We have been homeschooling our 8th grade daughter since 5th grade and plan to continue all the way through high school.  She is our 'last' child at home, as all the others are grown.  She has weekly Bible study, music lessons and symphony practices, but needs the fellowship of like-minded girls her age.  Our area has extremely few home school groups for some reason.  I am thinking of starting a group just for girls.  Any suggestions or other ideas that may have worked for you who have a homeschool of ONE?

We homeschooled an "only" dd as well from 3rd-12th grades.  We joined a local hs group for activities & friendships with other hs students.  I am not sure about a group for just girls---never seen that & we've lived in 2 completely different places while homeschooling.  What are moms to do with their sons while doing activities with their daughters, expecially those with sons too young to stay at home by themselves?  Why not just join a local hs group to meet some other hs'ers and plan some girl activities & maybe another mom can take the boys during the same time?  Check with your library to see if other homeschoolers come in at regular times, you know how they have "preschool" hour?  They may have "homeschool" hour or something.  Or plan a get together to gauge interest for a girls only group & hold it at the library

 You might check with local bookstores, and see if they have any get togethers.  We have a Barnes and Noble that has several book clubs.  I am homeschooling my one and only ten year old who really enjoys attending the American Girl Club meetings.  We have tried home school groups in the pst but for some reason haven't found one where either of us wanted to go back.

You might want to try the local bookstores or libraries.  If you have a Boys and Girls Club in the area, you might see about her getting involved with it.

Annie

Hi, Claudia.  We have an 'almost' only as she is 17 and her siblings are 23 and 26, both graduated from homeschool and college and are all but gone.  Dd17 is different, tho, in that she is our most 'social' one.  I never had to worry about finding friends or outlets for our older two.  Their hobbies and sports interests were not group-oriented and they enjoyed their own company and quiet, individual projects.   But it seems every parent gets one of those social-butterfly types...

I wish I had more answers for you.  Your dd sounds busy enough, her coursework coupled with her outside interests, lessons, meetings, etc.  Is she wanting to do more things, or be with more people, do you think?   You won't find young ladies her age available for friendships or anything else before 3:00 or whenever the local schools let out; and not to stir anything up, but they won't be as 'like-minded' as you or she might like.  And like another poster said, we've not fit in with too many h/sing groups, either, and girls your daughter's age in a h/s group will be scarce as hen's teeth - most h/sing parents have put their older kids into a school setting by now.  Good for you, holding out against the odds!

Here's a few things we've done, trying to keep our youngest occupied.  She makes herself available for work just about anywhere, filling in for the church secretary or helping her when there's extra work to be done at church.  She is paid for this, but would do it for free if asked.  She also works at a local ice cream restaurant and goes to work after her schoolwork is finished most days, around noon or 1:00.  They know they can count on her to be there and will even call her in for emergencies if someone's ill, etc. - they know she's home and can be depended upon.  I know your dd is too young for a real job, but start putting the word out that she is available during the day to __________  (fill in the blank with babysitting, lesson-giving, dog watching, light housekeeping, reading to grandma, you get the idea...)  You will also need to know your state's truancy laws before you let her out there much during school hours, of course.

Today, our Music Minister's wife called her to come help with the Christmas play scenery - the only youth, of course, that can come during school hours.  She loves painting, etc. and yakking with all the church staff and people coming and going.  She helps a handicapped friend of mine down the street by opening up cans for supper and putting pots on the stove, all the while laughing and visiting.  She helped deliver Christmas baskets during the day with a church friend when no one else was free to help.  And these are all not people her age, of course, but she sure can get along with most anyone and is very happy to have such a full schedule.  An added bonus, she comes home tired and is content to stay home and be with family all evening  

I've written a book and only wanted to give you a few ideas!  Kick around some ideas with her and see if anything sounds interesting - I'd downplay the idea of only befriending or 'hanging out' with girls her own age.  I wish that idea was more realistic, but it's one of the downsides of h/sing that has turned into an up-side for us - I hope it will for you, too...Liz 

Claudia,

You have been given some great ideas. I can't really add to them! I do want to ask if your church has youth groups and activities or if another in the area offers such things.

We belong to a large homeschool group, but activities are a distance from home so we don't get to do alot of them. It also tends to be very clique oriented. Youth groups can help. Most of my boys friends are ones whose parents we are also friends with so we can all do things together as a family. We discourage just "hanging out" and mall walking, etc. I agree with the other poster to keep children esp. teens busy. My son now has outside friends where he works but we have not allowed him to do things outside of work yet.

We have only one child, a daughter, whom we homeschooled from first grade through high school.  We also tried the local homeschooling groups, but participated only minimally, as they didn't really "click."  I was on the constant lookout for activities, and found them in various places, mostly by scanning the local paper diligently.  The most successful activities for us were theater and martial arts.  Our local theater (and we are in a rural area) started a workshop for young people - one session in this and she was hooked.  It's a great group of people of various ages, and she still looks forward to working with them  The same is true of the martial arts group.  Other activities we found over the years were 4H, girl scouts, various classes held at local historical sites by preservation groups, roller skating, volunteering, playing on a county soccer team (or softball or basketball), classes offered by parks and rec departments, etc.  Keep your eyes open, scan the paper regularly, bulletin boards, call your parks department, get on mailing lists for local events.  Even groups like garden clubs may have some sort of an event that might spark an interest.  While parts of the homeschooling experience may have been a bit lonelier than it would have been had she been in high school, we are very satisfied with the end result.  She wasn't exposed to alot of the situations that can lead to problem behavior in the middle school years, and is excelling now at a major university after getting her GED at 16 and graduating from a community college.

Welcome to the community, Chocoholic!

I would suggest starting a club based on what your teen likes as a hobby. Advertise not only to homeschoolers but public school kids as well like at the local school if they allow it or local neighborhood paper. Make sure to have it after 3:30pm when the school kids come out of school.

Club ideas could be arts and craft/trading cards/Chess club/robotics club/drama club/book club/ photography/movie clubs/ the ideas are endless. Other groups can give you the material you need to get started like girl scouts, American girls club, 4-H which is not only about livestalk they have many other options to choose from. You can go on field trips, have guest speakers etc..

My own teen collects postcards from our group and has a few online yahoo IM buddies now that she likes to chat with on occasion and write letters too. My daughter is 14yr so if yours is about the same age and she has yahoo chat let us know she would love to have another HS IM buddie online :)

Sam