Thread: Moving-which states are best?

I've not homeschooled in those states but I'm originally from Arizona and spent the majority of my childhood there.

People generally seem to love or hate the Phoenix area, which is where I grew up. Definitely visit first, during the summer and the winter if at all possible. Cost of living has skyrocketed since I last lived there, not quite as bad as California but not too far off from it either. We did briefly look at moving back there and as I remember, it's not a bad state to homeschool in and the Phoenix or Tucson metro areas have lots of activities and such for children. There are lots of charter schools there now so I imagine you could find one that does hybrid or university model. We never went to church when I was little and most people I knew growing up did not either. The few people I did know who went to church regularly were not pushy about it at all. I don't think religion will be much of an issue for you there.

I've never lived in Albuquerque but I've been there many times. The scenery is beautiful up there. I don't know much about the homeschooling climate there though. I've also been to Las Vegas quite a few times. Again don't know much about the homeschooling climate but I can't say I'd recommend moving there unless you just really like the desert lol! Reno has the Davidson Institute for Young Scholars which is a school for the profoundly gifted. If either of your kids is or has the potential to be gifted, that might be a consideration for you.

Honestly, Florida is one of the few places I haven't been lol! Hopefully someone else can chime in there.

We live in Texas. From a regulation standpoint: A W E S O M E. Basically, the gist of it is your school must be "bona fide" (not a sham), you must use a written curriculum (there is literally no elaboration on this, so even if you are an unschooler, you can just have some books at home and that about covers it), and there are five subjects that must be included (reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics, and good citizenship --which they don't bother to even elaborate on what 'good citizenship' means, so you decide on that too!)

The end as far as state regulations are concerned.

NOW, in practice, many (I might even lean toward MOST) homeschoolers we have met are religious. Texas is still in the Bible belt, and heavily Christian. Even one of my closest friends whose children go to public school has indicated that this is something other kids ask hers about --the KIDS will actually ask what church they attend and if they have been baptized and other things like that, which is so odd to me (her family is Christian, although they don't attend or belong to a church, and she has said that this makes her very uncomfortable).

In larger cities, I have seen more groups, such as on Meet-Up that are secular or unschool -bent, but if you live farther out from a metropolis (we do...), most homeschoolers in Texas tend to be on "fairly" or "very" religious on the Christian scale, with varying degrees of acceptance.

I've never had anyone outright tell me we weren't welcome because of not being Christian, but have been with a few families where this definitely made me uncomfortable. But, it can just be awkward as my children still call churches "buildings with the T's" (T's being crosses...).