How did you make friends while you were home-schooled?

Question

I'm nervous to start this school year at this online academy called "Caliva" aka "CAVA." I know it's an excellent school, but I don't know how I'm going to make friends. If you went to this online academy or you were home-schooled how did you make friends?

Answer 1

Join a sports club, meet someone at the mall, or chatrooms(not a very safe idea though...).

Answer 2

I'm home schooled.  I'm seventeen and have been since the beginning of sixth grade.  Just be involved.  Volunteer somewhere or get a job.  If you go too church you can make friends there.  Or you can try to get PSEO so you can take some classes at a local college.  You can take all kinds of art, self defense and history classes.  They even have classes to teach you how to do yoga.  Good Luck.  I wish people would realize that we are not social misfits.

Answer 3

CAVA should have an online student chat area.  They also use Elluminate a lot.  There should be some social gatherings in your area also.

My HS'ed son makes friends at these places:

* community track/field and cross country teams (5-18)

* Cub Scouts (soon to be Boy Scouts)

* church

* homeschool academic co-op

* zoo classes

* Museum classes

* camps

* bible club

* homeschool bowling, ice skating, and park days

* instant messaging w/ other students who use our curricula

Answer 4

I'm 15, home-educated all my life, live in a Remote Area and have never had any problems meeting and making friends, for instance:

> kids I meet through my siblings, cousins, existing friends etc;

> other kids in town: at the pool, dustbowl, barn etc;

> kids I meet because their parents work for my parents;

> at work;

> at sports competitions;

> at rodeos;

> at sales & campdrafts;

> at dances;

> at Venturers, Young Farmers, ADFC etc;

> on various camps etc.

Just be friendly, open and approachable (but not desperate!).

Answer 5

Well I still see all my friends from public school. We hang out after school when we all have time, or I'll meet up with them when they are let out for lunch and we got to subway or something. We also have weekends.

I'm a member of a homeschool support group that has four hundred students, one hundred of them in highschool like me. The homeschool group has beach days and park days, small group classes for things like drama, debate, japanese, chemistry, etc. They have field trips every month to tons of cool places, dances, prom, clubs like academic team, robotics, OM, yearbook, news paper, photography, inventors club, etc. We have movie nights and holiday parties and game nights. We have graduation events and Not back To School parties at theme parks or water parks, just lots of cool things going on.

I'm involved in the local library. I'm active in their poetry club and chess club, and I also attend book discussions, game nights, scrapbooking classes, science demonstrations, and lots of other youth events at the library. I volunteer there with other teens as well.

I attend art classes in a community art studio. I've been involved in drama club in the community theater. I played soccer on a city team and a homeschool team. I'm in a big fencing club and I fence competitively. I go to science fiction conventions and NFB conventions and horseback riding with friends and to the mall and the movies and everywhere anyone else would go. I take classes at a local university as a duel enrollment student. I play in a band with some of my friends. I take guitar and bass classes and there's a homeschool band at a local music store. I go to open mic nights at coffee shops and other places. I volunteer at a few other places like Special Equestrians and the animal shelter. I attend lots of camps, seminars, and weekend programs, and I'm just generally outgoing when I'm out in public. Making friends is easy if you know how to be outgoing and social.  

Answer 6

My sons made friends by...

-volunteering in our community

-participating in sports

-getting involved in our church high school group

-participating in a local theatre club

-taking cotillion classes

-taking art classes for homeschooler

-joining a homeschool support group who organizes outings and social gatherings for families

-starting a club for something that interests you

You will find out that the friends that you make are better friends than at high school. You will make friends based on what interests you, not just on age alone. It will take some work but you can do it!

There's also online forums for high school home schoolers.

Best of Luck to You!

Jana

http://www.purehomeschooling.com

Answer 7

when i first started homeschooling it was hard having not a lot of friends ,but i made friends by joining a city sports team. you can make a lot of friends by joining groups in your city or vounteering.mayb even start a CAVA group. find people who also use it ...kinda like a study group.