OT Does any one on actually live

[itsmetigress]

Orlando here too...B/f is a cast member and me and the kids have APs. DD is in a virtual school so we usually hit the parks on the dead days at least once a week, sometimes just pop in for fireworks when b/f gets home from work. I'm a Fl native but there are times I hate it here too, I'd never be more than 2 hours from the parks though.

 

[punkin]

I'd like to move to Florida, but really can't right now for many reasons. What makes it worse is hubby just got a job possibility in Jacksonville. Oh well, I'm more partial to south Florida anyway.

 

[PatriciaH]

We lived in Celebration for nearly 6 years and just moved back to MA in April for a really good job offer. We loved being close to the parks and went several times a week to eat, walk around, hang out with friends, etc. It does get a bit boring after a while but the resorts and parks are still lovely to hang out at We met many nice friends and loved the town but jobs are awful there and we were falling behind and not getting ahead like we always did up north. We were always contract, temp, etc. and took a 25k+ pay cut to move there. We found it much more expensive than MA too but then we moved to the tourist area. I am shocked at how much I missed the seasons (I grew up in NYC) and was so excited to see real snow flurries (not snoap) yesterday Fall was amazing here and I love our town. My parents and many friends are still in FL so we have already visited twice since we moved for Summer Nightastic, F&W, MNSSHP, HHN, Harry Potter, etc. We will go again in the spring.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

We lived in Celebration for nearly 6 years and just moved back to MA in April for a really good job offer. We loved being close to the parks and went several times a week to eat, walk around, hang out with friends, etc. It does get a bit boring after a while but the resorts and parks are still lovely to hang out at We met many nice friends and loved the town but jobs are awful there and we were falling behind and not getting ahead like we always did up north. We were always contract, temp, etc. and took a 25k+ pay cut to move there. We found it much more expensive than MA too but then we moved to the tourist area. I am shocked at how much I missed the seasons (I grew up in NYC) and was so excited to see real snow flurries (not snoap) yesterday Fall was amazing here and I love our town. My parents and many friends are still in FL so we have already visited twice since we moved for Summer Nightastic, F&W, MNSSHP, HHN, Harry Potter, etc. We will go again in the spring.

Aw, I'm sorry that Celebration didn't work out for you. We actually built a home and lived there for a short while when we were still childless. Once our preschooler was in the oven we hightailed it over to Brevard permanently (DH was already working here) and haven't looked back. I couldn't put my kids in Osceola County schools...they just seemed to have so many issues while we were there We still love Celebration and have friends there. At the moment I even envy that their Montessori school goes up through Jr. High (never thought that I'd envy any Celebration school, LOL!), but I still don't see moving back there while raising the kids. Brevard ended up being the right place for us in FL. Our income here is the same as it was up north but everything is so much cheaper here than up north (like half as much, if that). Celebration was more expensive, for sure...I do miss the "snoap" though

 

[mamalle]

live in south fla.. too busy to visit disney every month.. work, kids, activities.. we were there for a weekend in Feb..

 

[elf]

We lived in Orlando area Winter Springs. The schools were good for typical kids. I did a lot of research to find a neighborhood with a good school. But my older dd had reading disabilit and math disbilites and she had to go to a private school which cost $12, 000 a year.
We loved it. Biking to school year round. On Wed. kids got out of school early and we'd take off to Disney, with our AP's.
I found Part time job in school. I was hired Seasonal for Disney but didn't do it because I prefered the hours of the school.
We missed family alot and wound up moving back to NY because people we loved most became gravely ill.
My dd10 and I miss Fl. daily.Not so for dd13 and dh.
Dh had a difficult time finding work down there.

 

[rvchat]

that are picking up, better for jobs?

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

that are picking up, better for jobs?

As long as you have a good education/profession, Brevard is fine for jobs. In fact, there seems to be more demand than supply for certain professions here (certain types of engineers, certain types of doctors, etc.). My BFF just started her career after graduating (social worker) and she had multiple job offers. Another friend went back to work after being a SAHM for a few years and had no problem getting a job (teaching). Yet another friend just went back as a teacher mid-year. There are jobs, but it does depend on your profession for sure.

 

[rumrunnergirl]

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[mhsjax]

I was born in North Miami Beach almost 50 years ago (yikes!) and grew up in Broward County. In 1991 I moved across the state to Collier County and now am in Lee County (180 miles from WDW = 3 hours). DH is from Kentucky and no way would he move back up north.

Yes, right now the economy sucks, especially in our county (unemployment just dropped to below 13%). DH has been out of work for over a year and is now attending vo-tech. I'm trying to find work, but no luck yet. Our kids' schools are awesome - rated A+. I've checked them against Great Schools and another site and they agree with the rating. When DH graduates next year, we want to move up towards Gainesville. We love central FL/northern FL, but I'm having trouble finding schools rated as well as what we have here, and both kids are in full-time gifted, so I don't want to jeopardize that by moving them to a lower-quality school.

My Mom lives in the Keys (talk about hot!!!) and has a cabin in the Georgia mountains, so we get our 'mountain' break every summer.

Check out some of the schools in NW St Johns county. I live there and I LOVE it. Schools are really good. I don't know how good compared to yours, but we moved to this area because of the schools. There is full time gifted. Great neighborhood for kids. Small town feel, but most work in Jacksonville. Most people love this area.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Check out some of the schools in NW St Johns county. I live there and I LOVE it. Schools are really good. I don't know how good compared to yours, but we moved to this area because of the schools. There is full time gifted. Great neighborhood for kids. Small town feel, but most work in Jacksonville. Most people love this area.

Way OT, but how do you find out if a school in your area has full-time gifted? I think that our neighborhood school just does pull-out one day a week for gifted. I'd love to find a full-time gifted program but wouldn't know how to go about looking.

 

[mhsjax]

Way OT, but how do you find out if a school in your area has full-time gifted? I think that our neighborhood school just does pull-out one day a week for gifted. I'd love to find a full-time gifted program but wouldn't know how to go about looking.

I really don't know other than calling the school or maybe the school board. I just know that ours does because I have friends with kids in this program. Now not all schools in our area have it, but if your child tests into the gifted program you can drive your kids to these schools. All of our are really fairly close together, so it isn't a real haul for anyone.

ON the other hand I do have to say that you may want to think long about a full time gifted program. All of our gifted kids pretty much stay together, they really never get to know other kids. They tend to isolate themselves and have a problem with other kids sometimes. I know that some of my friends have pulled their kids out for this reason. They weren't getting enough of the social aspect of school and learning to meet new people. OTOH, in our schools most of those kids that were pulled out go to our designated laptop grogram, this is where my kids are and were. They get a little something more than the regular class with laptop time, they all actually purchase a laptop. Yes shock for most people my DD had her own laptop from age 6. She is now 12 and never lost or damaged it in anyway, (sorry OT a bit) Anyway, maybe call the school and see what they offer.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I really don't know other than calling the school or maybe the school board. I just know that ours does because I have friends with kids in this program. Now not all schools in our area have it, but if your child tests into the gifted program you can drive your kids to these schools. All of our are really fairly close together, so it isn't a real haul for anyone.

ON the other hand I do have to say that you may want to think long about a full time gifted program. All of our gifted kids pretty much stay together, they really never get to know other kids. They tend to isolate themselves and have a problem with other kids sometimes. I know that some of my friends have pulled their kids out for this reason. They weren't getting enough of the social aspect of school and learning to meet new people. OTOH, in our schools most of those kids that were pulled out go to our designated laptop grogram, this is where my kids are and were. They get a little something more than the regular class with laptop time, they all actually purchase a laptop. Yes shock for most people my DD had her own laptop from age 6. She is now 12 and never lost or damaged it in anyway, (sorry OT a bit) Anyway, maybe call the school and see what they offer.

We have schools of choice here that are lottery to start off with but then have testing requirements to stay as time goes on. I wonder if this is considered full-time gifted after a certain age? I know that my oldest will qualify for gifted already as we had to do testing for IQ when we were going through the IEP process last summer. I don't know where we will go from here, though...if she goes to public school, I want her to have access to challenging material. Good point about the full-time gifted kids being basically kept separate from the other kids, though...I never thought of that.

One thing that I love (and also sometimes hate!) about our county is the school choice...there are sooooo many choices, which is wonderful AND stressful! I want to look at every choice, and that's just impossible. It's nice to have the choice, though. It never ceases to surprise me that FL ranks so low in education surveys but yet we have such a wealth of amazing school choices here in my experience. That is why I'd advise any prospective Floridians to check out the schools in any prospective area in person before ruling an area out. Don't just assume that the school surveys are correct. Some areas of FL actually have great schools.

 

[rumrunnergirl]

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[rumrunnergirl]

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[mhsjax]

Our county also has school choice, and my kids' schools are right down the street. I called our local school choice office to get my info.

For elementary, every school has part-time gifted. There is one enrichment class for each grade level, and if the kids also qualify for gifted, they get one day of gifted per week. Not all kids in the enrichment class go to gifted, and not all kids in the gifted class are in the enrichment class (though most are). Three schools have full-time gifted, and if yours isn't one of them you have to pick one and if you don't get it then your child loses their space at their current school if you don't want them to attend the one they get. Since the elementary the kids attend is so nice and there is a waiting list to get in, I don't want to take that chance so I keep them in part-time for elementary.

For middle school (my oldest is in 6th so I am unsure about high school), all schools offer full time gifted. There are regular classes, advanced, and gifted. My daughter has 6 gifted classes (these were picked for her based on her FCAT scores), band, and Spanish. She gets plenty of interaction with kids not in gifted. Lots of her friends are in band, or they hang out at lunch, she attends school dances, etc. She is also active in church youth group for middle schoolers, and Girl Scouts, so I'm not worried about her socialization. Then there's Facebook . . . LOL

When I was talking about the socialization problem I was talking about elementary schools. And those kids do have problems.Things do work different in middles school as far as different activities so I wouldn't see that as a problem. I have no experience in gifted in the middle schools. Everyone I know that had kids in gifted decided not to do in in middles school, they are just in all advanced classes.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Our county also has school choice, and my kids' schools are right down the street. I called our local school choice office to get my info.

For elementary, every school has part-time gifted. There is one enrichment class for each grade level, and if the kids also qualify for gifted, they get one day of gifted per week. Not all kids in the enrichment class go to gifted, and not all kids in the gifted class are in the enrichment class (though most are). Three schools have full-time gifted, and if yours isn't one of them you have to pick one and if you don't get it then your child loses their space at their current school if you don't want them to attend the one they get. Since the elementary the kids attend is so nice and there is a waiting list to get in, I don't want to take that chance so I keep them in part-time for elementary.

For middle school (my oldest is in 6th so I am unsure about high school), all schools offer full time gifted. There are regular classes, advanced, and gifted. My daughter has 6 gifted classes (these were picked for her based on her FCAT scores), band, and Spanish. She gets plenty of interaction with kids not in gifted. Lots of her friends are in band, or they hang out at lunch, she attends school dances, etc. She is also active in church youth group for middle schoolers, and Girl Scouts, so I'm not worried about her socialization. Then there's Facebook . . . LOL

How do you get your child into the enrichment class?

 

[rumrunnergirl]

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[rumrunnergirl]

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[dfchelbay]

47 years old. Never lived anywhere but Florida. I like it pretty well. We are in a great school district. No sate tax, no personal property tax. I realize that a lot of people don't like it, but really I think it is pretty good. I sometimes want to live where it is cold, I really don't want snow though.

It is getting cold where I live. 2.5 hours from WDW, it will be in the 20's at night and then the 50's during that day.

Also our annual passes just expired yesterday, we are really so done with WDW at this time in our life, kids have had enough of it. Another poster said it never gets old, but for us it totally has. We will probably renew in a couple of years but that is it. Well we will go to the water parks in the summer.

No personal property tax? What, exactly, does that mean. On our tax return, we write off our little sticker tabs for our plates on the car...is that what you mean?