Moving to Colorado in June with rising twin 2nd graders

[StealthRabbit]

Co Springs will have good value(s) for your growing sons. You are close enough to Denver to get there if you must. You are in a good community, with great access to recreation.

I grew up on NoCo and would have been better served as a youth to have grown up in CoS. Especially true for boys, who may be without a father, or have one who is present, but not available / consistent. girls can be more versatile, yet less dependent on their communities. (But they often blossom in a strongly supportive equine community, boys generally could care less about this!). So glad we re all different.

Give the boys a lot of space and opportunity, keep them active with their hands and energy, and give them LOTS of rein (freedom) and equally lots of responsibility (boys thrive on that). Colorado can be very good, and very hard on boys. (Note the gun violence issues).

We traveled a lot (lived and worked internationally) and home (un) schooled ours. When they were age 14-16 I had them each design and build their own country homes, this kept them active and provided $70k each for them to spend on college. Not the best or only plan, but it worked out well for our boys, very close in age, and very different.

In hindsight.... I wish we would have done more hiking / backpacking / cycle touring / sailing / international travel and a LOT less organized sports (age 6 - age 16). Colorado is excellent for biking / bike touring. W-I-D-E road shoulders and strong presence / support of bikes. Since you work from home, you can take a lot of midweek time with your kids and avoid crowds in Colorado recreation. I would not fear school responsibilties, as productive kids can do with a LOT less classroom time.

I encourage you to get the adventurous one into a search and rescue operation. One of ours was sponsored in at age 14, and full member by age 16, By age 18 was the president of S&R and also a resident volunteer at fire station (free housing and EDU). He learned a lot of the SAFE ways to adventure climb, and got a lot of experience packing out those who were not so safe. Vail has a Firefighter / S&R resident program for young adults. It is a great place to 'branch out' and attend college while apprenticing (safely) in S&R. I trust there are other communities that offer the same. Seek them out as options.