Hello to all !

My husband, 1 1/2 yr old daughter and I are finally moving back to USA in April from Shanghai China. We have been in Shanghai for close to 8 yrs. My husband came from NM I came from CA and we met here. We are moving to ABQ but Im not at all familiar with the city. We are homeschooling and would love to meet some families on this site before we actually move. I have lots of questions and even though my husband lived in ABQ for a few yrs before moving to china, he is not familiar with what is new and happening in the city.For example, what is the best place to live that is not so expensive etc?
I trust I will hear from some of you. Thank you! We are not chinese or of chinese descent we jus tlived in china for that amount of time and we are soooooo ready to get back to the US....

Hi Margarita!
Rio Rancho is a very nice area.  Lots to do and has affordable housing.
Good luck with the move and househunting!
Shannon

Hi Margarita, I'd love to get to know you. I bet you have some interesting stories about living in China -- I cannot imagine doing something like that myself (at least now that I have kids) -- how brave and wonderful! We live in NE Heights and enjoy it a lot. The area is a little pricy compared to some, but you are near the mountains and the health food stores!!

thank you Shannon for your suggestion, we will look into it. By the way my email address is cabuduo@hotmail.com  I will inform you what occurs as we move along with the house hunting and things.  Our daughters name is Ziya Elise 19 mos old. See you then and you are welcome to email me if you like or if you happen to hear of anything that may be of help to us. I thank you in advance...

Elizabeth, thanks for the compliment, yes I have tons of stories about china. I appreciate your suggestion about NE Heights health food stores sounds great!!!! As there are none here....

You are also wlecome to email me if you like Elizabeth.
BTW, is there activities for my daughters age group? I look so much forward to homeschooling back in the USA.  Thanks ladies for your replies!
Have a blessed day!

Hi Margarita,
We are moving to the area this spring too.  We will be in the North Valley (near the rio grande, and one of the food coops).  I have a daight who is just slightly older than yours (just turned two).  We also have two older sons.  Hopefully we will meet in the spring/summer, once we are all settled.  

Good luck on the housing thing.  We have done the same.  Rio Rancho is very affordable and the homes are really nice.  Its all new though (for the most part).  Good luck on things, and I look forward to meeting you.

Kari (STILL) in VA!!

Hi! We are also probably moving to ABQ here in the next month or few. Waiting on a job thing with my husband. He was told that they were going to offer him a transfer there, but the offer isn't on the table yet. So I have been watching this thread with great interest. I am not at all familiar with the area, never even been there (although my husband has). So I am also interested in the best areas to live, food coops etc.

Anyway, my intro (to embed it in this thread, lol), I am Deanna, married to Eric, homeschooling mom to Jessica (almost 17 - although she may not move with us...doesn't want to leave her friends and will be starting college soon), Allison (almost 6), Meredith (3) and Lydia (7 months). I freelance from home and have been homeschooling off and on for 12 years! Jess has been in and out of public school, but the other girls will be homeschooled as long as I am breathing, lol. We are a relaxed charlotte mason/classical homeschooling family We belong to a great homeschooling community here in Denver, so I am looking forward to getting to know you all as well.

It's so great that so many of you from out of town have found this site before coming to Albuquerque. I bet it's great feeling that you can "hook up" with other homeschoolers even before you get here. I'm looking forward to meeting you all! I'm curious: Did you find out about us on the web? Or through the NM Kids magazine? Or what?

Deanna, I bet it will be a big change moving from the big city to little ol' Albuquerque. Probably you'll miss a lot of those big city advantages. I never lived in a big city while I had kids, but did when I was younger. One thing that's great about ABQ, compared to the California Bay Area where my sisters live, is that it's fairly easy to go anywhere. We can decide on the spur of the moment to go to the zoo, drive there in 15-20 minutes, find parking right in front, and wander around a very, very uncrowded but beautiful small zoo for a couple of hours. Then maybe take in the science museum after lunch and head home. In contrast, in the big city, everything seems to take so much planning: Will we run into rush hour? Will it be too crowded when we get there? Will the parking be hard or expensive? Etc. etc. I'd be interested once you get to know this area to hear how it differs from Denver in terms of homeschooling.

HI ladies!
Im pleased to inform you that we will be living in Rio Rancho, we found a nice home and we are looking forward to settling in ... I will probably be without a computer for a while upon arrival therefore I would like to see if any of you ladies want to share your contact numbers and such for me to have on hand. Shannon thanks for your input and support. See you all ladies soon. I also would like to add that I will run a small business from home selling children shoes and clothes. So if you have any requests or suggestions on what you would like for your lil ones or something you would like to see feel free to let me know I will be taking a few of my items along to sell straight away. Many thanks and see you around April 10th.
Regards,
Margarita

Thanks, we are looking forward to living someplace smaller. The idea of only needing 15-20 minutes to drive somewhere sounds WONDERFUL  - and lack of crowds! Wow. Everywhere we go here, we have to drive an average of 30-45 minutes and there is ALWAYS a crowd. We are originally from OK, and really miss that. For a while we lived in SE Colorado, and it was TOO rural. We are looking for something in between I think. Albuquerque sounds like a nice fit. And NM has more lenient homeschool laws, so I am looking forward to that. If we were to stay here, I was thinking about enrolling the kids in an umbrella school so we could skip the testing that is required every two years.

I'm really excited to find you guys! A nice inclusive homeschool group. That is my biggest fear of moving, is not finding an inclusive homeschool group. I'm afraid of leaving my friends and not making new ones I'm pretty shy, so making friends isn't that easy. Plus my girls will need playmates once we get settled.

Quoted from admin, posted January 4, 2005, 7:54pm at here

Deanna, I bet it will be a big change moving from the big city to little ol' Albuquerque. Probably you'll miss a lot of those big city advantages. I never lived in a big city while I had kids, but did when I was younger. One thing that's great about ABQ, compared to the California Bay Area where my sisters live, is that it's fairly easy to go anywhere. We can decide on the spur of the moment to go to the zoo, drive there in 15-20 minutes, find parking right in front, and wander around a very, very uncrowded but beautiful small zoo for a couple of hours. Then maybe take in the science museum after lunch and head home. In contrast, in the big city, everything seems to take so much planning: Will we run into rush hour? Will it be too crowded when we get there? Will the parking be hard or expensive? Etc. etc. I'd be interested once you get to know this area to hear how it differs from Denver in terms of homeschooling.

I, also, am moving to the Albuquerque area in May.  I lived there for 2 years before these last 2 years, spent in Alaska.  My son is 7 and has been in public school here.  For a variety of reasons, we intend to homeschool for the first time ever!  We won't be in the city, but an hour south, where their dad already has a job.  I will be attending UNM part-time, so I'll bring the kids into town with me and try to find a small sitting/daycare situation for while I'm in class.  (I also have a 2yo daughter)  

Since this is my first homeschool experience, I've spent a lot of time on the web trying to educate myself about the whole idea.  I didn't know much before (and still don't know as much as I'd like) so it was a bit scary.  That's how I found the co-op, and I was thrilled!  My biggest concern about our plan is about the kids' social life.  Zach loves school, for the interaction with the other kids.  I'm enjoying this chance to see who is out there and what we can do in ABQ, since we'll be there often.  We're also concerned that wherever we find for the kids to spend time in town without me won't have other 7yos, so if anyone has a suggestion, I'd appreciate it!

Introduction:  I'm Jennifer,  son Zach, daughter Veronika, and their dad, Tobin.  I'm so glad to have found this place!  

Hi Jennifer -- welcome to our message board, and welcome to homeschooling! I also have a 2yo daughter, as well as an almost 6yo son.

What a big change moving back from Alaska to Albuquerque. Did you move there for work? I bet your son will have fond memories of Alaska. I'm sorry I don't have any specific advice to offer. I wouldn't be too concerned about the social thing, you'll hook up with other homeschooling families once you're here without too much trouble and then just take it from there!

If you want to join our co-op once you arrive, you can contact our membership coordinator, Amy, at ahomeschoolcoop@yahoo.com. She can tell you about any upcoming activities we have planned that would fit your schedule.

Quoted from admin, posted January 4, 2005, 7:54pm at here

It's so great that so many of you from out of town have found this site before coming to Albuquerque. I bet it's great feeling that you can "hook up" with other homeschoolers even before you get here. I'm looking forward to meeting you all! I'm curious: Did you find out about us on the web? Or through the NM Kids magazine? Or what?

Like Elizabeth, I'm interested in knowing how y'all learned about our group.  It's great to see that the word is getting out.

Just my two cents on relocating: I moved here from rural CA in 2002.  Because I was unfamiliar with the area, we chose to live in the city where we'd be closer to people.  There were many things I liked about the city, but I learned quickly that, having been country raised, the country is where our hearts are.  We moved to the East Mountains in August and life is so much more peaceful now.  There are morning I go outside to look across the valley, just because I can.  For me, a 30 minute drive to the city is a small, small price to pay for being able to walk out in my yard and not see anyone in any direction.  It's also a small price to pay for being close to wild trees.  So, based on my experience, I'd say if you know you are a country person at heart, don't go for the convenience of living in the city.  At the same time, if you've never known anything other than city, you may not like the extra commute time required to the city.

-Kari