How do you research places to move, to see if it offers what you want in terms of homeschooling?

[tammyw]

My husband will be done with the military in three short years. We are really trying to investigate the top places we'd consider living, and then he will most target those places for jobs. There are things that are important to me - homeschooling friendly with lots of artistic and cultural opportunities for our family, reasonable weather (don't love humidity), etc.

For example, we live in San Diego and we really like it a lot here, but frankly I don't love the housing options. We will be able to afford a reasonable amount when we buy but I am becoming less and less satisfied with living on a postage sized lot in a tract of homes where everyone's home is the same.

My husband is networking now, three years out, so we'll have the maximum number of options. He has excellent skills and a good education, so we think his options will be good. Trying to figure out whether certain places would be good for us is hard though.

Colorado Springs - seems like a decent place to live and he is originally from Denver, but I know it's on the very conservative side and I am more liberal. We could find a beautiful home there, but still, could I find my niche there? Would we be happy?

Bellingham, WA - closer to my Canadian roots (one hour to Vancouver, Canada, one hour to Seattle, WA) but does it have enough to offer homeschoolers? I don't even know how to find out. Again, it seems we could have a beautiful home there but obviously that's not enough.

Seattle, WA - more expensive and rainier even than Bellingham I've heard. Probably has lots to offer a homeschooler, I'm just not sure if I'd love all that rain ;)

And on, and on. He will be looking at various government jobs plus seriously looking at the Aerospace industry. He is a pilot but has no desire to work for a commercial airline.

Just thinking out loud about how we best spend these three years deciding where we want to live, when the time comes. I'd appreciate any opinions on this subject :)

[deditus]

Well, we started with jobs. Sounds like your husband has a fairly specialized skill set, so as he finds out where there are good work possibilities, research from there. We didn't need anything specific since my dp is a garbage truck driver, just an area where there were actually jobs that paid a living wage.

Think about what your other considerations are. We wanted to live within a half day drive of our home town. We wanted to live where there was good access to local food. Good homeschool community, friendly hs laws. Four distinct seasons of weather. Fairly liberal and diverse population. Great parks and outdoor spaces. Public transportation. Historic architecture. Not too high cost of living.

Once I narrowed my list down to areas with a better economy, within a half day drive, then I was able to delve a little deeper and checked out the local tribes here and searched for yahoo homeschooling groups. We happened to find a lovely area where we have pretty much everything we wanted, but really took a leap of faith in that we never once had been to our city prior to moving here! You may have a chance to visit some the areas before you move and REALLY check them out.

We live in the TwinCities, BTW, and our landlord and his wife and 5 yo son moved here from San Diego because they would never be able to afford to buy a house there.

[Meetupdiva]

 We're out of the military and I'm in the same boat. Trying to figure out how to search areas. We're orginally from western washington. It will always be home to us. Right now we are stationed in Spokane, WA, and we like it here. We also have some family in Maryland and there is lots of oppertunity for us there. So that's where we are considering. We have a job offer in each area. Now we are just trying to figure out what's best.

I have a tip for you about homeschooling though. Besides yahoo groups, try searching for facebook groups, meetup.com groups, and bigtent.com groups. That will give you a good feel.

My children attend public schools, my problem is I want to make sure they get a great school. My kindergartner is in a charter school this year, and I'd like that to continue; if it's a really good district school I'll consider that too. My other daughter has autism, so I'm trying to find out where the best therapists are, and what schooling is available for her in each area.

I'm also concerned about housing. We are planning on renting for the time being because our spokane house has dropped in value so drastically that we can't afford to sell it. We don't want to take on a second mortgage. Most houses are row homes, and we've vowed not to have stairs again. Our daughter with autism doesn't seem to get the concept of hieghts and jumps off of anything. 

Anyway, Good Luck, I'd be happy to share with you whatever I find, and appreciate your finds as well!

[Lakeeffectsnow]

We went through this a couple of years ago, DH is retired military.  DH has a specific skill set, where as I am a RN and a massage therapist and have more job flexibility.  We looked for an area where there were a strong job market for his skills, LCO, liberal home school laws, ethnically diverse (we are a multicultural family), politically liberal and close to family, but not too close.  We eliminated very Southern US (DH hates the humid heat) and  the Northeast (I hate the cold).  

I spent quite a bit of time researching on internet and we check out a likely few places on vacation.  I thought I'd love the Northwest, while I liked it it didn't feel like "home" and DH really didn't care for the humidity and rain.  The Southwest was too dry and Texas was way, way too humid and there were other issues.  

I loved Colorado, but the cost of living like in the Northwest was too high.

We actually ended up in our present location because DH went for a job interview and while the kids and I were driving around, we fell in love with a house.  Basically, we moved here because of the house (DH wanted the job too).  It is ethnically diverse and fairly liberal, there is a great home school community and the price of the house was right.  It's in the bitterly cold part of the Northeast, the home school laws are some of the most stringent in the country, we pay crazy taxes, the COL is high, and some of my ILs are 45 minutes away.  But, from the moment my oldest daughter said, "Did you see that house for sale?" and my oldest son insisted I turn the around, I feel like we've been home.  It's a really great house.

[tammyw]

I guess we are sort of smart for looking at real estate then Lakeeffectssnow. As homeschoolers, home truly is my sanctuary and if I don't have a great home, I know I won't be happy. So we have been looking and I've said I won't buy anything unless it's absolutely perfect (for us). Most people say no home is perfect, but I decided I won't settle, and really since we have time to be picky, I guess there's no real reason to settle anyway. Thank you for your advice. We are here in San Diego for three more years at least, so if we can't find our dream home in the next three years, I figure we'll be able to see where he gets job offers at that point :)

[Birkygirl]

I am a military spouse too. I will say that recently we have have friends get out of the military who live in Colorado Springs and try to get jobs ... none there right now. So hopefully the economy picks up more in that area.

I have found that you can find like minded people where ever you go ... we usually try to find a UU Congregation which is fairly liberal both religiously and politically. However, some congregations are apparently not home school friendly as they are pro public school system. But I have never experienced that.

I think you will be able to find the "right" house where ever you go. If you have the greatest house and no other place you feel welcome then that would stink!

Good luck!

[Lakeeffectsnow]

Originally Posted by Birkygirl 

I am a military spouse too. I will say that recently we have have friends get out of the military who live in Colorado Springs and try to get jobs ... none there right now. So hopefully the economy picks up more in that area.

I have found that you can find like minded people where ever you go ... we usually try to find a UU Congregation which is fairly liberal both religiously and politically. However, some congregations are apparently not home school friendly as they are pro public school system. But I have never experienced that.

I think you will be able to find the "right" house where ever you go. If you have the greatest house and no other place you feel welcome then that would stink!

Good luck!

This is a really good point.  If we had hated the area, hadn't felt comfortable here, or DH hadn't wanted the job, we wouldn't have moved here, no matter how great the house was.  In the long run, the positives the house, the home school community, DH's job, and the general community out weigh the cold, the high COL, the taxes, and the stringent home school regulations.

[sparkygirl74]

Originally Posted by Lakeeffectsnow 

We went through this a couple of years ago, DH is retired military.  DH has a specific skill set, where as I am a RN and a massage therapist and have more job flexibility.  We looked for an area where there were a strong job market for his skills, LCO, liberal home school laws, ethnically diverse (we are a multicultural family), politically liberal and close to family, but not too close.  We eliminated very Southern US (DH hates the humid heat) and  the Northeast (I hate the cold).  

I spent quite a bit of time researching on internet and we check out a likely few places on vacation.  I thought I'd love the Northwest, while I liked it it didn't feel like "home" and DH really didn't care for the humidity and rain.  The Southwest was too dry and Texas was way, way too humid and there were other issues.  

I loved Colorado, but the cost of living like in the Northwest was too high.

We actually ended up in our present location because DH went for a job interview and while the kids and I were driving around, we fell in love with a house.  Basically, we moved here because of the house (DH wanted the job too).  It is ethnically diverse and fairly liberal, there is a great home school community and the price of the house was right.  It's in the bitterly cold part of the Northeast, the home school laws are some of the most stringent in the country, we pay crazy taxes, the COL is high, and some of my ILs are 45 minutes away.  But, from the moment my oldest daughter said, "Did you see that house for sale?" and my oldest son insisted I turn the around, I feel like we've been home.  It's a really great house.

LOL, you sound so much like us. We actually moved to WNY from CO because DH found out his dream piece of property was for sale. We too are 45 minutes from my ILs and I hate the bitter cold! There were a lot of things we didn't consider before moving here and next time we move (in the next few years) my list of  "must haves" will be so much longer!