Suggestions for areas with lots of secular home schoolers

[quackers19]

My family and I are looking for a change of scenery, and are hoping to move soon. My husband works from home, so the sky is the limit as to where we choose to live, however I have an almost 5 year old that I am home schooling. We are secular home schoolers, and we are looking to move somewhere very friendly and open, with a community we can join quickly, that hopefully has a large or largeish secular home school presence. I would love some suggestions of areas, can anyone recommend a favorite place?

[onlyzombiecat]

Locate near a medium to bigger city to find more secular homeschool groups.

These two maps might give you an idea of where some secular homeschoolers are more concentrated:

http://secular-homeschool.meetup.com/

http://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=178757&x=-100.1953&y=38.2727&z=14

Do not move to small town/rural Kansas. There are lots of wonderful benefits to choosing to live in a small town/rural area in a state with homeschool friendly laws and a lower cost of living but homeschoolers in small town areas are scattered and there are few hs groups. I imagine that could be true of rural/small town areas across the country.  If a variety of groups and a larger secular homeschool social scene are your priority then I believe there are active secular groups in the Topeka and Kansas City area.
 

[rightkindofme]

I live in the bay area of California and there are home schoolers every where. Some are religious, but they don't make it your business. I'm kind of obnoxiously atheist sounding even though I'm not an atheist--I'm just annoying--and so far we are finding a place. My kids are still very young (2.5 and 4.5) but we are involved with an upcoming group of homeschoolers. There are a bunch of groups in the general area.

But it's really expensive.

[GirlBoyGirl]

I'm not sure where you live now, but we just moved away from Charlottesville, Virginia (and plan on moving back as soon as we can). They had a decent sized secular homeschool population and tons to do for HSers during the day. Also, the public schools are amazing (more so county schools than city) which is always a priority for me when searching a new hometown because you never know what could happen to the mom and the dad may not be able to continue HSing. Or maybe you will have a child with a huge burning desire to go to public school, you just never know! It's an absolutely gorgeous town (in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains) with friendly people, awesome shopping, and tons to do. The college (Univ of VA) offers many amenities and lots of programs open to kids in town. Kind of pricey (for us) but if you are coming from, say, Southern California then maybe its on the cheap end! It's definitely worth checking out.

[Daffodil]

Vermont is mostly small towns, so you won't find really large homeschooling groups anywhere, but I have the sense that the percentage of people who homeschool and the percentage of homeschoolers who are secular are fairly high compared to other places.  I'd call Vermont an open, friendly place.

[AAK]

WA state seems to have a good mix of secular and religious.  We have found our niche.  

Amy

[SweetSilver]

Also from WA.  There are a lot of HSers of every stripe here.  They are crawling out of the woodwork.

That said, I'm still having a hard time hooking up with people!

[Babayaga]

Good community of secular homeschoolers here in Philly, with lots of cultural institutions, resources and activities. Philly has a lower COL than some other east coast cities but is still fairly pricey compared to some other places. Religious homeschoolers abound just outside the city, but here in town ther are plenty of lovely, quirky, smart people homeschooling. We all have tons of friends (me and the kids). Public schools are awful, of course.

[Curlyfry7]

There are a good number of secular homeschoolers in the Triangle, NC area. Not to mention the proximity to beach and mountains! It's also a fairly crunchy area.

[ancoda]

When we lived in the Portland, Oregon area there were lots of homeschoolers both religious and secular.  Here in the Austin, Texas area there is a good mix of all kinds of homeschoolers though I have not found near as many homeschoolers.  We only have 3 or 4 groups in the area vs the 8-10 there were in the Portland area.

[tiqa]

Originally Posted by onlyzombiecat 

Locate near a medium to bigger city to find more secular homeschool groups.

These two maps might give you an idea of where some secular homeschoolers are more concentrated:

http://secular-homeschool.meetup.com/

http://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=178757&x=-100.1953&y=38.2727&z=14

Do not move to small town/rural Kansas. There are lots of wonderful benefits to choosing to live in a small town/rural area in a state with homeschool friendly laws and a lower cost of living but homeschoolers in small town areas are scattered and there are few hs groups. I imagine that could be true of rural/small town areas across the country.  If a variety of groups and a larger secular homeschool social scene are your priority then I believe there are active secular groups in the Topeka and Kansas City area.
 

We live near a decent sized city in NY state and even our homeschooling options are limited (unless we go into the said city).  The hs groups here are totally scattered. =/