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My husband is interviewing for a job in Englewood. I thought I would try to do some research in case he gets selected for the job. My husband and I are early 30s with a 1 year old. We enjoy a slow paced lifestyle, the beach, and classic cars (excited about the classic car show on Dearborn each month!) so we think the area would be a good fit for us I have read that the majority of residents are over aged 60. While I have no problem with this at all, I am concerned about finding other parents of young kids to be friends with. Can anyone help me with a few questions I have regarding child care and services in the area?
-What is the nearest children's hospital? Our son has some orthopedic issues and asthma. We would like to be able to travel to a hospital that would have specialized care.
-Any recommendations on pediatricians? Day care facilities?
-Are there ample parks or swim clubs that I can take him to?
-How are the schools in the Englewood area? I know they are rated fairly well but does anyone have personal experience with them?
-Hurricanes...would we be wise to stay away from the coast? We are renting so we are not concerned with insurance costs but mainly about how difficult it would be to evacuate with a baby if it was necessary.
One thing I love about this message board is how nice everyone seems. People on the other boards are so negative. It is nice to read some nice things for a change
Good luck to your husband in his job interview. Yes, the people on this message board are helpful and friendly. There are plenty of young families in the area where you will be able to make friends. In Charlotte County the median age in 2011 was 55, not 60’s. That is Venice. Some of the sites have different median ages for example in Englewood vs Port Charlotte vs Punta Gorda.
Some day care centers in Englewood: Miss Heidi’s Learning Center, Young Children’s Academy, The Kid’s Club, Community Presbyterian Preschool-Day Care, Suncoast Christian Academy, Redeemer Lutheran Childcare, Toy Box Preschool, Manasota Beach Preschool, Learn Through Play Preschool, Adventures Preschool
My grandson has epilepsy and autism. They lived in North Port and had a hard time finding a good pediatrician that specializes in his issues. They since moved to Sarasota. My grandson has had problems recently and has been in the hospital for 5 weeks now. He had to go to All Children’s Hospital in St. Pete because other hospitals in Charlotte County and Sarasota County could not take care of him. They just moved him to Tampa General Hospital for rehab because Sarasota County did not have facilities that would take a child under the age of 13.
The local hospitals are: Fawcett Memorial Hospital, Charlotte Regional Medical Center, Peace River Medical Center, Englewood Community Hospital, Venice Regional Medical Center, Sarasota Memorial Hospital
Venice/Englewood YMCA - http://www.veniceymca.com/branches-englewood.shtml - The Englewood YMCA is the largest provider of school aged care in the Englewood area and partners with Charlotte County school system to offer afterschool programming onsite at Myakka River and Vineland Elementary Schools.
The Warren Loranger Englewood YMCA was opened in July 2005. The facility’s 42,000 square feet includes a gymnasium, locker rooms, state of the art wellness center, childwatch room, multi purpose room, game room, chapel, meeting room, group exercise studio, spinning room, Pilates Reformer studio, outdoor pool and Jacuzzi, and leased space for Englewood Community Hospital physical rehabilitation services. The facility sits on 33 rustic acres with outdoor areas including soccer fields, playground, 50 foot Alpine Climbing Tower, and Ainger Creek.
I belong to the Corvettes of Charlotte County and we go to car shows all the time. They have cruise ins here year round and there are a lot of premium production shows to attend during the winter months. http://premiumcarshows.com/wppremium/ You will have to go to Muscle Car City if you live here too. http://www.musclecarcity.net/
My husband is interviewing for a job in Englewood. I thought I would try to do some research in case he gets selected for the job. My husband and I are early 30s with a 1 year old. We enjoy a slow paced lifestyle, the beach, and classic cars (excited about the classic car show on Dearborn each month!) so we think the area would be a good fit for us I have read that the majority of residents are over aged 60. While I have no problem with this at all, I am concerned about finding other parents of young kids to be friends with. Can anyone help me with a few questions I have regarding child care and services in the area?
-What is the nearest children's hospital? Our son has some orthopedic issues and asthma. We would like to be able to travel to a hospital that would have specialized care. Don't know about this one. We've never had to research children's hospitals.
-Any recommendations on pediatricians? Day care facilities? Our pediatrician is Dr. Liou on 41 by Lowe's. They are great. For daycare, my wife used to work at Charlotte Regional Hospital in Punta Gorda, and they have an on-site YMCA daycare that our son attended his first two years. They weren't bad, but inconsistent. Young 20-something teachers always changing. It was just a "job" for them, and for the most part, it showed. When my wife changed jobs recently, we put him in a christian-based daycare on 41 in PC (they don't really push religion at all). My wife liked the friendliness and cleanliness of the place. The teachers there have made this their careers, and they really seem to care about the kids. Plus there's cameras in each room, so I can log on anytime to see my little guy . It is expensive if you don't have gov't assistance (which it seems like everyone down here has). It costs us almost $600/month!!! Ouch. But, there are many locall daycares around (I would stay away from most of the home-based daycares).
-Are there ample parks or swim clubs that I can take him to? Yes, tons of parks! There are four that we frequent a lot that have decent playground equipment for out little climber, all within a 5-10 minute drive. Two are on the waterfront. The YMCA has free swim classes for tots. We built a pool last year and are teaching our son to swim at home. He LOVES the water!
-How are the schools in the Englewood area? I know they are rated fairly well but does anyone have personal experience with them?
-Hurricanes...would we be wise to stay away from the coast? We are renting so we are not concerned with insurance costs but mainly about how difficult it would be to evacuate with a baby if it was necessary. Haven't been through one (yet), but my assumption is that with or without a baby, and regardless if you live right on the coast or 20 miles inland, evacuations will take time. Just don't wait until the last minute to get out, and you should be good.
One thing I love about this message board is how nice everyone seems. People on the other boards are so negative. It is nice to read some nice things for a change
Thanks in advance.
Hi there! My wife and I moved to PC from MI in 2009 when our son was 7 weeks old! We had planned it all out for about a year (having our son when we did was not exactly planned but just threw a little more adventure into the mix ). Anyway, see above for answers to some of your questions....
Thank you TamRE and Harbor Hopper for all of the information. It was exactly what I was looking for.
TamRE thanks for sharing your experiences with your grandson. I hope he gets better soon. It is so sad when babies/kids are sick. We are very lucky that we currently live near one of the best children's hospitals in the world. I am hesitant to leave that behind.
Harbor Hopper, Did you mean $600/month or per week for daycare? Is that full time? The reason I ask is that we currently pay $1200/month for full time daycare here outside of Philadelphia. That combined with ridiculously priced housing is why we really want to leave. Well among other things. I love the idea of a camera in the daycare!
One final question, is anyone concerned with the "high" number of sex offenders in Florida? Or do you feel that this area is somewhat isolated from that?
The interview is next week so hopefully we will know something soon! Thanks again!
Sex offenders is not a real big issue that I hear people talk about in this area. Wherever you are looking to live in Florida you can do a street search, a school search, or a neighborhood search for sex offenders at: FDLE Florida Sexual Offenders and Predators
Thank you TamRE and Harbor Hopper for all of the information. It was exactly what I was looking for.
TamRE thanks for sharing your experiences with your grandson. I hope he gets better soon. It is so sad when babies/kids are sick. We are very lucky that we currently live near one of the best children's hospitals in the world. I am hesitant to leave that behind.
Harbor Hopper, Did you mean $600/month or per week for daycare? Is that full time? The reason I ask is that we currently pay $1200/month for full time daycare here outside of Philadelphia. That combined with ridiculously priced housing is why we really want to leave. Well among other things. I love the idea of a camera in the daycare!
One final question, is anyone concerned with the "high" number of sex offenders in Florida? Or do you feel that this area is somewhat isolated from that?
The interview is next week so hopefully we will know something soon! Thanks again!
Yes, $600/month for full-time care. That is about as high as I've seen it around here for a 2yr old. I couldn't imagine paying $1,200!!!!!! That's more than my mortgage!!! You are getting ripped off up there!
Regarding sex offenders, you will not escape that ANYWHERE in the U.S. There is no such thing as "isolated". They are everywhere, but you need to understand the maps that detail where they live. They usually list whether the offender is "minor" or "major" or something like that. An 18 yr old that dated a 17 yr old is MUCH different than a 50 yr old that molested a 10 yr old, yet both are listed on the sex offender maps. If you're looking for a place where there are absolutely no offenders anywhere, it will not happen.
We def get ripped off up here. My 2 bedroom townhome is about $1800/month. Nothing fancy or updated. We really pay for the crime free area and good school district.
When I put a few addresses into the website that TamRE gave us, I nearly had a heart attack. At least 10 sex offenders within a mile of every single address I gave. I compared that to my current address on the PA site and there was only 1. Definitely another thing to consider.
TamRE...off topic but we have a 67 Ford Galaxie 500 Fastback that we are restoring. Muscle Car City looks amazing!
We def get ripped off up here. My 2 bedroom townhome is about $1800/month. Nothing fancy or updated. We really pay for the crime free area and good school district.
When I put a few addresses into the website that TamRE gave us, I nearly had a heart attack. At least 10 sex offenders within a mile of every single address I gave. I compared that to my current address on the PA site and there was only 1. Definitely another thing to consider.
TamRE...off topic but we have a 67 Ford Galaxie 500 Fastback that we are restoring. Muscle Car City looks amazing!
All I can say, is the police down here stay on top of all registered sex offenders, and if they find one in the area that didn't register - they lock 'em up! If your a normally watchful parent - I doubt you'll notice any difference from anywhere else you've lived in that regard.
All I can say, is the police down here stay on top of all registered sex offenders, and if they find one in the area that didn't register - they lock 'em up! If your a normally watchful parent - I doubt you'll notice any difference from anywhere else you've lived in that regard.
Thanks for that. I definitely plan to be an involved parent. I don't hear PC on the news too much so I can't imagine the safety there is more of an issue than living near Philly. When my husband was in the Army, we lived only 3 hours away from PC but I had still never heard of it! Which is a good thing
My husband is interviewing for a job in Englewood. I thought I would try to do some research in case he gets selected for the job. My husband and I are early 30s with a 1 year old. We enjoy a slow paced lifestyle, the beach, and classic cars (excited about the classic car show on Dearborn each month!) so we think the area would be a good fit for us I have read that the majority of residents are over aged 60. While I have no problem with this at all, I am concerned about finding other parents of young kids to be friends with. Can anyone help me with a few questions I have regarding child care and services in the area?
-What is the nearest children's hospital? Our son has some orthopedic issues and asthma. We would like to be able to travel to a hospital that would have specialized care.
-Any recommendations on pediatricians? Day care facilities?
-Are there ample parks or swim clubs that I can take him to?
-How are the schools in the Englewood area? I know they are rated fairly well but does anyone have personal experience with them?
-Hurricanes...would we be wise to stay away from the coast? We are renting so we are not concerned with insurance costs but mainly about how difficult it would be to evacuate with a baby if it was necessary.
One thing I love about this message board is how nice everyone seems. People on the other boards are so negative. It is nice to read some nice things for a change
Thanks in advance.
There is nothing for kids in the Charlotte county area, neither in most of South West Florida,if you are in your early 30's with a young child stay away from South West Florida, the area caters to 65+ elderly republicans who hate everything that isn't blonde and blue eyes,confederate flag loving folks....
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I have read that the majority of residents are over aged 60. While I have no problem with this at all, I am concerned about finding other parents of young kids to be friends with. Can anyone help me with a few questions I have regarding child care and services in the area?
. It is expensive if you don't have gov't assistance (which it seems like everyone down here has). It costs us almost $600/month!!! Ouch. But, there are many locall daycares around (I would stay away from most of the home-based daycares). 
). Anyway, see above for answers to some of your questions....
