Is it possible to start fresh in HS?

[Anonymous]

If sports inclined (or just willing to give it a go), consider if there are any sports that start in high school. Almost everyone is a beginner and the teams seem to have a strong sense of community. In my area, which is outside of DCUM-land, this is the case for crew. Cross country also has similar vibes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure. Especially if it’s a large school and she isn’t known for doing something completely mortifying on video. Lots of drifting away and finding nene groups at that age when kids realize they don’t have a lot in common with ES friends.

I’m an introvert, and my kids are introverts and slid right in to friend groups because they joined activities/ took co-curricular classes that they were interested in. So my music kid took band and marched. And that was all he did August through November. But, he had a really nice friend group and from day one (three weeks after band camp started) always had someone to eat lunch with. Ditto my younger kid and a school with a huge, active robotics team. Lots of kids in their school find their place by taking drama or voice trying out for the school musical. Or getting involved with art. Or MUN. Or whatever.

It’s the easiest I know of to make friends with decent kids (involved in the school community, supportive parents) who have the same interests as you. The activity itself doesn’t matter. It should just be big enough that there are plenty of kids to meet and take up a decent chunk of time. Not 1 hour a month in Latin club. Chances are when it’s time to choose lab partners, she’ll know a kid in the class enough to ask without it being a ck ward, even if they aren’t BFFs.

Otherwise, can can be easy to kind of get lost in a school of 3000. Your kid does have to make an effort.

What school do your kids go to out of curiosity?

[Anonymous]

There are so many clubs these days at almost all public and private HS. Have her look online beforehand and she might even be able to create a tough schedule of clubs to try, a lot meet at lunch so that’s an easy way to immediately make new friends. I’d have her pick four clubs to check out, then if she ends up not liking one for some reason no biggie.
Theatre and music and choirs also good ways of going friend groups in hS outside of sports at school

[Anonymous]

Rough, not tough (above)