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I would love some opinions on this! We are moving back to RI from Germany next year and are strongly considering the Waldorf school in West Kingstown for our 3 and 5 year olds. What is your advice as to a nice town with a walkable town center? Two places that come to mind are Wakefield and Wickford, but we are open to ideas. It's tricky because this school seems to be closer to Richmond which is a bit too rural for us. I don't mind driving the kids to school within a 1/2 hour radius. Many thanks!
As you know there are no cities in that area, only small towns. Wakefield has gotten a bit of a sprawl but does have more shopping opportunities, though mostly not walkable. Wickford has more of a town feel to me. Kingston maybe?
Are you planning to come visit and look around? Unless you prefer very small towns, you might want to investigate some more populous areas in RI. Plenty of good private schools around.
Are you planning to come visit and look around? Unless you prefer very small towns, you might want to investigate some more populous areas in RI. Plenty of good private schools around.
We actually lived in Barrington for several years but I know very little of South County. Looking forward to investigating when we get back to the States!
Peace Dale and Westerly per your requirements.
SoKo / Narragansett don't have walkable town centers, really.
Peace Dale/Wakefield center is about 20-25 mins from that school
in WK and Westerly is about 25-30. I think the Main St area
in Peace Dale/Wakefield has a lot more to it than Westerly
but I guess you can decide for yourselves.
Any reason why you wouldn't use the Barrington public schools?
I know, it's crazy, right? Great public schools in Barrington for sure...but we like the Waldorf educational philosophy and system as a whole. It's completely different. We are opposed to media use in the classroom for the little ones as well as standardized testing, especially.
Peace Dale and Westerly per your requirements.
SoKo / Narragansett don't have walkable town centers, really.
Peace Dale/Wakefield center is about 20-25 mins from that school
in WK and Westerly is about 25-30. I think the Main St area
in Peace Dale/Wakefield has a lot more to it than Westerly
but I guess you can decide for yourselves.
Snowball, I keep reading about Peacedale, but know very little about it. Is this part of Wakefield? Thanks for the tip! I've been to Westerly and think it's very cool in an old-fashioned forgotten sort of way (I love places like this!) but fear it's a bit too far from the school.
Peacedale is a separate village from Wakefield (village) - both are part of S. Kingstown and are next to each other. Peacedale itself isn't much of a "town" but Wakefield certainly is. I lived in The Oaks in Peacedale for many years and loved it. It is mostly professionals (doctors and lawyers) and professors from URI, although that may have changed somewhat over the years. If it had been my decision alone, we would not have moved to Providence. Alas, it wasn't my choice.
Wakefield itself used to be (I haven't lived there in about 30 years) a great place to let children go to the stores by themselves, ride their bikes, go to the fireworks in the park on the 4th of July, etc. It is somewhat walkable, but the stores are grouped and there really is no reason to just walk down the main streets.
It was a great place to raise children.
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