Moving to Urbana/Champaign IL

[Jaimee]

Dh just got a faculty position at UI Urbana/Champaign so my family is relocating around May/June of this year.  We have two kids so I've got lots of questions about where to live, schools, pediatricians, grocery stores, and parenting groups.

I have done some preliminary searches and found the following things.  I would love any other information, suggestions, or recommendations you have as well!

• Schools: our dd is 4 and will need some sort of preschool, half days preferably and a nice mix of play, structure, nature, and academic learning.  Here are the schools I've found so far...

Montessori School in Savoy

Montessori Habitat School

Lab School in the Child Development Lab at UI

• Grocery Stores: we're vegetarians that eat mostly organic and local when we can get it

Strawberry Fields

Common Grounds

• Pediatricians: we do not vaccinate and would also love a doctor that is supportive of extended breastfeeding, co-sleeping, etc.

??

• Parenting Groups: AP, NP, buying clubs, playgroups, LLL, API, etc.  What groups are active and welcoming?

LLL in Champaign

API in Peoria

Natural Family Living Yahoo Group in Champaign

Mothers and More Yahoo Group in Champaign

Attachment Parenting Meetup in Bloomington

The Champaign Urbana Parents Meetup

Urbana Champaign Holistic Health Meetup

• Neighborhoods: where to buy a house??  We are looking for a 4bd house with room for a garden.

We've heard of the "Faculty Ghetto" or "Professor Row" to the east of the University

What is the flavor of Urbana vs. Champaign?

Where are the new houses?

Where are the nice, remodeled older homes?

Recommendations for realtors that really know the area and can take care of business efficiently?

• Natural parenting stores?  Baby carriers, cloth diapers, etc.?
• Weather: we live in Baltimore, MD right now... many months of cold and how much snow are we talking?  :)

Thanks for all your help!!!

[Rachel727]

Hi Jaimee! I live in the C-U area, also called Chambana by the local ;)  We are actually outside of town, trying to sell our house with the hopes to move to Urbana soon!  For more information on the schools and other general info I'd check out chambanamoms.com  it is a local blog/website done by two moms.  They have done a lot of posts lately on preschools, including the ones you've mentioned.  As far as where to live, Champaign, Urbana, and Savoy are all connected.  If you are planning on public school for your kids I'd check out the website I mentioned Champaign schools (which is also what Savoy is a part of) has what's called School of Choice, that website has done several articles about it and I would look into that before buying in Savoy or Champaign, just so you know what you are geting into!  Not that it is neccesarilly bad, but it is the reason we will be moving to Urbana, i just don't want to deal with it :)  Common Ground food Co-Op is a great store, as is Strawberry Fields although lately they have gotten a little too into the supplements for me!  We also have a great Farmer's Market in Urbana.

Doctor's I'm not really sure of, we have a great Family Medicine doctor, but I don't think she is accepting new patients (I believe she cut her hours cause she has young kids).  We have done some vaccines and not others and changed the schedule around and she has never tried to get us to do anything we didn't want to....Groups- I was/am in a great one, we used to be on meet-up but changed to a facebook group because out kids were al getting older and we just didn't have the time to meet-up regularly (my oldest is 5.5 and youngest 2.5).  We do still do a few things together, if you're interested and on facebook send me a message and I can send it to you.  The C-U parents meetup group I know is a pretty big group, I had some friends in and last I knew they seemed to do a lot.  I have never went to a LLL meeting, although always wanted to- maybe if we have another baby!  Bloomington is about 45minutes and Peoria is at least 2 hours (although I'm thinking more like 3).  the Mothers and More group was featured on that website so you can check that out as well.

If you are interested in certain types of neighborhoods I'd be glad to send you some more info.  I have the ones I like, but would have to double check on their actual names.  Keep in mind though, I am not into new construction :)  C-U is a really great place to live, there are also a lot of big nice parks!  Lots of big old trees too, I actually think they have the most trees for a city that size (I remember my husband mentioning he read that somewhere).  There are also several local CSA's, we actually just joined one this year.

Natural Parenting stores- a great store B. Lime baby- they have a website and are on facebook check them out.  There is also BabyLand in Savoy and they sell some cloth diapers too.  B-Lime is a "green" store.  they sell all different sorts of "green" things it's a great store.  babyland is mostly a baby store (furniture, car seats, strollers) but they also sell diapers and baby carriers.

Weather-  Well today it's sunny and I feel hopeful that spring will come, yesterday i was pretty sure it never would!  This has been one of the worst winters ever, and I have lived close to here my whole life.  I hate winter and the cold, but you live and learn to deal with it...or you just complain the whole time :)  You really never know what you are going to get here!

Hope this helps, feel free to PM me with any other questions.

[Jaimee]

Thank you Rachel!  I will definitely PM you!

[tschifo]

This was very helpful for me, too. We are moving to Mahomet in June.

What about parks and swimming pools? What are good places to take a 5 year old and 2.5 year old?

We are expecting mid-June, so maybe I'll check out my first LLL meeting. It's on my bucket list.

[NettleTea]

Great music scene in Urbana/Champaign

[hlwadw]

We are moving to C-U in the next couple of months.  We have a 2 year old and a newborn.  Did you find any recommendations for a peditrician that supports no vaccinations or an alternate schedule?  

[Jaimee]

We moved here about two weeks ago and our stuff just arrived today!  It's been a rough time, but we are excited to finally be in our house with our things.  Anyway, we did find a ped that is supposed to be non-vax friendly.  I haven't officially interviewed him and my first appointment isn't until September, but I've heard great things about him.  His name is Dr. Melvin and he's at Carle Clinic.

I'm still looking for recs for a family doctor or general MD for me and my dh.

[hlwadw]

Glad you made it and are settled!  Moving is never fun.  This is the second time I have heard Dr Melvin's name.  I will check him out.  If I hear any suggestions for general MD's I will let you know.

[Jaimee]

We decided to sign up for Dr. Uzodike at Christie for our doctor.  She's gotten some good recommendations, so we'll see.  We're down in SE Urbana, so Carle and Christie clinics on Windsor are within walking distance.