Opportunity to Move to a New City With an Unschooled Only Child
Michelle and Hub
If anyone has some insight, I'd be grateful.
We currently live in PA. Our little boy, age 5 1/2, has never been to school. I had a career before he was born but don't plan to go back to it. My husband currently has a career he enjoys, but a job he hates. The company will be laying him off, or we have the opportunity to relocate to Texas. He also has a job offer with another company in our area, but the required security clearance may not be approved until end of January (there's also a chance it could *not* be approved). We are trying to decide if we want to, or should, relocate to Texas.
We have been to the area in Texas and like it well enough. Not overwhelmingly, but enough. We are leaning toward going, because my husband is very excited about the work he'd be doing, and if/when he wants to move on, there are more opportunities there than here. We had been thinking about relocating to Western North Carolina, because we love the area, but he's only just begun exploring the job market in that area so that wouldn't be for a couple of years.
The biggest thing keeping me from saying Yes to Texas is I am concerned about feeling too isolated. I feel a bit isolated now, as being my son's main playmate is sometimes a challenge. My dad does come for dinner and play one evening a week; he plays with a 7-year-old boy across the street about once a week (his "best friend"); I have a young teen girl who comes over for 2 hours on Monday afternoons (my son doesn't dislike her but he would rather be with me); my sister brings her 2 1/2 year old over once a week (that only started recently since she has a newborn and isn't planning to return to work).
My son has cried a lot about leaving his best friend. (Honestly, I'm sad about leaving the family as well since they are very easy to get along with and the kids have so much fun together.) Even if we stay in Pittsburgh, though, we would at least be moving across town (30-45 minutes), so time with his best friend would be limited (more than just "He can't play right now, he's at school...has to do homework...has Scouts...Soccer...Tee ball...").
He has cried about leaving his Grandpap, but seems ok that Grandpap could visit us in Texas sometimes, and we would visit Pittsburgh sometimes too.
I have joined 2 yahoo groups for homeschoolers and unschoolers in the area but there hasn't been any activity for a while in one case; in the other the list owner hasn't approved my membership request since I applied in mid-October. So that leaves me feeling concerned about the community available to us. We aren't a part of any homeschool/unschool groups in real life, yet, because my son prefers to play at home. But I'd like the option available to him as he gets older.
If we want to move to Texas, what do we need to think about to make this work? What do we need to do to make this work?
Thanks,
Michelle
We currently live in PA. Our little boy, age 5 1/2, has never been to school. I had a career before he was born but don't plan to go back to it. My husband currently has a career he enjoys, but a job he hates. The company will be laying him off, or we have the opportunity to relocate to Texas. He also has a job offer with another company in our area, but the required security clearance may not be approved until end of January (there's also a chance it could *not* be approved). We are trying to decide if we want to, or should, relocate to Texas.
We have been to the area in Texas and like it well enough. Not overwhelmingly, but enough. We are leaning toward going, because my husband is very excited about the work he'd be doing, and if/when he wants to move on, there are more opportunities there than here. We had been thinking about relocating to Western North Carolina, because we love the area, but he's only just begun exploring the job market in that area so that wouldn't be for a couple of years.
The biggest thing keeping me from saying Yes to Texas is I am concerned about feeling too isolated. I feel a bit isolated now, as being my son's main playmate is sometimes a challenge. My dad does come for dinner and play one evening a week; he plays with a 7-year-old boy across the street about once a week (his "best friend"); I have a young teen girl who comes over for 2 hours on Monday afternoons (my son doesn't dislike her but he would rather be with me); my sister brings her 2 1/2 year old over once a week (that only started recently since she has a newborn and isn't planning to return to work).
My son has cried a lot about leaving his best friend. (Honestly, I'm sad about leaving the family as well since they are very easy to get along with and the kids have so much fun together.) Even if we stay in Pittsburgh, though, we would at least be moving across town (30-45 minutes), so time with his best friend would be limited (more than just "He can't play right now, he's at school...has to do homework...has Scouts...Soccer...Tee ball...").
He has cried about leaving his Grandpap, but seems ok that Grandpap could visit us in Texas sometimes, and we would visit Pittsburgh sometimes too.
I have joined 2 yahoo groups for homeschoolers and unschoolers in the area but there hasn't been any activity for a while in one case; in the other the list owner hasn't approved my membership request since I applied in mid-October. So that leaves me feeling concerned about the community available to us. We aren't a part of any homeschool/unschool groups in real life, yet, because my son prefers to play at home. But I'd like the option available to him as he gets older.
If we want to move to Texas, what do we need to think about to make this work? What do we need to do to make this work?
Thanks,
Michelle
Sandra Dodd
-=-We currently live in PA. Our little boy, age 5 1/2, has never been to school. I had a career before he was born but don't plan to go back to it. My husband currently has a career he enjoys, but a job he hates. The company will be laying him off, or we have the opportunity to relocate to Texas. He also has a job offer with another company in our area, but the required security clearance may not be approved until end of January (there's also a chance it could *not* be approved). We are trying to decide if we want to, or should, relocate to Texas. -=-
This isn't really an unschooling question. There was a great deal of detail about jobs and relatives and friends, but unschooling happens within a home, within a family, and you'll need to be self-sufficient whether you're in Pennsylvania or Texas. Moreso, because you won't have a supervisory teacher.
When you move, wherever you move, do it for the job, or because of the area, or the house, or friends. Some people have made the mistake of moving where they know unschoolers live, and expecting that those people will automatically be their friends, or that there will be a pre-scheduled unschooling life of some sort, and that's not the way it works, nor should it work. I think people kind of get that parallel from thinking of it as moving to a new place and joining a church.
So if you go to church, go there and join a church. :-)
Otherwise, look for scouts or karate or theatre or music or whatever you might be interested in to meet some families and don't worry about whether they're unschoolers or not. Live in the real world, and if you meet unschoolers that's a bonus!
If you move there and don't like it, maybe you could transfer back. Maybe you could move lightly (leave things in storage and treat it as temporary, as an adventure).
-=-I have joined 2 yahoo groups for homeschoolers and unschoolers in the area but there hasn't been any activity for a while in one case; in the other the list owner hasn't approved my membership request since I applied in mid-October. So that leaves me feeling concerned about the community available to us. We aren't a part of any homeschool/unschool groups in real life, yet, because my son prefers to play at home. But I'd like the option available to him as he gets older.-=-
Try making contacts at http://familyrun.ning.com/
or maybe on facebook on one of these:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/303347574750/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/unschooling/
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
This isn't really an unschooling question. There was a great deal of detail about jobs and relatives and friends, but unschooling happens within a home, within a family, and you'll need to be self-sufficient whether you're in Pennsylvania or Texas. Moreso, because you won't have a supervisory teacher.
When you move, wherever you move, do it for the job, or because of the area, or the house, or friends. Some people have made the mistake of moving where they know unschoolers live, and expecting that those people will automatically be their friends, or that there will be a pre-scheduled unschooling life of some sort, and that's not the way it works, nor should it work. I think people kind of get that parallel from thinking of it as moving to a new place and joining a church.
So if you go to church, go there and join a church. :-)
Otherwise, look for scouts or karate or theatre or music or whatever you might be interested in to meet some families and don't worry about whether they're unschoolers or not. Live in the real world, and if you meet unschoolers that's a bonus!
If you move there and don't like it, maybe you could transfer back. Maybe you could move lightly (leave things in storage and treat it as temporary, as an adventure).
-=-I have joined 2 yahoo groups for homeschoolers and unschoolers in the area but there hasn't been any activity for a while in one case; in the other the list owner hasn't approved my membership request since I applied in mid-October. So that leaves me feeling concerned about the community available to us. We aren't a part of any homeschool/unschool groups in real life, yet, because my son prefers to play at home. But I'd like the option available to him as he gets older.-=-
Try making contacts at http://familyrun.ning.com/
or maybe on facebook on one of these:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/303347574750/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/unschooling/
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]