This is therapeutic to read, somehow. OP, your son sounds a lot like my DS only a yr older. DS is highly social and just loves people of all ages, backgrounds etc. In his waldorf school he bonded very closely with 3 other kids in his class and they had a little 'gang' going. Outside of that he had several other friends from parent toddler group, neighbors, etc. that was all in the UK.
Now we're in CA and hs-ing and the situation here breaks my heart. We live on a block where I know a ton of kids live but we literally never see them. They are all shuttled off to school in cars or on the bus and must be at afterschool because they're still not around in the afternoon. We see a few kids at the park after 4pm, but mostly toddlers, and before that nobody.
Park days don't work well for us; too unstructured, no way for ds to build connections with others. I'm trying to work on that though since we don't have many options. We have been in 2 waldorf-inspired groups though and the structure of that really facilitates relationships being built. We've made some nice connections there but most kids are younger (DS gets on best with kids older than him). Ds's best friend here is in PS and after school so we see him maybe once a month.
It's all very hard for DS to make sense of and breaks my heart. If there were kids around and this wasn't issue I would NEVER question hs-ing. School seems like a phenomenal waste of time to me
I'm going to be as proactive as I can over the next few months but honestly I'm leaning towards a small private school (which we can't afford, but it looks like our best option) 
Now we're in CA and hs-ing and the situation here breaks my heart. We live on a block where I know a ton of kids live but we literally never see them. They are all shuttled off to school in cars or on the bus and must be at afterschool because they're still not around in the afternoon. We see a few kids at the park after 4pm, but mostly toddlers, and before that nobody.
Park days don't work well for us; too unstructured, no way for ds to build connections with others. I'm trying to work on that though since we don't have many options. We have been in 2 waldorf-inspired groups though and the structure of that really facilitates relationships being built. We've made some nice connections there but most kids are younger (DS gets on best with kids older than him). Ds's best friend here is in PS and after school so we see him maybe once a month.
It's all very hard for DS to make sense of and breaks my heart. If there were kids around and this wasn't issue I would NEVER question hs-ing. School seems like a phenomenal waste of time to me
I'm going to be as proactive as I can over the next few months but honestly I'm leaning towards a small private school (which we can't afford, but it looks like our best option) 
