Going to a homeschool park day is sort of like speed dating. First, you have to figure out if the group meets on time, or on "homeschool time". We hate being late, which means we show up at the time listed and usually means we are the first ones there. I've now started to show up 15-20 minutes late, and I usually am still early. The worst one was a group that said they started at noon, but no one showed up until almost 1:30. By they we were ready to go!
After figuring out which group of moms are the ones you should be sitting near, then comes having conversations. This is where it starts to seem like speed dating. You meet a lot of people, with a lot of kids, with a lot of different ways of schooling and parenting, and you have to try to remember who belongs with who, and who can you have a conversation with. It's hard when you school one way, and they are the complete opposite. Then there are the awkward silences where everyone is trying to come up with something to say, but there's nothing to be said at the moment. Hopefully you find someone to talk with, or a interesting conversation to listen too.
Of course, if the group is large enough, you always have cliques of moms. Then you have to find which group you fit in. I usually have too many kids, am not "organic" enough, am too attachment parenting, or not a strict classical homeschooler, or not unschooling enough.
Then comes trying to get your own kids to socialize. The first park day is to figure out what toys and things are popular- Do they bring scooters? Bikes? Legos? Cards? Sand toys? Swords? Then the 2nd park day you try to bring as much as you can to keep the kids busy. Then you teach your kids to introduce themselves and ask if they can play. My kids usually think I'm nuts for making them play with other kids. Then after a few park days they figure out which kids they fit with and are happy to go play.
The princess believes park days have another purpose. The last park day she kept asking if we were going to the park to get her a friend. She kept asking where her friend was going to sit in the car. As we were leaving, she starts throwing a fit. "Why weren't we taking her friend home? We were supposed to go to the park and get a friend". Uhm, we don't go to the park to pick up kids! That's kidnapping and I don't think their moms would appreciate that. I hope she figures it out soon.
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