seem less like work to make plans with them...

Good luck!

/laura