Hi!
My name is Amber I am 33, and my son Caden is 7yo!
We started homeschooling last year, and we live w/my fiance, and my father.  
My father and I share C's hsing teaching and activities.  
I think C is really benefiting from the one on one attention, but we are still struggling.
While we have been HSing for a little while we are very much out of the loop and fairly isolated.

I am really wanting to find some social outlets for my son, it's has been a struggle for him to have a regular ongoing friends to play with.  Most of the kids he knows in the neighborhood go to public school and their hours are different than ours and dont have a lot of time to play.
We do know a HSing family, my friend HS's all three of her girls however they are very busy w/a lot of different activities.

I would really love to find groups, big or small, and other activities so my son can have some regular playmates.
He really is a great kid and loves to play with anyone willing to play with him, he gets along great everyone.
We could also just use some basic homeschooling support but the social aspect has been a big issue.  
We have had C in a gymnastics class but it became too expensive to continue.
Sometimes I doubt if we are doing the right thing and it's hard.

I feel it's time to really step it up w/HSing and make sure Caden is getting everything he needs.

We actually live between Bernalillo and Rio Rancho, but this seemed like a pretty active web site and if we cant find anything locally we are more than willing to go to Albuquerque.  I am also in my 2nd trimester of pregnancy and have had a rough pregnancy so my dad is often the one that takes Caden to a lot of activities.

I am not sure what to do next, I saw that there's a weekly park group in ABQ on Thursday so we will probably do that this week and go from there.

Any help, direction, suggestions, support is welcome.

Thanks!

~Amber

Hi Amber!  My name is Denise and my son, Monty, is 9 years old.  We bought a house in the Northern Meadows area of Rio Rancho last year.  Since then, my son has been having more than a little bit of difficulty finding friends to play with.  Before that, we lived in the UNM Student Family Housing since my husband was in nursing school.  There were tons and tons of children for our children to play with.  Now our daughter has started kindergarten in public school leaving her brother without anyone to play and/or fight with during the day.  

If you would like to get together for our boys to hang out, you can email me at sunflower1237 at cableone dot net

Hi Amber,  I don't know if you know, but there is a homeschool park a little closer than this one, but either one is great.  the haynes' park is meeting every tuesday at 11, but probably will change to 1 soon, right across Intel..  I myself actually go to the Loma park one.  We have two girls, one is seven and one is 1.5. My girl is super shy but love to talk and play one on one when she gets comfortable. Hang in there things will get easier.  I myself struggle with my daughter finding friends because she is so shy, but keep in mind that they too will out grow their shyness and soon they probably won't even want us around!  Most of the time she plays by herself at park days, but I have to remind myself that when she is ready she will venture out.  Come and meet us at park day Thursday between Paseo Del Notre and Wyoming. If need more directions, let us know.

Hi!  
Thanks for your responses!  Sunflower, I may just be contacting you thanks for your email!  
My son is actually the more outgoing one compared to me lol.  The biggest problem he may have when he does find someone to play w/at a park is they pick on him.  
Recently, he approached a couple of boys to play tag and when he couldnt catch them they started calling him names.
My dad was there and I wasnt and I was shocked, it's so sad, to me that's just not acceptable.  I get that there are bullies but it still doesnt make it ok.
Certainly not all kids at the park do this but it does happen occasionally.  He is "all boy"  (whatever that means lol) but plays really well w/all ages and genders.
He is just a really eager kid that wants "friends" to play with.  

Thaog,
My dad actually wanted to take Caden to the park group today but forgot how early it was so they missed out, Caden was really bummed.
So I will make sure to tell them about the one in Rio Rancho on Tuesday, that way he wont have to wait till Thursday.  Thanks for letting me know!
I really would like to go to the park meetups but my hours are all screwed up since Ive had really bad morning sickness, I am working on getting them back to at least semi normal but it's really difficult.  So my dad has been the one to take Caden to the park and such.
My dad is really awesome and Im so lucky to have him do things for me and Caden.
If the park times were later in the afternoon I could probably handle it.

I tried to fill out the form for the co-op but I kept getting errors and I dont think it went through.

Anyway, thanks again for the responses I appreciate them so much!

Park day is 10 in the morning, but that is really just the time to have, some show up at ten, some show up at 1, people are there for short time and some are there from 10 to 3! We usually get there around 11 sometimes even noon depends on my 1.5 year old girl.  We usually bring a sac lunch and stay until 1 or 2. But soon when it gets colder the park time will start at 1.

I believe the Rio Rancho park day on Tuesday is hosted by Rio Grande Homeschoolers, whereas the Thursday parkday at Loma Del Norte is hosted by Albuquerque Homeschool Co-op (this group).  

Yeah, Amber, if you show up to the rio rancho park, none of us from the albu. homeschool co-op will be there. most of us choose one park and stick to one. but i don't think there are any rules that you can not go to both. is there?

Nope, no rules like that at all on this end.  I  can't speak for any other groups that host parkday, but it's not a problem to have dual attendance or membership.