Not Wanting to be Solitary

HistoryBoy is so solitary most of the time; I forget how much he needs/loves/wants to be around other kids his age. When he isn’t in school, he plays a lot of the time with HyperGirl. They are two peas in a pod, but they each need their own space sometimes too. HistoryBoy needs his time to watch Battle 360 which apparently holds NO interest whatsoever for HyperGirl, no matter how much he tries to convince her of how good it is.

After spending the weekend with Max and Doodle, HistoryBoy told me that it was so great to spend time with someone who shared his interests. It had been too long since he hung out with someone who really got him. Now I am not going to tell HyperGirl any of this but I felt bad that he felt he couldn’t share his interests with her, or that he doesn’t have someone he can. I know I *try* to be interested but I can only be interested so many times before I go insane.

I am beginning to wonder if HistoryBoy picked up our family’s teaching “gene.” I come from a family of teachers, and he loves to share his knowledge with everyone and anyone who shows and interest in it. He is especially good with younger children and answering their questions, which I love and think is AWESOME. He says something they don’t understand, usually because he likes big words, and then he tries to explain so that they do.

But I digress, he has asked me lately about having a friend over, which I am not opposed to, but I am still not feeling healthy and after he gets outs of school a lot of days are spent with me napping, so after school play is not really an option unless I am feeling better. He is craving more social interaction and I am lacking the energy/time to be able to get it for him.

So when we get back from this trip to Florida, I have to try to figure out how to get him more involved with other kids who like what he like. Do you think there is a History Club for 10 years olds? I think my problem will be finding a child his age with similar interests. His interests tend to be older and/or younger than his age, ie Thomas trains, which he still loves, or WWII. There are not a lot of 10 year old into Thomas or WWII, but maybe there are some into Legos or Transformers which he also likes, not as much as the first two but it is somewhere to work from.

I guess what I have to keep remembering is that while it is easier for him to be solitary; I need to push him to not be solitary and to encourage him when he is interested in being with others, even if I am not up to it, because that is what is going to make the difference for him in the long run.