Last time I talked about the basics in making friends for your children. Ok, so you’ve started collecting your people. Now what to do with them? It’s a good idea to find a common goal you’d like to pursue.

I’ve participated in girls’ groups, co-ops, created my own basketball club, my son started an Attactix club, which morphed into a club centered around a board game he and a friend created. My longest enduring effort has been my playground group.

When I first started homeschooling, I had a mission: to visit every playground in the area and make a rating system for them. I have learned in the 11 years we’ve been homeschooling that a. there are a LOT of playgrounds in the area, and B. the children didn’t really understand the concept of rating them, at least not while they were young enough to enjoy going to the playground. Once they reached a certain age, most of the playgrounds had lost their luster.

A couple years into homeschooling, I started inviting friends to the playground with us. At first, we discovered many new places to play, but soon became experts at hosting play dates, and we had a good feel for suitable parks.

Though we live in Michigan, we met year round. I recommend making play groups a weekly commitment, especially in the early days of establishing your group; that way nobody gets confused as to the date. It would also be a good idea to plan the location in advance.

I participated in another play group that met every other week at the same park. That’s another idea, if your goal is just getting together with other folks. Meeting at the same place every week didn’t suit our group when my goal was to seek out new parks, new civilizations…but these days, we stick pretty close to home.

What sustains a play group, besides consistency, is the occasional big event. Last summer, I set the goal of picking every kind of fruit available in our area. We invited friends, and we ended up picking strawberries (on the last possible day), cherries, and blueberries, in that order. The children learned the season for their fruits, and we even learned something about peaches; namely, get thee to the orchard before August if you want to pick peaches!

We usually meet friends at the orchard every year. Last year, the late frost had affected the crop, so we were unable to pick apples, but we still took a hay ride, watched the cider press, and bought apples and donuts.

Sledding is another fun event to invite your play group to. Otherwise, we spend the winter at the museum, a library, or inviting people over to our own home.

The play group has suffered from busyness lately, as the children get older, we try out a co-op, or something like that. This year, we’ve scaled back in our outside the home activities, and plan to revive the play group. We met pretty regularly throughout the summer, but haven’t made the transition to fall.

The orchard event should be our kick-off!