How To Make Friends As A Newbie In A New Neighborhood

Kids can make friends so easily, but that task becomes harder as you get older. Most adults are awkward and have forgotten the trick to making friends the old-fashioned ways—by simply talking to others about their interests and finding like minds. Throw moving to a new neighborhood into the mix and you have quite a challenge on your hands.

That’s where this article comes in. Read up to feel inspired on how you can make friends as a newbie in a new neighborhood.

Join the Social Media Profile for the Community, i.e. Where People Post Events and Goings-on.

Most communities, even subdivisions, have their own social media profiles these days, where locals post whatever happens to be going on throughout the coming months. Make yourself known on these social media profiles. Introduce yourself, flip through community events, and find some things worth going to.

Tip: Aside from technology, you could also keep your eyes on newspapers and event boards at the grocery stores. This is where older locals might post about upcoming festivals, church events, and annual town celebrations.

Sending Your Kids to School? Make Friends via Their Friends. Get to Know Families Within Your Child’s School System.

When kiddos make friends at one of the private schools in Redmond WA and want those friends to come over, or vice versa, it’s customary for the parents of both kids to meet up and make sure their youngster will be safe and secure at the other parent’s home. Take this an extra step. Invite those parents to your house for dinner. Make friends, so whenever your kids hang out, you all can hang out too.

Take Walks that Lead You Through the Town on a Daily Basis—Say Hello to People You Pass, Bring Your Pup with You, etc.

Neighborhood walks can be great ways to explore your new community while saying hello to locals and getting to know the area. Have a pup? Take them along for walks. Or, better yet, find paths that you could use for daily exercise. You could even start a walking club that could be a little get-together for people that wanted to make friends AND stay in shape.

Reading Is Such An Extraordinary Gift

One of the most amazing things to witness on this planet is when your little kid (or any little kid. I'm sure it's the same for teachers too!) magically understand phonics, words, word families, etc. Basically, learns how to read. 

I homeschool my youngest son because he is most likely in need of some dental surgeries and he is very self-conscious about this as well as his cleft scar and nose from his surgery. It's heartbreaking to know that a small child can feel this way. It's bad enough anybody can. So, he's super duper reserved and is just starting to "come out of his shell" around people he doesn't know. (Another amazing thing to watch!)

But, we use a few different reading programs and he is great with sight words and all of the basics. He excels at math but, cannot stand reading. Until today. 

He started school around 9am this morning and worked straight through until about 5pm. 
Around 10am this morning, something clicked and Deegan just started reading everything on the page lol. He said, lol, "My brain just told me that he understands these sounds now!" (LOL he always has messages from his brain which is awesome since, when I was pregnant with him, he was missing a section of his brain but amazingly, a few months later, at another ultrasound, it started reappearing. Long story but he's perfectly fine and only had a cleft lip and club foot when he was born.) 

Anyway, he went crazy and just started reading and that was that. He didn't even work on any math today because he didn't want to stop learning words. Actually, he learned 46 new words today and took 2 tests and had a 93% and a 100% so, he's a badass. 

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If you can ever witness the exact time that something clicks inside of a little one's brain that makes reading an easy task, you will find that it is very hard to top! 

I was only able to witness this once before when my 11-year-old daughter had that light go off and all of a sudden, she ran to the 1 bookshelf and just started tearing books out. (Apparently, my other 2 had this happen during school lol!)

Reading is the most important and most fascinating gift that we have!

I wish I would have recorded both of these times because the looks on their faces when they have that "click" is such a rewarding and memorable experience. They are so grateful for this gift and so excited when they hone those skills. Both of these days will be 2 of my most favorite memories of my children growing up. (Of course, there are many more!) 

We have been using Reading Eggs, ABC Mouse, as well as several different books, flashcards, the old school way of learning to read. If you have any other ideas or tips for teaching your little ones to read, please let me know in the comments! The possibilities are endless and I want to be able to offer as many options as possible for him to really get as much as he can!