Hi
My lot go to Scouts, and have made new friends outside of school. It would be Cubs at his age. Just a thought, as a new lad has joined the Scouts having moved here from abroad and the children have been very welcoming.
My youngest is 9 and plays football. Not a social, I've found, as the school gate, yet my son chats about his football friends as much a his school friends. The children there come from three different primary school. He's played football since he was 6 (no idea where he has the interest from, can't stand the game myself, not can his older siblings!).
I've never moved far from this locality, spending 18 months 14 miles up the road, yet my friends seem to be made up mainly of other mum's now!
I really do wish you the best of luck and happiness in your new home.
Hi verdy
Fi is right, http://www.netmums.com is a fantastic site where you can find out lots of local information, make friends with mums who have children your sons age, find out about local activities and much more (- please come back to us, although they have a great site, we do too!!!)
I think that sparklinglime also has a good suggestion about getting his friends house numbers. If you are available after school you could invite a couple of his friends to the park, or round to your house. Another idea could be to have a 'getting to know you' party, where he invites 4 of his school friends and then when the parents come to pick them up, invite them in for half an hour telling them how much you would like to get to know them. Or ask them about what extra activities their sons do.
It is always tough when you move to a new neighbourhood, especially as you are doing this alone, but it will get easier, keep in touch and let us know what you have found out in your local area.
Also you could have a look at our Advice Finder on the homepage http://advicefinder.onespace.org.uk/ you might find something of interest there.
Best of luck :)
Hey that's fantastic news Verdy, best of luck with it, please let us know how it goes, hopefully the mum (or dad) might pop in for a cuppa when they collect their son? :)
Are you picking your son up from school or does he go to a childminder or after school club instead? I always found hanging round the school gate (fortunately I managed to spend most of my kids' primary school education working around school hours) a good way of sorting out the girls' social life with other parents but if that's not possible for you, perhaps you could just ask your son to make sure he gets the phone numbers of his friends' parents and you could ring them to arrange something.
Try having a look on a website such as Netmums who will have local information for your area about cheap / free after school or weekend activities where he could meet new friends. What about Cubs etc? Or your local library might have details on activities.
I know it's tough constructing a new support network when you've uprooted yourself. But good luck and keep us posted! Fi x