does anyone live in girdwood? dh may buy a boat and fish out of PWS, deliver to whittier, so girdwood would be a good spot for me and dd for part of the year. all is still very preliminary, but is a possibility since he fished for 10 years prior to moving to hawaii and falling in love with me and misses AK all the time :joy:

so, tell me about girdwood... things to do in anchorage... homeschooling in AK... etc.

lay it on me!

I don't live in Girdwood, but I know there is a pretty active home school community there. The real estate in that area is outrageous IMO, but again, you are paying for a ski resort versus real property prices.

It's a beautiful little community :love

not sure if/when we would buy but we are coming from Hawaii so real estate prices are all relative :-))

i'm stoked to hear there is an active homeschooling community - would make meeting friends a bit easier. dh also lived in ak for years so we do have some other friends in the general area (eagle river and seward)... but not many little ones in that mix.

do you know how i might connect with that community?

Yes... coming from Hawaii... Girdwood will feel like a steal LOL

Here is the community group that organizes things. This would be a good start.

http://www.fourvalleys.org/cgi-bin/Class/commerce.cgi

many, MANY mahalos - hope more people from ak check this thread out - am looking for as much info as possible and honestly am pretty excited about this idea...

I'm saving my pennies till we can get a condo there. :lol :joy: Erica from this board lived there for awhile--hopefully she'll see this thread.

Gird is very close to Anchorage--the "big city." Whittier is gorgeous but I hear cabin fever sets in pretty strongly after awhile.

Well, heck, as for "connecting"...just stick up a flyer (or read the flyers) at "the" store or the library :D when you come visit. Or, go hang out at the awesome playground.

I am not sure about Girdwood, I've been there, it's a beautiful and very crunchy community, but homeschooling in Alaska has a lot of support. There are many home school programs that have started up over the past 10 years or so that allow parents to enroll their children in the program to receive high quality borrowed materials and money to use for classes, travel, expendable materials, computers, etc. along with teacher "support." We used this and paid for my first two years of college (since I was also a high school student). However, if you are not comfortable with that level of control over your schooling (reporting to an office, using non-Christian materials, taking benchmark exams, etc.), currently in Alaska there is quite a bit of freedom in how homeschool families operate. There really is no agency to report to (there is, but they are so swamped they would really rather you didn't). The only tricky part would be passing the high school graduation qualifying exam (HSGQE) and receiving a high school diploma. Since I was in one of the programs when I graduated, I didn't have to worry about it (actually, the test wasn't around when I graduated 10 years ago). Anyway, I hope that helps a little bit.

We have found Alaska to be a wonderful place to learn in. Although we lack a lot of children's museums and historical sites (I grew up on the east coast where these abound), we've enjoyed experiencing life in Alaska. My parents garden, raise bees, cross country ski, have moose wandering through their yard, built their own (beautiful) log cabin, travel the state, have dog sledded, canoe, fish, hunt, etc. It is a very rich life for kids growing up, if you want it to be. You can live in a suburban neighborhood or even city (my husband and I currently live in an apartment), but it's not going to be New York City with good public transportation, close amenities (although Girdwood would probably be small enough that you might get away with walking to the corner shop), and nice sidewalks. To really enjoy Alaska, and beat the cabin fever while you're at it (besides taking Vit D), it's really best to live Alaska taking advantage of its ruggedness, etc.

Anchorage has just about everything you would need to buy. They have a Costco, a few natural grocery stores (very expensive, but they have almost everything), a few classic toys stores, two massive bookstores, and so on. They have an art museum, an indoor water park, a few native heritage exibits, several good hospitals, and a small children's science museum "The Imaginarium." There are two universities there (my husband and I graduated from UAA) and several times a year there are fun festivals, including the start of the Iditerod.

Oh, also on the natural food front, this year I participated in a CSA farm share from a Mat-su farm, have received fresh raw milk weekly (also from Mat-su), and have participated in an Azure Standard co-op out of Oregon that ships things up here on a barge for just pennies a pound. There are some good options for fresh food.

Hmm. That's all I can think of right now. I hope that helps you some!

I lived in Girdwood for 12 years then moved to Anchorage this year. I found the homeschooling community very meager, although improving. The school there is one of the "best" in all of southcentral so there isn't much incentive for many to homeschool. It is changing, but so far it's only a handful of families. They are trying to get a charter school going but there is major resistance because that means an exodus from the main school and many beloved teacher neighbors will lose their jobs.

Its beautiful and crunchy and scenic and there is a real sense of community. It is super easy to get plugged in. The people are wonderful. They have a couple of great parks. Everyone walks and rides bikes. It's unofficial sister city is Hanalei Bay. I know another family that fishes out of PWS and it works great for them. They dabble in homeschooling but it appears they will mostly go to the public school..

But be prepared to drive a heinous highway to get groceries or any other essentials. There is only a little mini mart, no drug store, no hardware store, etc. Just a post office, a liquour store, restaurants and some touristy shops and the hotel.. Someone dies on the highway every year. Many, many families move when their kids reach high school age since they have to take the bus at gulp..6AM to make it to school. Then mom and dad have to drive in to pick up after the sports. It's gruelling on the kids so many move and so there is a total vacuum of babysitters and high school aged kids in general.

For kids they offer skiing and soccer, a short baseball season and a scattering of other things very inconsistently offered and of short duration. Everything else is very limited. You generally have to drive for swimming lessons, dance, doctor appts.. And it rains...and rains...and rains... No where to go on rainy days but the library or pay $120 a month for the hotel health club.

I hope I gave you a balanced picture. Feel free to ask more.

for us it wouldn't be year round, mainly the summer months.

the drive, distance wise, doesn't bother me, where i live in hawaii is about a 30-45 minute drive to most substantial shopping, and i imagine that since i won't have to drive it daily or in the winter months that may make it better, safety wise?

and when you say rainy, year round there is lots of rain or the shoulder seasons?

thanks to everyone for chiming in, more is welcomed and desired :-))

It rains in summer, and is cool and misty often. I remember laughing along with a bunch of other parents one June while watching my kids soccer game. We were all wearing down coats and hats. No joke. But we have glorious sunny days as well. Depends on the year. August is generally a downpour. But the berry picking is awesome! And the bugs can be really bad as well, depending where your house is. We are talking biting flys. There are some places where you cannot, I repeat, cannot sit outside of your house because of the biting flies. Visualize, run in...run out.

For a few months it would be awesome. And a great break from the heat of Hawaii.

I love love love the park they have there! Be far the coolest playground I have even been to in 4 states!